Lorenzkowski, Barbara

English

Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)

330 Histoire sociale / Social Historycule. Nor does Hoberman explore sufficiently whether the opportunities for African-Americans are expanding or contracting in contemporary America. Recently one ofthe foremost African-American critics of sport, Harry Edwards, has argued that, inan era when affirmative action is under attack and more African-American malesare in prison than in college, sport may be the only option available.This book will become an indispensable starting point for the ongoing study ofsport and race in much the same way that Hobermans earlier Sport and PoliticalIdeology has become essential in its field. Unless we can sustain the type of cross-cultural and cross-racial dialogue that this book promotes, the twenty-first centurycould well be even more one of racial division than Du Bois considered the twenti-eth century. Hoberman shows us that conceptions of Africans as having bodiesfundamentally different from those of whites or Asians can have nefarious conse-quences even when these conceptions are not specifically linked to notions ofAfrican intellectual inferiority. Over 40 years ago anthropologists such as ClaudeLevi-Strauss effectively refuted the notion that savage thought differs in anyimportant way from civilized thought. It is time now for scholars to do the samefor the human body, that is, to show that there is no distinction between the sav-age and civilized body but simply a human body that different cultures shapeaccording to their own cultural imperatives and incentives. Hobermans book maybe a first step in the demystification of the savage African body. Reinforcing theessential unity of humanity in the face of a renewed emphasis on biological andgenetic determinism can prevent the emergence of a caste society in which eachrace seems to have its own preordained set of occupations.W. Scott HaineEditor, The Social History of Alcohol ReviewNinette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock  The Making of the Mosaic: A History ofCanadian Immigration Policy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Pp.661.This voluminous study offers two books in one. The first is a closely textured, well-conceived narrative of Canadian immigration policy, spanning the centuries between1497 and 1995. Readers embarking on this historical journey will appreciate thenuanced discussions of immigration policies, the intelligent organization of material,and the reliable index, all of which comprise an excellent reference tool eventhough the specialist will find little new here. It is in the second book that theauthors make their most original contribution. Embedded in the general overview,they provide a judicious analysis of immigration legislation.In dissecting the ideological underpinnings of immigration practices and rules,the authors point to two concepts that have framed public policy debates: libertyand community. From the libertarian perspective, aliens should be free to moveto Canada provided that, in doing so, they do not violate the rights of anyone byimposing involuntary burdens on others (p. 5). By contrast, communitarian valuesComptes rendus / Book Reviews 331hold that controlling which strangers might enter is a powerful expression of anations identity and autonomy  in other words, its sovereignty (p. 7). A clashof these two core values, the authors posit, accounts for the often heated debateson immigration policy, which they have traced from pre-Confederation times to thepresent, guided by the following key questions: How does one define and justify theconditions for community membership? Who may become citizens and who mustremain strangers? How did ideas, interests, and institutions shape public policydecisions on immigration issues?In exploring these questions, Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock effectivelyrefute what they dub pervasive Canadian myths. Until explicitly non-racist admis-sion criteria were adopted in 1962, racism and bigotry were no strangers to Canadi-an immigration policy that labelled British and white Americans as desirable  andJews, Orientals, and Blacks as not (Canada Year Book 1930). Passionately, theauthors argue against blaming domestic wage and unemployment levels on immigra-tion and amass impressive evidence for their conclusion that it seems largelybeyond dispute that open immigration is the optimal global strategy. In addition,Kelley and Trebilcock show convincingly that, ever since Confederation, the federalgovernment both adopted and administered very detailed immigration policies, a factoften obscured by the intriguing paradox that these policies were almost neverarticulated in legislation and were rarely subject of extensive parliamentary debate(p. 443). Instead, immigration policies emerged from regulations, policy directives,and the exercise of administration discretion (p. 449).In uncovering the history of immigration policies, the authors focus on theinterplay of ideas, interests, and institutions and exhaustingly list the various inter-ests at stake. Generally speaking, this approach appears to be better suited for morerecent decades than for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The animateddiscussions of the White (1966) and Green (1974) papers, for instance, vividlyillustrated the political clout of ethnic constituencies and resulted in an unprecedent-ed consensus in favour of the 1976 Immigration Act. By contrast, when analysingthe period from 1867 to 1892, the authors merely describe conflicting interestsrather than detailing their interaction. Here, nineteenth-century governments emergeas a monolithic bloc (the government), as Kelley and Trebilcock do not sufficient-ly elaborate on their assertion that many public office holders were part of theCanadian corporate elite (p. 109). As a result, institutions come to overshadowindividual actors, and readers are left wondering how interests translated intopolitical action. In the end, the authors refuse to grant prominence to either ideas,interests, or institutions, concluding  somewhat generally  that all three shapedimmigration policies in complex and interactive ways (p. 450).It is notable that this study covers a territory previously charted by Donald H.Averys classic account Reluctant Host: Canada’s Response to Immigrant Workers,1896–1994 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1995). Yet where Avery has madeextensive use of a wide range of primary sources, this study limits itself mainly toprinted primary sources such as Privy Council decisions, reports of royal commis-sions, court judgements, immigration and naturalization acts, and debates in theHouse of Commons. In doing so, however, the authors have to be commended for332 Histoire sociale / Social Historytheir thoughtful examination of rules and regulations concerning immigration. Fromturn-of-the-century Privy Council decisions to the Immigration Act of 1976, everysingle important policy on immigration is summarized, put into context, and cri-tiqued.In presenting the Privy Council decisions Union Colliery v Bryden (1899) andCunningham v Tomey Homma (1903), for example, Kelley and Trebilcock argueconvincingly that B.C. Statutes which restricted the right of employers to hireAsians ... were declared invalid as being beyond provincial jurisdiction, whileprovincial laws regulating the right of Asians to vote or to hire white employeeswere found to be lawful exercises of provincial power (p. 141). These decisions,they conclude, strongly suggest that judges were as sensitive to business concernsas were the politicians (p. 142). In their subsequent account, the authors continueto analyse both actual regulations and their hidden subtext, thus broadening ourunderstanding of immigration policies. We learn, for instance, that in 1911 theLaurier government decided against proclaiming an order-in-council that prohibitedthe landing in Canada of any immigrant belonging to the Negro race, which raceis deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada (p. 155). Instead,the government adopted an informal exclusionary programme which was strikinglyeffective. Standard medical and character examinations at the border resulted ina dramatic drop in the number of black immigrants to Canada that fell from 136 inthe years 19071908 to seven in 19091910. These figures demonstrate the suc-cess of immigration policies that were neither debated extensively nor explicitlyarticulated in legislation.This is an ambitious work that is tremendously reader-friendly. Introductory andconcluding remarks for each chapter allow quick navigation; the text is well writtenand the division of periods convincing. At times, the authors attempt to cover toomuch ground by delving deeply into labour politics and settlement patterns ofimmigrants, thus distracting from their major key questions. In addition, the secondchapter relies so heavily on Canadian history survey texts  and is, consequently,so general in character  that it could easily have been omitted. In a study, finally,that professes to be primarily historical (p. 4), it is rather startling that not morethan minimal attention is given to the historiography of the subject, particularlysince the bibliography is both comprehensive and up-to-date. Yet these are quibbleswith an otherwise fine work.Barbara LorenzkowskiUniversity of OttawaStephen S. Large  Emperor Hirohito and Sho¯wa Japan: A Political Biography.New York: Routledge, 1992; 1998. Pp. xii, 249.This is one of the first books in the English language to examine in some detailboth the postwar as well as pre-war career of Hirohito (19011989). It thus address-es an important contemporary issue, the persistent use of the Imperial Family in

Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock — The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy

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Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock — The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy

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Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)