Harold Innis, the arctic survey, and the politics of social science during the second world war

Canadian Historical Review

Volumn 79, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 36-67

  Evenden, Matthew D ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0005758273     PISSN: 00083755     EISSN: 17101093     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3138/CHR.79.1.36     Document Type: Review

References (83)

1. Morris Zaslow, The Northward Expansion of Canada, 1914-1967 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1988),227-8
2. Douglas A. West has attempted to sketch the evolution of 'northern discourse' in 'Re-searching the North in Canada: An Introduction to the Canadian Northern Discourse,' Journal of Canadian Studies 26, 2 (1991): 108-119
3. On the nineteenth- and early-twentieth century background of science in the North, see Trevor H. Levere, Science and the Canadian Arctic: A Century of Exploration, 1818-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1993)
4. and Debra J. Lindsay, Science in the Subarctic: Trappers, Traders and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press 1993)
5. Harold Innis, Settlement and the Mining Frontier (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1936)
6. on the Frontiers of Settlement Series, see Marlene Shore, The Science of Social Redemption: McGill, the Chicago School and the Origins of Social Research in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1987), 162-194
7. William R. Hunt, Stef: A Biography of Vilhjamur Stefansson, Canadian Arctic Explorer (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press 1986)
8. Richard J. Diubaldo, Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 1979)
9. On the key periods of institutional growth in Arctic studies internationally, see Ernest S. Burch Jr, 'The Organization of Arctic Social Sciences,' in Louis-Jacques Dorais and Ludger Müller-Wille, eds., Social Sciences in the North (Ste-Foy, Que.: International Arctic Social Sciences Association 1993)
10. Shelagh D. Grant, Sovereignty or Security? Government Policy in the North, 1936-1950 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press 1988)
11. 'Northern Nationalists: Views of a New North, 1940-1950,' in K.S. Coates and W.R. Morrison, eds., For Purposes of Dominion: Essays in Honour of Morris Zaslow (North York: Captus University Press 1989)
12. Zaslow, The Northward Expansion, 238-239
13. Barry Ferguson, Remaking Liberalism: The Intellectual Legacy of Adam Shortt, O.D. Skelton, W.C. Clark, and W.A. Mackintosh, 1890-1925 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 1993)
14. Doug Owram, The Government Generation: Canadian Intellectuals and the State, 1890-1925 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1986)
15. Barry Ferguson and Doug Owram, 'Social Scientists and Public Policy from the 1920s through World War II,' Journal of Canadian Studies 15, 4 (1980-1): 4
16. Donald Fisher, The Social Sciences in Canada: Fifty Years of National Activity (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press 1991), 10, 12-13
17. Matthew D. Evenden, 'The Northern Vision of Harold Innis,' paper presented to the Canadian Historical Association, Annual Meeting, June 1997
18. Innis, review of The Nearing North, CHR 11, 3 (1930): 275
19. review of The Land of Feast and Famine, CHR 15, 3 (1934): 320-2
20. review of Canada's Eastern Arctic et al., CHR 16, 2 (1935): 196-200
21. 'Reindeer Trek,' CHR 17, 2 (1936): 194-8
22. 'Recent Books on the Canadian Northland and the Arctic,' CHR, 17, 2 (1938): 191-6
23. 'More Books on the Canadian Far North,' CHR 17, 4 (1938): 431-7
24. 'Recent Books on the Canadian Northland and Arctic,' 20, 1 (1939): 41-9
25. 'Recent Books on Arctic Exploration and the Canadian Northland,' CHR 21, 1 (1940): 197-206
26. 'Recent Books on the American Arctic,' CHR 22, 2 (1941): 187-94
27. 'Recent Books on the North American Arctic,' CHR 23, 4 (1942): 401-407 At the head of this final review article, the editor noted: 'In its reviews and bibliographies, the Canadian Historical Review has for a number of years followed closely the writing on the Canadian North, since the development of this region, although it has been a matter of contemporary interest, has also been of the greatest historical significance for Canada. Before 1934, books on the subject were reviewed separately; but beginning in that year the writing has been so extensive as to require treatment in a series of review articles ... The literature of the Arctic has been profoundly affected by the outbreak of war and the intensity of interest is evident in the request for access to these articles by members of the armed forces of Canada and the United States. The Canadian Historical Review is indebted to Dr. H.A. Innis for carrying on this valuable survey.'
28. T.A. Taracouzio, Soviets in the Arctic: An Historical, Economic and Political Study of the Soviet Advance in the Arctic (New York: Macmillan 1938)
29. Innis, 'Recent Books on the Canadian Northland and the Arctic,' CHR 20, 1 (1939): 48
30. uta, Department of Political Economy Papers, a76-0025, box 10, file 7, Stefansson to Innis, 10 April 1939; Stefansson to Innis, 15 April 1939; Steffanson's assistant at the time, Richard Finnie, wrote to Innis as well, 25 April 1939. On Finnie's later career as a filmmaker, see Peter G. Geller, 'Northern Exposures: Photographic Representations of the Canadian North, 1920-1945' (PhD dissertation, Carleton University 1995)
31. Evenden, 'The Northern Vision of Harold Innis'
32. uta, Department of Political Economy Papers, a76-0025, box 18, file 2, Diamond Jenness to John Robbins, cssrc, 11 Aug. 1943 (copy). This letter contained a memorandum describing the difficulties surrounding the establishment of a research chair at the University of Manitoba
33. Barnett Richling, 'Politics, Bureaucracy, and Arctic Archaeology in Canada, 1910-1939,' Arctic 48, 2 (1995): 109-117
34. Innis, review of Canada's Eastern Arctic, et al., CHR 16, 2 (1935): 200
35. Grant, Sovereignty or Security?
36. Ken Coates and W.R. Morrison, The Alaska Highway in World War II: The U.S. Army of Occupation in Canada's Northwest (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1991)
37. Rockefeller Archive Center, North Tarrytown, New York (rac), rg 2, series 427r, box 239, folder 1654, F.R. Scott to John Marshall, 21 Feb. 1942 (excerpt). Scott provided a terse biography of Parkin for Marshall
38. Maria Tippett, Making Culture: English-Canadian Institutions and the Arts before the Massey Commission (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1990), 148-9; 151-153
39. Charles R. Acland and William J. Buxton, 'Continentalism and Philanthropy: A Rockefeller Officer's Impressions of the Humanities in the Maritimes,' Acadiensis 23, 2 (1994): 76
40. On George Parkin's thought, see Carl Berger, A Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, 1867-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1970), 120, 124, 125-6, 130-1, 173
41. Claxton went on to become minister of national defence in 1946, with authority over such military matters. See David J. Bercuson, True Patriot: The Life of Brooke Claxton (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1993)
42. rac, rg 1.1, series 427s, box 32, folder 327, jhw, interview with John Marshall, 3 May 1943
43. The regional studies program of the Humanities Division was led by John Marshall and studied such areas as the Great Plains and the Canadian Maritimes. The program dated from 1941 and provided an institutional example for the Arctic Survey. Raymond Fosdick, The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation (New York: Harper 1952), 256-9
44. Acland and Buxton, 'Continentalism and Philanthropy,' 73-4
45. Ian McKay, The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press 1994), 76-7
46. During Marshall's 1942 visit to Canada when he met Parkin, he also initiated sponsorship for the folklorist Helen Creighton. The Rockefeller Foundation supported American foreign policy through strategic grants to international affairs institutes, promotion of 'war and peace studies,' and grants to establish Slavic studies centres. See Fosdick, The Story, 218-221
47. Fisher observes that Innis and University of Toronto psychologist Edward A. Bott 'were perceived before the establishment of the cssrc as the social scientist representatives of Canada' by American philanthropic foundations. Fisher, The Social Sciences in Canada, 8
48. rac, rg 1.1, series 427s, box 32, folder 327, Joseph Willits to Carl Sauer, 10 May 1943
49. Shore, The Science of Social Redemption
50. Geoffrey J. Martin, The Life and Thought of Isaiah Bowman (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books 1980), 109-121
51. Martin, The Life and Thought, 162
52. Who Was Who in America, vol.2 (Chicago: A.N. Marquis 1950), 558
53. 'President's Review,' Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report, 1943, 31
54. John Leighly, 'Introduction,' Carl Sauer, Land and Life: A Selection from the Writings of Carl Otwin Sauer, ed. John Leighly (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1965),6-7
55. rac, rg 1.1, series 427s, box 32, folder 327, Carl Sauer to Joseph Willits, 28 Sept. 1943
56. For Robinson's account of this period, see J. Lewis Robinson, 'Reminiscences: Arctic Geography Forty Years Ago,' Arctic 40, 4 (1987): 239-243
57. Carl Berger, 'Internationalism, Continentalism and the Writing of History: Comments on the Carnegie Series on the Relations of Canada and the United States,' in Richard Preston, ed., The Influence of the United States on Canadian Development: Eleven Case Studies (Durham, nc: Duke University Press 1972)
58. The Writing of Canadian History: Aspects of English-Canadian Historical Writing, 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1986), chap. 6
59. William P. Yohe, 'The Mysterious Career of Walter W. Stewart, especially 1922-1930,' History of Political Economy 14, 4 (1982): 583-607
60. rac, rg 1.1., series 427s, box 35, folder 378, John Van Sickle, 'Memorandum re University of Toronto B Study of the Alberta Social Credit Experiment,' 25 Jan. 1937. The correspondence concerning Innis's initial Social Credit study is contained in folder 378
61. On Stewart's relations with Keynes, see Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Economist as Saviour, 1920-1937 (London: Macmillan 1992), 357-8; 361. It is interesting to note, given his curiosity with the social credit experiment, that at the hearings of the Macmillan Committee in 1930 considering British fiscal policy, Stewart forced Keynes to concede that credit arrangements and monetary policy in general were weak instruments with which to force a recovery. Rather, he drew attention to the crucial role of the wage structure
62. On the relationship between the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Social Science Research Council, see Donald Fisher, Fundamental Development of the Social Sciences: Rockefeller Philanthropy and the United States Social Science Research Council (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 1993)
63. Fisher, The Social Sciences in Canada, 7, 12-13
64. Harold A. Innis, 'The Role of Intelligence: Some Further Notes,' Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 1, 2 (1935): 282
65. rac, rg 1.1, series 427s, box 32, folder 327, R.H. Coats to Joseph Willits, 4 Nov. 1943; Harold Innis, 'Memorandum for Dr. R.H. Coats,' nd. The memorandum served as the research scheme
66. The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report, 1943, 141-142
67. The Northwest Territories Act of 1925 stated that scientists would require permits to conduct research. See Levere, Science and the Canadian Arctic, 427
68. Grant, 'Northern Nationalists,' 58
69. Owram, The Government Generation, 268
70. na, Trevor Lloyd Papers, mg 30, -97, vol.37, file 785, 'The Soviet Union in the Arctic,' 1943
71. On Lloyd's career, see J. Brian Bird, 'Trevor Lloyd (1906-1995),' Arctic 48, 3 (1995): 308-309
72. Within the founding community of scholars involved in the aina, those interested in the social sciences were almost all Canadian, and those interested in the natural sciences were almost all American. See Raleigh Parkin, 'The Origins of the Institute,' Arctic 19, 1 (1966): 11
73. David G. Pitt, E.J. Pratt: The Master Years, 1927-1964 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1987), 124-125 Pratt first thought of the idea in 1933 and did not drop it until 1952. R.S. Lambert's Franklin of the Arctic was read to him on his death bed
74. The subject of Brouillette's research was stated in a record of the 'Appropriations made against grant 43117,' 31 Dec. 1944. By the time of the conference in November 1944, Brouillette's work was not yet completed. rac, rg 1.1, series 427s, box 32, folder 328. It would appear that Brouillette farmed out part of the work to Professor Dagenais, Jacques Rousseau, and Ernest Rouleau
75. rac, rg 1.1, series 427s, box 32, folder 328, rfe interview with Innis, 16 Nov. 1944; ab, Inter-Office Correspondence, Subject: Arctic Study, 15 Dec. 1944; uta, Innis Papers, b72-0025, box 21, file 9, Robbins to Innis, 6 Oct. 1944. Only B. Currie did not attend
76. C.A. Dawson, ed., The New NorthWest (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1947)
77. uta, Innis Papers, b72-0025, box 18, file 10, Dawson to Innis, 22 June 1944
78. M.W. Maxwell, Canada's New Northwest (Ottawa: King's Printer 1947), 5
79. uta, Innis Papers, b72-0025, box 21, file 9, C.W. Jackson, acting deputy minister of mines and resources, to Innis, 30 Jan. 1945; Moore to Camsell, 18 Jan. 1945 (copy); Moore to C.W. Jackson, 3 Feb. 1945
80. These three papers were W.J. and J.L. Robinson, 'Fur Production in the North-West'
81. William Dickson, 'Northern Agriculture'
82. and J.A. Urquhart, 'Eskimos of the Canadian Western Arctic.' Robinson, formerly of the Department of Mines and Resources, was an associate professor of geography at the University of British Columbia at the time of publication; Dickson was a researcher at the Experimental Farms Service; and Urquhart was the former medical health officer at Aklavik
83. Grant, Soveriegnty or Security?, 142