Book Review: Hidden Threads of History—Wilson through Roosevelt
| Published date | 01 March 1954 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205400900111 |
| Author | D. C. Masters |
| Date | 01 March 1954 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
57
SPRINGS
OF
CANADIAN
POWER.
A
Chatham
House
Information
Paper,
published
under
the
auspices
of
the
Royal
Institute
of
International
Affairs.
1953.
(London;
Toronto:
Oxford.
66pp.
75
cents)
While
written
for
a
much
wider
audience,
this
little
brochure
could
be
read
with
profit
by
those
Canadians
still
to
be
found
who
are
imbued
with
the
conviction
that
a
country's
possibilities
are
limited
largely
by
the
productivity
of
the
first
few
inches
of
its
land
surface;
and
that
its
culture
must
have
its
roots
in
behaviour
patterns
derived
from
the
ways
and processes
of
an
agricultural
society.
The
booklet
attempts
very
successfully
to
give
its
readers
an
account of
the
developments,
political,
economic,
and
indus-
trial,
now
taking
place
in
Canada;
and
it
is
amazing
how
much
information
is
contained
within
so
few
pages.
This
is
a
feat
for
which Mrs.
0.
K.
S.
Laugharne
and
her
associates are
to
be
congratulated.
It
is
not
easy
to
write intimately
about
a
country
with
which
the
writer
has
no
first
hand acquaintance;
and
the
author betrays
this
lack only
by
an
occasional
slip,
such as
when
she
refers
to
"British
colonists
along
the
Atlantic
seaboard
who
later
pushed
inland",
and
when she
says
that
lakes
Erie
and
Ontario
are
joined
by
Niagara
Falls
and
Superior
and
Huron
by
Sault
Ste.
Marie.
But
this
is
unimportant
in
comparison
with
the
adequate
recognition
of
the
part
which
the
development
of
iron
ore and
other
minerals,
the
discovery of
immense
oil
and
gas resources,
the
generation
of
electric
power
and
the
completion
of
the
St.
Lawrence-Great
Lakes
Waterway
will
have
upon
Canada's
place
among
the
nations
of
the
world.
Toronto
D.
M.
LEBOURDAIS
HIDDEN
THREADS
OF
HISTORY-WILSON
THROUGH
ROOSEVELT.
By Louis
B.
Wehle.
1953.
(New
York;
Toronto:
The
Mac-
millan
Company.
xix,
300pp.
$4.50)
This
volume commences
with
a
suggestive
preface containing
the
following
assertion,
"The
real
historian's
constant
concern
is
with
the thoughts
that
directed
action and
reaction
through
the
chance
interplay
of
focus."
This
preface
and
the
title
of
the
book
led
the
reviewer
to
anticipate
a broadly
philosophic
study
in
historical
causation.
The
narrative
which
follows
is
mainly
concerned
with
the
political
activities
and
interest
of
the
author.
While
of
considerable
significance
the
volume
is
more
narrowly
specific
than
was
suggested
in
the
preface.
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