Building and Protecting the Co-operative Movement: A Brief History of the Cooperative Union of Canada 1909–1984 by Ian MacPherson (review)

REVIEWS 469 many unilingual Anglophone users, especially since theindexes arefoundonly inVolumeI. Indeed,bybeingsatisfied withvolumes ofslightly unequal length (8oo and 6oo pages),it would have been possible to avoid splittingthe Systematic section andtokeeptheAnalytical indexwithitsownlistings. There areseveral English misspellings (medecine, Portugese, founderies, halfbread) andoddconstructions (publicaccount committee, publictransports), particularlyin the Analytical index.Yet sucherrorsare few,a remarkable proofreading achievement in such alarge-scale work.Lastly, thelistings themselves containwhat can only be calleda curiousintermixtureof Frenchwithin otherwise uniformlyEnglish citations, Th•se de Ph.D.,Universit•d'Alberta andBCStudies (hiver)beingtypicalexamples. Butthestrengths of thisbibliographical effort byAubin,C•St•,andtheir ablecolleagues aresuch astofaroutweigh anyminorflaws. Onecanonlyecho the prefatoryremarksof York UniversityhistorianRamsayCook: 'The publication of thesecond section means thework,sowellbegun,istocontinue andbecome a permanent partof theinfrastructure of historical research.' PATRICK H. BRENNAN Toronto BuildingandProtecting theCo-operative Movement: A BriefHistoryof theCooperative Unionof Canada•9o9-•984 . IAN MACPI-IERSON. Ottawa: The Cooperative Unionof Canada[2984].Pp.xii, e54 Ian MacPherson is, without doubt, the foremost historian of the Canadian Co-operative movement. In 2979he published a thoughtful, carefullyresearched , bookentitledEach for All: A History oftheCo-operative Movement in English Canada, •9oo-•945 (Toronto:McClelland andStewart). Thebooknow underreviewis a by-productof that earlier work. It is the historyof the Co-operative Unionof Canada,an umbrellaorganization, whichserved asa nationalspokesman for the co-operative movement,broughtvariouscooperatives together,and expandedthe scopeof co-operativeactivitiesin Canada. Itshistory isdividedintothreephases: thepioneerphase from 29o9to ß 2943 , the yearsof growthand consolidation from 2943to 2966,and the modernperiodof morecarefulanddiplomatic leadership. Thebookisa sound butnotveryinspiring institutional history. All thekey elected andappointedofficialsaredulyintroduced,thevariousbureaucratic structures andchanges areexplained, andthemajorproblems dealtwithby the board or senior officers are discussed. Neither the footnotes nor the narrative strayfar fromofficialminutes, publications, andpronouncements. Leading co-operators havetheir pictures included,togetherwithpictures of co-op buildings andpages from TheCanadian Co-operator. Littlein thewayof independent analysis or interpretation isoffered,except in theconclusion. Thismanuscript wenttopress withoutbenefitof thoroughproofreading. Readers mightbeamused tocontemplate thefeudalrelations between 'lord 470 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW and surf'(14), but becomeconfusedwhenthe Carter RoyalCommission on Taxationbecomes theCenterCommission (198)or CanadianArcticProducers becomes CanadianArctice Producers(172). The Co-operativeUnion of Canada was 'essentially the work of small groups ofmenandwomenwhohavecontributed muchtoamovement thathas notalways supported themwellor generously' (249).Thisisthestoryof those men(thereare veryfew references to women)andtheir institution. T. REGEHR University ofSaskatchewan Theappearance ofthecode atthebottom ofthefirstpage ofanarticle inthis journal indicates thecopyright owner's consent thatcopies of the articlemaybemadefor personal or internal use,or for thepersonal or internal useof specific clients. This consent isgiven ontheconditions, however, thatthecopier paythestated per-copy fee through theCopyright Clearance Center, Inc.,e• Congress Street, Salem, Mass, o•97o, forcopying beyond thatpermitted bylawincluding Sections •o7 and•o8of theus Copyright Law. Thisconsent does notextend toother kinds ofcopying, such as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collectiveworks, or for resale. ...