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Restructuring Canadian Business History: A Review Essay
- Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'études canadiennes
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 26, Number 4, Winter 1991-1992
- pp. 169-178
- Review
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Review Restructuring Canadian Business History: A Review Essay NORTH AMERICAN PATTERNS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT: THE CONTINENTAL CONTEXT. W. T. Easterbrook . Toronto: UniversityofToronto Press, 1990. xxviii, 272 pp. THE CANADIAN FUR TRADE IN THE INDUSTRIAL AGE. Arthur J. Ray. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990. xviii, 283pp. TIMOTHYEATONAND THERISEOFHIS DEPARTMENT STORE. Joy L. Santink. Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1990. xii, 319pp. WORKING INSTEEL: THEEARLYYEARS IN CANADA, I883-I935. Craig Heron. Toronto: McClelland and Stewan, I988. 223pp. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PACIFIC SALMON CANNING INDUSTRY: A GROWN MAN'S GAME. Ed. and Intro. Dianne Newell. Montreal/Kingston: McGillQueens University Press, I989. xvii, 303pp. THE COMMERCIAL FISHERY OF THE CANADIAN GREAT LAKES. A.B. McCullough. Ottawa: EnvironmentCanada/ Canadian Parks Service, I989. 153 pp. IN WHOSE INTEREST? QUEBEC'S CAISSES POPULAIRES 1900-1945. Ronald Rudin. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, I990. xvii, 185pp. CO-OPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS AND CANADIAN SOCIETY: POPULAR INSTlTUTJONS AND THE DILEMMAS OF CHANGE. Ed. Murray E. Fulton. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990. xiv, 345pp. The past decade witnessed a dramatic growth in the field of Canadian business history, much as the preceding decadeofthe 1970s had featured the emergence of CanaJournal ofCanadian Studies Vol. 26, No. 4 (Hfr~r 1991-92 Winter) dian social and labour history. Since 1979 more than fifty books and an even larger output of articles by academic historians have appeared in the field, encompassing biographies , company and industry histories, profiles oflocal and regional business elites, and more broad-ranging works, including Michael Bliss's ambitiouseffortata synthesis, Northern Emerprise: Five Centuries ofCanadian Business.1 In 1984 a Canadian Business History Conference was held atTrent University that included a variety ofsocial scientists and archivists as well ashistorians. A second conference was held at Victoria, B.C. in 1988. The third conference in Toronto in 1991 , which met jointly with the more venerable American Business History Conference , drew almost 40 percent of its participants from Canadian universities.2 A cynical observer might be inclined to see thecrystallization ofbusiness history into a self-conscious subdiscipline in Canadaas a reflection of political conservatism and business influence in the era of Reagan, Thatcher and Mulroney. Canadian business historians are, however, hardly uncritical of the subjects of their studies and indeed no single line of interpretation has shaped their approach. A variety ofintellectual influences have contributed to the growth ofCanadian business history since the 1960s: developments in the field in other countries (not only the United States but also Britain, Germany and Japan) have been important, as we shall see; no less significant has been the contribution ofsocial history in terms ofboth techniques of analysis and orientation toward informal patterns of group behaviour and values. While business history has long been linked to economic history, to a certainextent the wider range of interest and methodological diversity of social historians have redirected the attention ofbusiness historians toward the cultural as well as economic and political contexts within which business enterprises function. The limited quantity , accessibility and representativeness of business archives in Canada remain an obstacle to scholars in the field;but in thisarea too there are signs of improvement, as the range and quality ofthe studies reviewed here indicate.3 169 Those who write business history in Canada come from a wide variety of backgrounds and approach the subject from similarly diverse directions. Economic historians are interested, among other things, in the response ofparticularfirms tochanging markets, resources and technologies. Political historians investigate the role of business interests in shaping or reacting to public policies. Labour historians are oriented toward management-labour relations in the workplace. Scholarsofwomen's history or native peoples are interested in tracing the effects ofperceptions ofgender, ethnic or racial differences on the treatment ofminorities in the marketplaceas well as the workplace. Genealogists may trace the history ofa family enterprise. Journalists and biographers tend to focus on the role of individuals and the interplay ofpersonalities in dramatic tales ofbusinesssuccessordisaster. Given such diversities it is perhaps not surprising that the practitioners of business history may oftendisagree, not only overconclusions but over basic approaches and assumptions. They may simply not communicate with each otherat all, creating what I have called "a multitude of solitudes" in which exchangesofviews rarely occur. Other observers have...