Review: Canada: The Politics of Development
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207503000229 |
| Author | B.W. Davis |
| Date | 01 June 1975 |
| Published date | 01 June 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS/CANADA
367
teries
of
government.
In
this
case,
however,
the myth
may
have
over-
powered,
rather
than
supplemented, the
subject.
A
history
of
the
Canadian
bureaucracy
since
1867
is
badly
needed
-
at
the
very
least
as
a
sequel
to
Professor
Hodgetts'
own
earlier
and
excellent study.
Instead,
the
reader
is
led
along
some
obscure
byways
of
Canada's
constitutional past
and present,
with
here
and
there
bewildering
signs
reading,
'Further
study
needed.' Professor
Hodgetts,
instead
of
pre-
senting
a
history,
has
moulded
that
history
into
a
series
of
acceptable
generalizations
of
the
kind
that
feed
the
wise
if
hasty
commentaries
of
our
public
affairs
shows.
From
an historian's
point
of
view,
it
is
an
intellectual misfortune
that
Professor
Hodgetts
has
not
deployed
his
formidable
erudition
in
its
most
effective
form.
Perhaps
one can
hope
that
having
played
pathologist he
will
take
a
return part
as
historian.
R.
Bothwell/University
of
Toronto
THE
POLITICS
OF
DEVELOPMENT
Forests,
Mines,
and
Hydro-Electric Power
in
Ontario,
1849-1941
H.V.
Nelles
Toronto:
Macmillan,
1974,
Xiv,
514pp,
$21.oo
If
an
environmental
crisis
currently
pervades
the
western
world,
one
of
its
principal
causes
may well be
the depletion
of
timber
resources
to
provide
paper
for
books
on
ecology
and
resource
management.
The
spate
of such
publications
has
become
a
torrent,
but
many of
the
texts are
as
insubstantial
as
weekend
magazines.
If
we
are
to
progress
beyond
the
vague
generalities
and
earnest
pleading
of
the
conserva-
tion
ethic,
then
the
hard
work
of
detailed
empirical investigation
must
begin.
H.V.
Nelles'
The
Politics
of
Development
is
a
useful
contribution
to
this investigation.
It
is
fashionable
to
decry
conservation
case-studies
on
grounds
that
they
are highly
selective
essays
lacking consistent
conceptualiza-
tion
or methodology
and prone
to
broad
generalizations on
the
basis
of
limited
evidence.
Yet
few
methods
of
research
offer
better
prospects
of
juxtaposing
key events
in
a
comprehensible
manner
or
permit
one
to
perceive
the
complexities
and
interdependencies
of policy
situations.
Nelles'
narrative
illustrates
this
point
to
perfection.
The
title
of
the
book
may
be somewhat
misleading,
as
it
is
not
concerned
with
Third
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