The Politics of Chaos: Canada in the Thirties by H. Blair Neatby (review)

REVIEWS 451 extremes of opinion werechosen todelineate thelimits.Butthiscreates a false impression of where themiddlelay.'Moderate' papers didnothavea position midway between Ultramontane andRouge but,in fact,shared thebasic assumptions of the former. Perhaps thisisconnected withthefrequent failureofthebook to distinguish between fundamental principles - ideologies - andpolicies onparticularquestions . Thismaybeattributable tothesociological approach which,in attempting to connectideas with the concretesocial and economic situation in .Quebec, encourages toogreata concentration onparticular issues, to theexclusion of basic values andprinciples (which latter,afterall,werewhatthetitlepromised thebookwouldbeabout).Onemighthaveexpected less oncolonisation and moreonthevalues whichmadecolonisation thepreferred methodof checking emigration. Similarly, emphasis ontheimmediate .Quebec situation leads usto forget thatQuebec's ideological struggle wasonlya partoftheEuropean ideological conflict, ofwhich Quebec intellectuals wereaware, andinwhichtheyfelt themselves tobeparticipants. A. I. SILVER GlendonCollege The Politicso[ Chaos:Canadain the Thirties.H. BLAre NEATBY. Toronto, Macmillan,I97•. PP.vi, •96,illus.$Io.oocloth,$3.95paper. Here istheoutlineof an excellent synthesis of Canadianhistoryin the period of the GreatDepression, when'Canadians had become awareof the modem problems of an industrial society andhadsearched for answers.' The resulting workis a modelof comprehensive unityin brief form that is an outstanding tributeto its authorand to the manyotherhistorians who havefilled in the bitsandpieces that Professor Neatbyhasusedsowellin creating hisedifice. Theirwork,some ofwhichfirstappeared in thisjournal,collectively constitutes a convincing demonstration of history asa cumulative discipline. Readers may wonderat timesabout the significance of someof the articleson narrowly focussed subjects appearing in scholarly journalsbut if the Politicso[ Chaos achieves the circulationit deserves the casefor the utility of much scholarly research of thissortcan be easilydocumented. The Thirtieswasan extremely importantdecade, bothfor thosewho lived throughit and bearthe psychological scars throughlife and for thoseborn later. One mightadvocate the particularutility of knowledge of the Great Depression foryoung people nowinouruniversities whograduate intocrowded labourmarkets andfaceuncertain economic prospects. The infalliblejudgment of historians who knowand revealthe ignorance and error of the political leaders of thepastmaybeof smallcomfort to thembut at leasttheycanbe forearmed against naiveacceptance of thepanaceas of ourownday. The structureof this bookalsorevealsthe great strengthof the tradition ofpolitical biography in Canada. Thepointisexplicitly made bytheinclusion of capsule portraits of thepolitical leaders of thetime.These constitute sixof 452 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW theeleven chapters andinclude R.B.Bennett, W.L.M. King,J.S.Woodsworth, MauriceDuplessis, Mitchell Hepburn,and William Aberhart.Much of the materialfor these chapters is drawnfromsources familiarenough to readers of thisjournalandgraciously acknowledged in thebibliographical essay. Canadianhistorians seem to conform to theoldsawthat 'geography isaboutmaps and history is aboutchaps.' In these instances the resultof thisemphasis on biography fortunately hasnot createdmythicalheroicportraitsto compare with the United Statestraditionfrom ParsonWeemsto Arthur Schlesinger. Bycontrast, thewartsstandout clearly. Asidefrombiography, Professor Neatbydeals clearlywith theregional problemsof Canadain thisperiodaswell aswith the inter-related responses to the depression by national,provincial,and local authorities. He twiceapologizes for not devoting a chapterto a Maritime regionalleader,lackingbiographical material, but he could have included more on British Columbia, where the materialwasavailableandacknowledged. Also,heconcludes with theinevitable focus upontheproblems of'CanadaandtheEuropean Vortex,'drawingmaterial fromJamesEayrs'significant work aswell ashisown intimatefamiliaritywith the innermind and outwardactionsof PrimeMinisterMackenzieKing. Confrontedby soenjoyablea book I am able to registeronly a few more complaints. At onepoint (pp. 34-5) the authorstates that SenatorRobertson, Bennett's ministerof labour,fearedthat young'single,homeless, unemployed' men were 'potentialrevolutionaries and that many of them were communists. Robertson's solution wasto deportthose who didn't haveCanadiancitizenship and to exile the restin remotelabourcamps.'What is lackinghereis a legal definitionof so-called'Canadiancitizenship'at that time, somefurther discussion of the deportationpolicyof the Bennettgovernment, which produced remarkable statistics for theperiod,93o-5, andsome further remarks regarding thosewho were indeedcommunists and who were investigated and prosecuted by government agents, mostnotablyin the caseof The King v Timothy Buck andOthersundertheinfamous section ninety-eight of theCriminalCode.These andothermanifestations ofBennett's useoftheoft-quoted 'ironheelofdespotism' (not 'capitalism' ascitedonp. 63), aremattersof greatsignificance in ourown day. On a lesssignificantlevelbut alsorelated to eventsof a more recentera, Professor Neatbycuriouslycallsthe•Brownleescandalin Alberta 'moral' rather than'sexual' anderroneously states that thepremierwasaccused of seducing hishousemaid. VivianMacMillanwasa government secretary andthedaughter ofanex-mayor ofEdson. Thusthepoliticalsignificance ofthematterwasgreater than it may appearin thisbook.Also,it gave'BibleBill' Aberhartthe opportunitytospeak of 'fornicators in highplaces.' Professor Neatbyoriginallypresented eachof the chapters of the bookasa television lecture in a series thatmusthavebeenwellillustrated withthepictures that portraythe era mosteffectively. Althougha few of thesepicturesare includedin the book,anyonewho missed the lectureswould be curiousto see the entirepresentation with the full setof 'graphics.' The television cassette REVIEWS 453 industry woulddowellto put suchmaterialtogether into a...