Book Review: Canada: The Prospect of Change
| Published date | 01 December 1965 |
| Date | 01 December 1965 |
| Author | J. R. Mallory |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000420 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
548
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
This
good
little
book
suffers
a
bit from
defects
of
emphasis and
carelessness
in
matters
of
detail.
It
took
this
reviewer
a
moment
or
two
to
recognize
the
Ross
rifle
affair
in
the
phrase
"the
rejection
by
the
British
of
Canadian-made
rifles,"
and
he questions
whether
there
was
really a
"cluster
of
grievances" around
"the
issue
of
whether
Canadian
or
British
officers
would
lead
Canadian troops"
(p.
111).
In
his
note
on sources
the author
properly
ticks
off
Winston Churchill
on
pages
147-8
for
making
three
errors
in
his brief
mention
of
the
sub-
marines,
and
goes
on,
on
pages
148-9,
to
get
the
names
of
three
books
slightly
wrong:
Brownrigg's
Indiscretions
of
the
Naval
Censor,
Fisher's
two
volumes
Memories
and
Records
(not
Memories
and
Records),
and
Marder's
Fear
God
and Dread
Nought.
University
of
Toronto
C.
P.
STACEY
Canada
THE
PROSPECT
OF
CHANGE.
Proposals
for Canada's
future.
Edited
by
Abraham
Rotstein.
1965.
(New York:
Toronto:
McGraw-Hill.
xx,
361pp.
$6.95)
There
came
into
being
in
1962
a
group
of
scholars in
the
University
of
Toronto
concerned
with
the current
social
and
economic
problems
of
Canada.
Initially,
they
were
attracted
by
the
model
of
the
old
League
for
Social
Reconstruction
and
they
accordingly
invited
Messrs.
Frank
Scott
and Charles
Taylor
to
address
their
first
meeting.
They
have
succeeded
where
others
have failed
in
recent
years
in
bringing
to
life
a
University League
for
Social
Reform.
But
they
have
done
so
with
a
difference.
They
have rejected
the
engagement
of
Messrs.
Scott
and
Taylor
and
decided
instead
to
set
out
on
their
own
without
con-
nection
with
any
political
party,
animated
by
what
Mr.
Rotstein
describes
as
a
left-of-centre
approach.
The
present
volume
is
the
first
fruits
of
their
meetings,
and
a
further
volume
dealing
with
the
problem
of
Canadian
nationalism
is
promised.
It
must
be
said
at
once
that
the
papers
are
generally
of
a
high
quality
which reflects
both
the
seriousness
with
which
the
par-
ticipants
took
their
obligations
and
the
skill
of
Mr.
Rotstein
as
editor.
The
book
will
no
doubt add
a
great
deal
of
enlightenment
to
the
general
mass
of
public
opinion
to
which
it
is
directed, and contains
in
a number
of
cases
useful
and
penetrating
papers
which add
a
good
deal
to
what
we
know
about
a
wide
range
of
questions.
Their
most
refreshing
quality
is
a
cold
blast
of
common
sense
and
authority
to
questions
on
which
conventional
political
discussion
is
muddled
and
emotional.
One
serious
question
needs
to
be
answered.
Why
is
this worthy
book,
once
put
down,
so difficult
to
pick
up
again?
Part
of
the
answer
is
that
the authors
are
generally
content
to
accept
assumptions
that
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