Social Studies: II

520 SOCIAL STUDIES democracy. Moreover, there have been hopeful developments, such as the growth of a strong trade-union movement which forms a powerful check to authoritarianism, and a variety of encouraging efforts to provide political education in the schools, universities, and community at large. The main hope for the future, in Germany as in every democratic country , lies in this growth of an informed and alert public opinion. There is another account by a Canadian of a leading nation in the contemporary world, not however on the basis of an elaborate analysis, but of a visit by a newspaper reporter: William Kinmond's, No Dogs in China: A Report on China Today (University of Toronto Press, 211 pp., illus., $4.50). Mr. Kinmond records in newspaper articles now republished observations on construction projects, city streets, hotels; conversations with officials about farms and forests, health and education; speculations about the people's relative well-being and their attitudes to the communist government. The tone is neither credulous nor scoffing. That this is the narrative of an innocent abroad is underlined by constant references to his frustrations and bewilderments and the rewards of such interludes as the trip along the beautiful Yangtze valley after the oppressive days in Chungking: "The only indication that Communism has moved in is the occasional five-pointed red star implanted on the sparkling white fa~ade of a building, looking for all the world like a Texaco gasoline sign at home rather than the standard of totalitarianism." The immense difficulty of comprehending an alien culture, indeed of truly grasping one other human being's perspective, is no part of Mr. Kinmond's subject. Friendly and forthright, he moves easily among the Chinese: we are all human beings together, after all. The consequent over-simplifications may be rather welcome than dangerous when the subject is one so easily beclouded by fears and fantasies. It is always clear when the reader should add a grain of salt to the story. In staying within the definite limits of his experience, the author conveys much, on a practical level, of his impression of China's remarkable social experiment . The cumulative effect of these short chapters adds something that his newspaper readers may not have sensed, a Robinson Crusoe theme, the fascination of looking on while human effort apparently brings order out of chaos. SOCIAL STUDIES: II I. M. S. Careless Most of the books in this section may be classed as regional studies. Several of these deal witb Canada's Atlantic region, several more with LETTERS IN CANADA: 1957 521 the North, and a few others fall elsewhere across the country. The remainder defy any category but "miscellaneous." But three works do stand out for particular consideration, however they be classified: Marjorie Campbell's The North West Company; Metals and Men, by D. M. Lebourdais, a history of Canadian mining; and Bruce Hutchison's latest discovery of the Unknown Country, Canada, Tomorrow's Giant. It is tempting to make a pattern of the three, for here is the Canadian romance in three parts: the epic of the fur trade, the conquest of our mineral wealth, and the dream of the great tomorrow that will arise out of our present progress-the same dream that promised that this twentieth century would belong to Canada. I will leave these three to the end, however, and begin with regional works on the Atlantic area. A series of lectures delivered by C. R. Fay at Memorial University in 1953 has been issued as Life and Labour in Newfoundland (Heffer, University of Toronto Press; viii, 254 pp., $5.00). It would probably be more correct to say that the lecture notes have been published, for the text is generally disconnected, scrappy, and at times nothing more than a long series of documentary extracts. No doubt Professor Fay filled out his story as he spoke it; but, as one reads it, the effect is that of pretty complete disorder, not lessened by the fact that in my copy the pages jumped from 100 to 117, and from the middle of one chapter to another. Nor do I feel it indicates only my obtuseness that it took...