Trofimenkoff, Susan Mann

English

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

COMPTES RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 215 where the average mortal cannot breathe. Von Cardinal paints idealistic pictures of the soul each German immigrant once had before he sold out to the "oppres-sive lock-step" industrial culture he found here . True (German) culture grew slowly from the groundswell of our very being." Only those filled with it "feel at home in a world which appears to have no empathy for our inner life ." For this is a "century without manners" run by the "barbarians of the mob." Canadians are "drugged by the sickening nausea of our commercialized media and hypnotized by the banal distractions and vapid vulgarizations of a soft and shallow civilization of 'interchangeable parts'." The fate of the assimilated German is tragic: he exchanged his "thinker's brow" for a "Coca-cola smile" and traded in his status as "philosopher" for a " dime-store and bargain basement mentality. " Heady stuff, this, and no doubt well received by some at testimonial dinners! However, such fulminating is happily not representative of the many other ethnic Germans here who may or may not have brought Goethe in their souls , but still found a peace , contentment and even culture here in a way they could often no longer find in their homeland. Nor is it representative of the contributions to this book. This volume aims to be the first in a series of serious German-Canadian ethnic studies, and most contributors are successful in their pioneer efforts. The editor is to be commended and encouraged to continue this efforts. * * * Robert H. KEYSERLINGK , University of Ottawa. HEATHER REILLY and MARILYN HINDMARCH , eds. - Some Sources for Women's History in the Public Archives of Canada. Ottawa: National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, History Division, Paper No. 5, 1974. For anyone doing women's history in Canada, this book is an indispensable tool. As the title indicates, it is a guide to some of the material pertaining to women in the Public Archives in Ottawa. A quick glance at the preface reassures one that 93 typed pages do not begin to cover the wealth of material that is in the Archives: this guide is to manuscript material (71 pages of individuals and 17 pages of organizations) in English and solely for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There remains to be packaged in a similar manner (may the Archives learn by example) the French language manuscript material , much less extensive for the same period, but more so for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the untapped and perhaps inexhaustible mine of Public Records . From the guide itself one can glean an impression of the types of women and the kinds of activities they engaged in. Here is an educated, literate elite which has broken into the public domain, largely because of its affiliation with a male elite. Hence the many memoirs and diaries of female members of the political or commercial or social Establishment (curiously bland compared to their male counterparts' undertakings and compared to the many unknown names among the women in the guide) . Much of the material is a record of travels, which , depend-ing on the time and the place , border on exploration. Much of it too reveals women emerging publicly into such domains as nursing, philanthropy, literature, education, politics, and beginning, by the end of the 19th century, to organize themselves to protect and further their own interests . In a sense then, a perusal of this guide alone serves as an indication of the changing (and continuing) func-tions of certain women in Canadian society. 216 HISTOIRE SOCIALE - SOCIAL HISTORY A word of warning to anyone using the guide . It was published in 1974 and is therefore already in need of revision. There is more manuscript material available; there is more in the process of accession by the Archives . The entire series MG 29 has been renumbered at the Archives, so any researcher should check all entries in that series at the reference desk before requesting the material. And there are a few errors that have slipped into the text: for example the delight-ful and all too brief memoirs of Catherine Oillie are really those of Charlotte OILLE. And perhaps one might carp about the lack of indication of the extent of the material which is on microfilm , when the compilers have so carefully estimated that in original form. The idea for the guide belongs to the History Division of the National Museum of Man. It was undertaken as a summer research project, with all the limitations of time and money that suggests. May the History Division continue to have such ideas, to press for their implementation and to urge the National Museum to make its publications more easily accessible, at least through Information Canada Book stores, if not all commercial book outlets. In the meantime rush your order for this guide to the Marketing Services Division of the National Museum, 360 Lisgar Street , Ottawa. And urge all your female relatives to send to the Archives all those old papers that are cluttering up the attic. Susan Mann TROFIMENKOFF , University of Ottawa. Acheve d'imprimer par les Editions Marquis Ltee, Montmagny, Quebec . 

Heather Reilly and Marilyn Hindmarch, eds., Some Sources for Women's History in the Public Archives of Canada

https://hssh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/hssh/article/download/40817/37000

Heather Reilly and Marilyn Hindmarch, eds., Some Sources for Women's History in the Public Archives of Canada

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