A Sovereign Idea: Essays on Canada as a Democratic Community by Reg Whitaker (review)

294 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW scholarship firstseethelightaspapers delivered tolearnedaudiences, butas everyhardened½onfdremier knows suchintellectual beauties starttheirlives among much thatismundane, evanescent, ordownright ugly.To date,C, ana. dianstudies havebeensufficiently staidfor nobody in that field to produce thepyrotechnic equivalent of'Jane Austin andtheMasturbating Girl,'which excited somuchattention attheModernLanguages Association a fewyear• ago.Perhaps it wouldbebest topropose a moratorium onreproducing conference proceedings in times whenresources areshortandpublications dear. CHRISTOPHER ARMSTRONG York University A Sovereigrn Idea:Essays onCanada asa Democratic Communi•. KEG WHITAKEIL Montreal:McGill-Queen's University Press 1992.Pp.xiv, 338. $44.95cloth, $19.95 paper McGill-Queen's University Press is to be congratulated on publishing this collectionof Reg Whitaker'swriting. Canadianpoliticallife is often dis. paraged foritslackofphilosophical content, butWhitaker's workstands asa strongcounterpoint to that allegation. In CanadatodayWhitakerhasfe• peersin connecting our political experience to the fundamental theme• La Westernpoliticalthought. Nineofthetenessays inthisvolume havepreviously appeared injourn• and collections. Bringingthemtogetherin an essentially chronological order enables usto appreciate theevolution of Whitaker's thought.The brief,selfreflective notes thatintroduce eachessay giveusWhitaker's ownunderstand. ing of that evolution.The tenth and final essaywritten spedallyfor the volumeisa powerful,panoramic overview of Canada's constitutional travail• up to the aftermathof MeechLake. Whitaker is clearlya man of the left - a socialdemocrat.But hi• application ofsocial democracy toCanadian history ismuchmorephilosophicalthanideological . Mostof the time,Whitakerisfreeof the cantorjargon of a particular school. He candrawasfruiffullyfrom thethoughtof Mad'•m or Calhoun as from Marxist sources. This collection of his work shows an admirable capacity for intellectual growthandtrueoriginality. One appreciates thesequalitiesof Whitaker'swork all the moreafter readingthefirstessay in thecollection on 'Imagesof the Statein Canada.' Here the standardneo-Marxist categories are clunkedout to explain Canadianpoliticsas a conspiracy betweencapitalists and politicians to accumulate capital andlegitimate theiroppression oftheworkers. Thisessay originallyappearedin a volumeWhitakerdescribes as 'a landmarkin abe emergence of the new school of politicaleconomyin Canada.'The essay demonstrates whythatschool isdestined to havea shortshelflife. At•er thisunt•rtunate start,Whitaker and the volumetake off. He isatI• REVIEWS 295 best when hisreflections aregrounded in theideas ofrealpeople andtheimplications ofrealevents andinstitutions. Penetrating intellectual profiles oœ M•ckenzie King, William Irvine, Harold Innis, and PierreTrudeau are followed byfiveessays onCanadian history fromConfederation toMeech Lake. Theunifying themeof theseessays are the moves - the progress and obstacles - tobasing theCanadian state ona genuinely democratic community. ThoughWhitaker'shistorical canvases are paintedwith broad brush strokes, they containmany insightfuland wonderfullysardonicdetails. Among theintellectual portraits, I particularly valuehispieceon Innis.No oneelsehas so succincdy and poignantlycapturedthe Canadianness of Innh's tragicdialectic of intellectand power.In his treatmentof Canacla's development asa political community, whatstands outishisappreciation of federalism. His essay on 'Federalism and Democratic Theory'is amongthe finest philosophical analyses offederalism in theEnglish language. Whitaker understands, asfewsocial democrats do,theliberaladvantages offederalism •d theprofoundly federalnatureof Canadian society. At thisstageof his intellectual sojourn,Whitaker,an English-Canadian nationalist of theleft,seems to havemadehispeace withwhathe refersto as 'this special Canadian strength in weakness.' Perhaps, in the wakeof the rt•nt referendum, theremightbemuchmorewillingness amongCanadians toaccept thatunityin deepdiversity asa fairlylong-term resting placein t•ir communal sojourn. •'r•R H.•tUSS•.LUniversity of Toronto C,o•mand on the Westz'r'a Front:TheMilitary Careerof Sir HenryRawlinaon, 1914-1918. P, OBIN PRIOP,and T•EVOR WILSON. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 1992. Pp.viii,422,illus.$44.95 TocritidzeBritishgenerals of the FirstWorld War hasbecome a nearreligious observance among historianso[' the period. In the popular imagination, Douglas Haig andhisarmycommanders werehumblingdolts, b•atchers whostayed wellbackfromthe frontline to avoidseeing the grim consequences of theirineptitude. Thisis morethanstereotyping, it iscaricature , andanyworkthatcanshedlightonthenatureof generalship in the terribleconflict of 1914-18 would be a welcome contribution to the literature. lh4or andWilson's studyo['SirHenryRawlinson isjust such a work. Asthetideimplies, Command ontheWestern Front isnotabiography, noris •tpsychohistory. Rather,it uses Rawlinson asa lensthroughwhichto study fl•e tactics of thetime- tactics thatusually provedwoefully inadequate in dealing withthedefensive positions thatcharacterized industrial warfare. He is agood lens, being aproduct ofhistimeandhissociety, never demonstratLug an), great leadership orplanning abilities, andhence never setting himself ...