Review: Canada: For Most Conspicuous Bravery
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207903400418 |
| Published date | 01 December 1979 |
| Author | R.B. Byers |
| Date | 01 December 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
733
Although
these
papers
are
directed
at
a
specialist
audience,
those
un-
schooled
in
statistics
will
find
some
comfort
in Munton's
patient
efforts
to
explain
the
meaning
of
his
findings.
Other
authors
expect
a
rudimen-
tary
understanding
of
quantitative
techniques,
but
for
the
most
part,
the
general reader
can
make
his
way
through
the
narrative
fairly
easily.
Unfortunately,
general
reader
and
specialist alike
will
be
struck
by
the
turgid
prose and
excessive
jargon
in
some
of
the
contributions.
Of
the
nine
articles,
the
three
which
focus
on
historical
analysis
are
perhaps the
most
contentious.
Practitioners
of the
art,
recalling
their
efforts
behind
the
scenes
in
the
corridors
of
the
United
Nations,
may
raise
an
eyebrow
at an
analysis
of
behaviour
based
on
roll-call
votes.
Dormant nationalists
may
wonder
why
all the
event
data
were
drawn
from
foreign
sources.
Entrenched
traditionalists,
reviving
the
methodol-
ogical
debates
of
a
decade
ago, may
question
why
such
a
statistical
spe-
cies
as
the
two-tail
probability
test
is
needed
to reach
the
conclusion
that
the
United
States
has
had
some
impact on
Canadian
relations
with
Europe.
In short,
those
who
approach
these
essays
looking
for
methodological
quibbles will
find
them.
However, if
in
doing
so
they
ignore
the
positive
contribution
all
the
essays
make
to
the
study
of
Canadian
foreign policy,
the
loss
will
be
theirs.
Kim
Richard
Nossal/McMaster University
FOR
MOST
CONSPICUOUS BRAVERY
A
Biography
of
Major-General
George
R.
Pearkes,
V.C.,
through
Two
World
Wars
Reginald
H.
Roy
Vancouver:
University
of
British Columbia
Press,
1977,
xiv,
388pp,
$15.95
In
the
first
instance
biographies
of
the
famous
and
the
near
famous are
usually
influenced
by
the
life
and
times
of
the
subject.
Presumably
the
combination
of
a
World
War
I
Victoria
Cross,
a
general in the
second
war,
Conservative
defence
critic
in
the
Commons,
and
minister
of
de-
fence
during
the early
(1957-9)
Diefenbaker
years
should
constitute
ma-
terial for
a
first-rate
biography.
Such
was
the
career
of
George
Pearkes
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