Mount Saint Vincent University: A Vision Unfolding, 1873–1988 by Theresa Corcoran (review)

712 The Canadian Historical Review since the late nineteenth century. He wrote well, ifunderstandably in an imperial context, and it's still worth reading. This new account brings together the riches and freshness of recent professional approaches to Canadian history. The city comes alive with new perspectives - a community much richer in texture than a poor British colonial garrison. Halifax: The First 250 Years explores the city's complex nature: its jewelled setting and its mosaic ofpeoples, including Blacks and Natives, who have seldom been recognized before. The dark side of poverty and a port city's pathology are clearly recognized, while we meet an able cadre of socially responsible women who pushed well beyond prohibition and suffragism in their pursuit of progressive reforms. The city's remarkable commercial and industrial invention and expansion late in the nineteenth century are well outlined, as is the period after the Second World War when a coalition ofcity boosters and well-meaning, if sometimes head-strong, reformers pursued urban renewal and social inclusivism with mixed results. The community's varied cultural, ethnic, and athletic life is ably portrayed in accounts of the musical, theatrical, sporting, and leisured activities that reflected its · social diversity. Apart from a few typos in the text, a thin index, and the publisher's unhappy gaffe ofmis-spelling the city's name on the book's spine, this is also a fine piece ofbook production. It is sturdy and lavishly illustrated worth its price for that alone. The notes accompanying the many striking photos and reproductions of early sketches, paintings, and artifacts are also full of rich material and insights. This is sound academic history brought to life for the general reader. ALAN WILSON Hubbards, NS Mount Saint Vincent University: A Vision Unfolding, 1873-1988. THERESA CORCORAN. Ladham, MD: University of America Press 1999. Pp. 384, illus. $s7.oo · Writing the history of a university is a challenging assignment. For historian Dr Theresa Corcoran, author ofMount Saint Vincent University: A Vision Unfolding, 1873-1988, the task ofanalyzing the development of the university popularly known as 'the Mount' is complicated further by her personal history and professional experience. Although an American by birth and education, she is intimately associated with this Halifax institution. Her academic career at the Mount spanned three decades. Corcoran is a member of Sisters of Charity of Halifax, the Roman Catholic congregation that founded and oversaw the Mount's develop- Book Reviews 7r3 ment from r873 until 1988. She held office on the congregation's governing council, in the years prior to, during, and following the 1988 transition ofthe Mount from congregational to secular governance. As an insider, Corcoran had privileged access to a wealth ofsources oral , documentary, and material culture - from which to draw data. Yet, writing as an insider, she was faced with the challenge of producing a history that would meet the needs ofa variety ofstakeholders: her sisters in community; the past and current students; and the scholarly community interested in educational, social, regional, and religious history - to name just three. Not surprisingly, therefore, the resulting work is a welldocumented analysis of the complex intertwining relationships at the heart ofthe history ofthe Mount. Corcoran tells a tale ofthe tensions amid which the Sisters of Charity of Halifax and their flagship operation, Mount Saint Vincent University, developed from convent academy through congregationally governed university to secular-governed university. Although the secular and ecclesiastical politics that influenced the operations ofthe school and the religious community are set out, the book's clear focus is the dedication of the Sisters of Charity of Halifax to actualize their vision for the education ofwomen. Corcoran organizes her text into fourteen chronological chapters, illustrated by thirty-two pages of carefully chosen photographs. Each chapter is well documented with archival materials drawn from ten provincial, educational, and religious archives. Two appendices present the hallmarks of the university and enrolment figures, reported by lay, religious/male/female categories, for the Mount and St Mary's University . A selected bibliography and index round out the text. Corcoran's history of Mount St Vincent is an integrated tale of politics, policies, and personalities. She does a fine job ofbreathing life into the portraits...