Walter Gordon and the Rise of Canadian Nationalism by Stephen Azzi (review)

730 The Canadian Historical Review under surveillance, tracked, and arrested. Often roughed up, and threatened with worse consequences, Lenihan was hauled before hostile judges and imprisoned for his activities as a labour activist. We are reminded that Section 98 of the Criminal Code, providing for the summary arrest and detention of 'subversives,' was a powerful tool used to harass union organizers or anyone who dared stand up for social justice. In this context, one may forgive Lenihan's tendency to underplay the more coercive and internecine elements of life in the CPC. Instead, we admire the sheer tenacity and strength of conviction embodied by men such as Patrick Lenihan. Yet he wasn't alone. Through this biography we learn ofthe resourcefulness and resilience ofhundreds ofworking-class Canadians in their struggle to survive. These people shared the author's deep ideological commitment to socialism in its most idealistic sense. The hardships oftransient life for both single and married men during the Great Depression are vividly portrayed. In this often bleak daily experience, small acts of kindness, a hot supper in a union hall, or a hastily loaned car to evade the local constable stand out as gestures affirming the better side of human nature. Lenihan's memoirs reveal also the importance of male camaraderie in this largely homosocial working environment. While Lenihan makes reference to the role ofhis wife, Anne Belkin Lenihan, and his children in supporting his life as a union organizer, this aspect of the story is largely underplayed. Yet it is clear that Patrick was not the only member ofthe Lenihan family to pay a steep price for a life serving the house oflabour. Finally, Lenihan's story has much to say on the subject ofsocialism in western Canada. The Alberta of recent years has been subject to the predations of the Klein regime, but the province has another history in which progressive politics held sway. Part of the explanation for this alternative vision lies with the actions ofthe men and women prepared to work for social change. This is a salutary lesson for today's activities. The more we learn ofthe lives ofmen such as Patrick Lenihan, the more we should value a strong and vibrant union movement in our times. It is a debt ofgratitude we need to return. PETERS. MCINNIS University College ofCape Breton Walter Gordon and the Rise of Canadian Nationalism. STEPHEN AZZI. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press 1999. Pp. xv, 300, illus. $34·95 For a politician with a relatively short career in active politics, a remarkable amount has been written by and about Walter Gordon, Book Reviews 731 Liberal member of parliament from 1962 until 1968 and holder of a variety of Cabinet posts, most importantly that of minister of finance from 1963 until 1965. Not only did Gordon write four books detailing his political vision of Canada, plus a volume ofmemoirs, but an important biography has been written by Denis Smith. The number of books and articles that offer secondary examinations of parts of Gordon's life and his political contributions brings the tally into the hundreds. Thus, Stephen Azzi attempts to stake his claim on far from empty terrain with his intellectual biography ofthe economic nationalism ofGordon and its impact on Canadian nationalist movements generally. The author must be given a great deal of credit for rising to the challenge his subject material presented. Walter Gordon is a meticulously researched book. Azzi has visited scores of archives, interviewed almost one hundred people, and consulted virtually every conceivable secondary source. The scale and scope of his research was necessary to uncover every bit of information left unexamined by the scholars and commentators who went before him. Moreover, Azzi has twisted his topic into something new. This is not quite a biography ofGordon, although it does include many ofthe usual biographical details; nor is it an examination ofeconomic nationalism in Canada. Rather, it is an evaluation ofeconomic nationalism through the prism of Gordon, a topic that was massaged into a shape that would find a place in a field already inundated with studies of a more singular nature. With his extensive research and his innovative approach, Azzi has clearly...