Liberal Dreams and Nature's Limits: Great Cities of North America since 1600 by James T. Lemon (review)

HUMANITIES 133 T. Lemon. Liberal Dreams and Nature's Limits: Great Cities Oxford paper What do the two tenns in the dreams be 'liberal': n11'I"'C111+ of co:nVeItLenlCe, compe :ssi]mi~;tic stance 'The future aelmo!cnlCV as we have known it.' To his hisceIltune :s... he five North American 134 LEITERS IN CANADA 1996 of patterns of continuity and change, tradition, innovation, stagnation, degeneration. The body of the work comprises five chapters, each devoted to illustrating these patterns in the selected cities. Chapter 3 concentrates on 'Franklin's Philadelphia in 1760: Fulfilling European Peasant Dreams.' It establishes the general order of the succeeding chapters with its examination of 'spatial patterns' of city layout and the interplay of demographic, political, economic, religious, and social factors. While retaining strong links with Europe, Philadelphia became an exemplar for North American urban development: 'Philadelphia, of course, was not the first gridded city ... however, lit is] often seen as the rectangular norm for most subsequent urban development on the continent. Neither Quebec, Boston nor early New York with their irregular streets were spatial models (77).' Lemon attempts to pinpoint the defining characteristics of his other urban paradigms similarly. Thus we find 'New York in the Ascendancy, 1860: Unheard of Riches and Squalor'; 'Chicago, 1910: The Civic Moment and the New Middle Class'; 'Los Angeles, 1950: The Working Class Thriving on Military Largesse'; and 'Toronto, 1975: The Alternative Future.' Clearly, no onesuch cross-section can prove entirely representative, but through his canny choice of examples Lemon highlights many of the most potent influences that have shaped this continental civilization. The book results from comprehensive research and feisty reflection. Itoffers muchfor contemplation. One slight demur: the device of introducing each city through the arrival of a fictional British couple is obtrusive. In each case they disappear almost immediately and contribute nothing of substance. Presumably they appear as a journalistic 'hook' or 'segue'; however, they merely distract from the considerable achievement ofwhat should become a standard scholarly work. (ERIC DOMVILLE) Ray Conlogue. Impossible Nation: The Longingfor Homeland in Canada and Quebec Mercury Press. 176. $16.50 Impossible Nation is a work of discovery rather than analysis, and, like many discoverersbefore him, Ray Conlogue has found prettymuchwhathewent looking for: Columbus's Indies or Cartier's gold. Much of the book is composed ofplotsummariesofnovels andplays. To thesehe adds selective quotations and opinions drawn from secondary sources which, taken together, demonstrate the obvious point that much francophone writing is about cultural survival. (In 1939 Ian Forbes Fraser made the same point more thoroughly in The Spirit ofFrench Canada.) This literature, Conlogue writes approvingly, reveals the existence of cultural community, a nation. He exaggerates this pointboth by whathe excludes - Emile Nelligan, SaintDenys Garneau, and Anne Hebert, for instance - and by what he misunderstands or misrepresents. Roger Lemelin and Gabrielle Roy would be as- ...