A People Highly Favoured of God: The Nova Scotia Yankees and the American Revolution by Gordon Stewart, George Rawlyk (review)

REVIEWS 447 associ6e auxmutations d•cisives dela soci6t6 globale. Ace chapitretoutefois, ce n'estpasla bonnevolont•quia manqu6.L'auteur parlefr•quemmentdu climat, du contexte, desconditions, du d6veloppement, voiredesstructures • sociologiques • (v.g.b 3o, 248, 255,305, 3xx; u, x95 , •96, 2o4,377), au point quele lecteursedemande toujours quandenfinla soci6t6 (et nonla sociologie qui estune science) etl'6cole dontelleestleproduitet le refletvontnous •tre pr•sent6es. Au lieudecela,l'auteurpr•sente unechronique ohl'affaireLetellierdeSaint-Just et l'exposition de x967semblent aussi significatifs quela r6volution industrielle, par exemple.D•s lorsimpossible d'expliquerle contenuet l'orientationdu fameux syst•me scolaire, la gen•se dela 16gislation. En ignorant l'importante contribution deFernandOuelleth l'histoire scolaire desann6es x8oo-37 , l'auteura rat• unebelleoccasion depr6senter cettep•riode& partirdesaffrontements sociaux et ethniques. Cefaisant,il auraitpu voirseprofilerderri •relesloisscolaires de x8ox,x824et x829lesgroupes oules•litesqui aspirent &dominer l'•cole.Demgme lar6forme scolaire desann6es x96on'auraitellepas puatre&son tourpersue comme l'ceuvre d'une nouvelle 6litequ6b6coise ? En somme, l'ouvrage constitue uneddmarche pionni•re, •minemment m6ritoire sil'onveut,maisquandm6mefragile,ohlesjugements devaleursontplusfrequents quelestentatives d'explication. Une dernitreremarquesurla distributionde l'espace. L'histoirede l'enseignement secondaire priv• a fait l'objet depuisdix ans de nombreuses recherches dirig•espar le professur ClaudeGalarneau.L'auteur aurait pu, ce me semble, accorder uneplusgrandeimportance • l'histoiredescoll•ges classiques, producteursquasi monopolistiques des•litestraditionnelles duCanadafransais. En lisant M. Audet, on a trop souvent l'impression que l'Histoirede l'enseignement au Qudbecser6duita celledu niveauprimaire.Quant h l'enseignement universitaire ,onpardonne plusfacilement lepeud'importance relativequilui estattribu•, l'absence de travauxmonographiques 6tant en ce caslargementresponsable du silence. SERGE GAGNON Universitd d'Ottawa A People HighlyFavouredo[ God:The NovaScotiaYankees andtheAmerican Revolution.GoRr•ON S•'EWAR•' and GEORGE RAWnYSe. Toronto, Macmillan, x972. Pp.xxii, 2x9,map.$x2.5o. A People HighlyFavouredo[ Godisa curiously bifurcatedbook.Or perhaps this 'split personality' isnotsocurious afterall,considering thebook's jointauthorship and theconcernof its authorswith two separate but relatedsubjects:first,the reasons forNovaScotia's failuretojointheAmericanRevolution, andsecond, the GreatAwakeningin Nova Scotiain the t77os. With respect to thefirsttopic,theauthors present anintelligent thesis relying heavily upontherecent workofBernard Bailyn. Theirtheory maybebrieflysummarizedasfollows :thedevelopment of a revolutionary ideology in thethirteen colonies wascrucialin bringingonthequestfor independence; for various rea- 448 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW sons, suchan ideology neverdeveloped in Nova Scotia;therefore, Nova Scotia didnotjointheRevolution. Q•.D. It isquiteanappealing thesis, andtheirnotion ofaccordingly terming1765-75NovaScotia's 'missing decade' isa useful one. Butthereisa problem. In attempting todelineate thereasons whyNovaScotia remainedunaffectedby the Americans'ideology,Stewartand Rawlyk push somewhat toohard, literallyscraping the bottomof the barrelfor evidence to support theirtheory.For example, theyarguethat Nova Scotia,because of its originsasa militarysettlement, couldnot be 'fittedinto' the standardradical version of colonialhistory, whichwasthat the Americansettlers had achieved success withoutthe helpof the British(p. x4). But justa few pages fartheron (P. x9) theynotethattheresidents of oneparticularregion,theMinasBasin, in •76• 'conveniently forgot'theirmilitaryorigins.It is difficultto seewhy such convenient lapses ofmemory could nothaveoccurred elsewhere aswell (indeed, therevolutionaries' viewof theAmericanpastwasitselflargelycomposed of just such willfulhistorical blindness). Moreover, theyfail todealadequately withthe question of howNova Scotia's response to the imperialpoliticalevents of the 'missing decade'(eg, the StampAct) differedfrom the reactions of the more southerly colonies. The second part of the bookfocuses uponthe religous revivalled by Henry Allinein Nova Scotiaduringthe •77osand early •78os.The authorsattempt, with considerable success, to outlinethe contours of Alline'sthought,to explain itsorigins, toassess theimpactof therevivalontheoutsettlements of theprovince, and,mostimportantly,to explorethe reasons why Alline'spreachingstrucka responsive chordin hisaudiences. They suggest that AllineofferedNova Scotia Yankees, whowereundergoing a sortof collective identitycrisis, an identitynot dependent upontheirstatus astransplanted New Englanders. And here,in chapters9 andIo,thetwosections of thebookfinallycometogether - for thecause of that identitycrisis, theauthors postulate, wasnothingotherthantheRevolution andtheconfusion it engendered in Nova Scotianminds. In sum,thisisa significant book,flawedhoweverby the authors'tendencyto argueneedlessly andat lengthwith otherscholars, byendemic repetitiveness, and by the noticeable lackof a bibliography. MARY BETH NORTON CornellUniversity RobertGoutlay,Gadfly:The Biography o[ Robert(Fleming) Goutlay,•778- •863,Forerunner o[theRebellion in UpperCanada,•837.Loxs OARROCH MILANI. Thoruhill,Ont., Ampersand Press, x97x.PP-xii, 275.$9.5 o. Thisisa sincere, conscientious, butinadequate chronicle of RobertGourlay.The bookwaspromptedby the author'scuriosity abouta man who cameto Upper Canadaat the ageof thirty-nine,'quicklyachieved widespread politicalpopularity ,and thenwasthrownout of the province "like a spoiltjelly."' Robert Gourlaywasa gadfly,it isargued, because of his'compulsion to goadtill wrongs ...