Left History (E-Journal - York University)

Wells, Jonathan Daniel

Book Reviews128
organized in the fields against tremendous odds but they also had to contend
with the internal politics of  the national union and sometimes ran afoul of
Chavez’s demand for centralized control. 
Rodriguez has much to offer and correctly draws our attention to the
strong links between Mexican American leaders in Wisconsin and Texas but his
admiration for their work often results in hyperbole and broad generalizations.
His claims about the importance of  a trans state connection are well taken but,
at the same time, it is not surprising that activists travel, maintain contacts with
one another, or build networks with other organizations and leaders. Rodriguez
should have devoted more space to setting the context within which this new
wave of  political work took place. More weight should have been placed on the
alliances they built with student activists, church groups, labor unions, and
Wisconsin progressives. The reason so many Texas migrants settled out of  the
migrant stream and sought work in Wisconsin factories was because southern
agriculture became increasingly mechanized and less dependent on manual labor.
Likewise, the prospects for Mexican American empowerment during this period
were profoundly influenced by developments that receive little attention: the ter-
mination of  the Bracero Program, liberalization of  the Democratic Party poli-
tics, the Voting Rights Act, and a slow but steady rise in the number of  minority
elected officials. Despite these omissions, the Tejano Diaspora is a welcome
addition to the literature on contemporary Mexican American history.
Benjamin Marquez
University of  Wisconsin-Madison
A. Ricardo López and Barbara Weinstein, eds., The Making of  the Midd le
Class :  Toward a  Transnat iona l Histo ry (Durham: Duke University Press,
2012).
In the United States, paeans to the middle class are as clichéd as barbeques and
stump speeches. Politicians’ obsession with the middle class derives in part from
the broadness of  the phrase and the wide swath of  the electorate that identifies
itself  as middle class regardless of  income, profession, or property. Candidates
know that targeting middle-class voters is the core of  electioneering, even if  no
one is quite sure what the middle class is or what it believes. Unlike American
politicians, however, historians have been reluctant to use terms like “middle
class,” precisely because of  scholarly unease regarding its definition.
In this path-breaking work, a range of  historians tackle not only the
meaning of  the phrase, but also the ways in which the middle class has evolved
in countries around the world from the mid-nineteenth through the late twenti-
eth centuries. Explicitly challenging the scholarly assumption that middle-class
formation happened first in England and America and then spread out over the
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 128
Left History 17.1 129
globe in similar patterns, the twenty-one essays in this volume examine the emer-
gence of  middle classes in a wide variety of  countries like Syria, Chile, Peru,
Zimbabwe, India, Argentina, and Columbia, as well as nations in Europe and
North America (although middle-class formation in Asian countries aside from
India is surprisingly absent). Divided into four sections, each concluding with
commentary that broadens the discussion, this valuable collection “invites the
reader to think about the historical formation of  the middle class in a compara-
tive, connective, and transnational framework” (11). 
The volume excels in its goal to identify different historical patterns of
middle-class formation and the parallel social construction of  modernity in var-
ied countries, helping to shift scholarly attention away from Western Europe and
North America (although the volume also includes fine analyses of  the middle
class in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and France). Addressing
extraordinarily diverse topics from professionals in Chile and Peru in the late
nineteenth century to middle-class formation in colonial India to the expropria-
tion of  natural resources in Zimbabwe, the essays are remarkably uniform in
their quality of  research and depth of  analysis. The essays themselves tend to
focus on one nation or city, but commentaries by Barbara Weinstein, Mary Kay
Vaughan, Brian Owensby, and Robyn Muncy, and an excellent afterword by
Mrinalini Sinha, help to fulfill the volume’s promise of  contributing to a transna-
tional approach. 
As learned and sophisticated as these essays are, their authors frequent-
ly apologize for employing the phrase “middle class,” repeatedly stressing that its
meaning is often shrouded in fuzziness and imprecision. Even editors López and
Weinstein are ambivalent, and several of  the other authors evince similar dis-
comfort. It is time to move beyond such ambivalence and realize that “middle
class” is no more obscure or imprecise a term than others that scholars frequent-
ly employ, like “elite,” “working class,” “gender,” or “race.” Rather, like other
terms that scholars fearlessly exploit, “middle class” is a construction that can
hold varied meanings at different times and places. All use of  historical terminol-
ogy requires definition, and “middle class” can be as worthwhile a phrase as any
other.
In fact, taken together, the essays in this volume – despite their dis-
parate chronology, methodology, and object of  analysis – demonstrate surprising
consistency when it comes to middle-class formation and ideology. Although
historical-formative circumstances differ, middle classes in Europe, the Americas,
Africa, and South Asia shared a broad range of  characteristics often linked to
modernity, including but not limited to an adherence to political liberalism, an
independent press, urbanism, professionalization, free trade, associational culture,
medical and educational reform, and a lively public sphere. Rather than offering
evidence of  the fuzziness of  the term, these essays confirm the impressive
coherency of  the concept and its applicability to an array of  cultures. More so
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 129
Book Reviews130
than the elite or working classes, the middle class and its interest in connections,
associations, links, and networks are an ideal subject for scholars interested in
transnational approaches to the past. Because it succeeds in offering specific
examples of  middle-class formation within a broader transnational framework,
scholars will find this collection valuable for promoting classroom discussion as
well as sparking new approaches to their own research. 
Jonathan Daniel Wells
Temple University
Anna J. Willow, Strong Hear ts ,  Nati ve Lands:  Anti -Clear cut ting Ac tiv ism
at Grassy Narrows Fir st Nation (Winnipeg, MB: University of  Manitoba
Press, 2012).
Anna J. Willow opens with movement: on 3 December 2003, “three young mem-
bers of  Grassy Narrows First Nation positioned a falling tree across a snow-cov-
ered logging road” (1). Thus begins the Grassy Narrows blockade, a community-
directed campaign to stop unregulated corporate logging by Abitibi-Consolidated
in Grassy Narrows Traditional Land Use Area. Willow argues that the act of  a
blockade represented an assertion of  treaty rights including, but by no means
limited to, the “right to pursue their [Anishinaabe] avocations of  hunting and
fishing.” She further argues that the placement of  the blockade became a site of
cultural revitalization. In short, Strong Hearts, Native Lands makes the case that
environmental issues are intertwined with political and social issues. The fight to
save Whiskey Jack Forest cannot be separated from the fight to uphold Treaty
#3, to receive recognition as a sovereign nation, and ultimately to protect the
Anishinaabe way of  life from unrestrained corporate development on
Anishinaabe lands.
Willow divides her text into two sections. The first three chapters pro-
vide context. In Chapter 1, Willow suggests that land-based subsistence has
become a marker of  cultural identity. Harvesting practices that were once “a way
of  life” now allow Anishinaabe peoples to define themselves against mainstream
society (36). Willow positions the blockade as an attempt to maintain “a deeply
symbolic way of  life” by preserving territory required for land-based subsistence
(35). Chapter 2 explores the cultural and political influences on the Grassy
Narrows blockade while Chapter 3 focuses on material drivers. Here, Willow
illustrates the environmental realities of  reservation life – from hydroelectric
flooding to mercury poisoning –that spurred direct action. 
The second section (Chapters 4 – 8) discusses the blockade’s begin-
nings, its culture, and its preservation. Chapter 4 introduces the Grassy Narrows
Environmental Group (GNEG) and their initial attempts to combat clearcutting.
Chapters 5 and 6 examine the establishment of  the blockade at Slant Lake.
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 130


Ricardo López and Barbara Weinstein, eds., The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).

Wakatsuki, Hanako

Book Reviews136
will be breached. The ultimate cost of  conservative influence may be the lost
opportunity and the damages not only to the environment, but also to the physi-
cal and social foundations on which further progress in human well-being
depends.
Judith Layzer has done a remarkable service with this thoughtful, well-
researched, and compelling analysis of  the conservative influence on environ-
mental regulation. That she could have given a bit more of  the other side of  the
story is a minor complaint in the face of  the important contributions she makes
in this book. Anyone interested in American politics, and not just environmental
politics, will benefit from this impressive political and historical analysis.
Daniel Fiorino
American University
Eric Muller, Colors o f  Con fin ement :  Rare Kodachrome Photographs o f
Japanese Amer ic an  In carcerat ion in  Wor ld  War  II (Chapel Hill: University
of  North Carolina Press, 2012).
Eric Muller’s remarkable new book, Colors of  Confinement, acquaints readers with
the marred history of  the Japanese American incarceration experience during
World War II through Bill Manbo’s family stories and photos. Not only do these
stunning colour images provide a unique view into the lives of  Americans incar-
cerated during World War II, but they also reveal the deeper issues of  civil liber-
ties violations and racism on the home front through the lens of  Manbo. The
Japanese American incarceration was one of  the worst civil liberties violations
the United States government engaged in; violating Americans’ civil liberties, the
constitution, and allowing for the presence of  institutionalized racism in military
and presidential executive orders due to fear and war hysteria dictating national
policy. Heart Mountain was one of  ten American incarceration camps during
World War II where people of  Japanese ancestry were sent if  they lived on the
West Coast.
Muller clearly states he does not focus on what the images show, but
rather on what they concealed (1). His essay provides great context in which the
story of  Bill Manbo and his family takes place. He describes the aggressive poli-
cies the United States enacted to limit Japanese immigration and naturalization
while telling of  the incarceration experience Manbo and his family endured,
which was very similar to other families who were forcibly removed from their
homes. Muller details the uprooting of  the Manbo family to the Santa Anita
Assembly Center where they were housed in horse stables that reeked of  the for-
mer occupants (6). He retraces the story of  the Manbo family’s transfer to Heart
Mountain and their “interrupted lives” there (1). Muller touches on the divisive
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 136
Left History 17.1 137
subject of  loyalty, even to this day. Manbo also captures the departure of  those
deemed “disloyal” from Heart Mountain to the Tule Lake Segregation Center
(13). Muller’s essay incorporates the much-needed historical context, analysis, and
narration of  the photographer’s story and that of  his family alongside images. 
There are three other essays in this book, accompanied by Manbo’s
images. The most striking contribution is titled, “A Youngster’s Life behind
Barbed Wire”, by Bacon Sakatani. Sakatani allows the reader to revisit his memo-
ries of  essentially being a child prisoner; thought to be a national security threat
to the United States government. Sakatani recalls memories from his early teens
of  daily activities like eating in the mess hall and the degrading conditions of  the
latrines. Sakatani reflects upon his past and how his view of  the experience dif-
fered from people of  his parents’ generation. He mentions that Manbo’s photo-
graphs represent the experience at camp for many. Sakatani states that he could
have easily been in any one of  those pictures. His essay is enlightening, allowing
readers to experience his memories as a child. His is a perspective that many
children of  the camps avoid sharing or dismiss altogether. His memories are
valuable to those whose family were incarcerated, but who never spoke about
their experiences; adding another layer of  understanding to the Japanese
American incarceration history.
Jasmine Alinder’s essay addresses the issues of  cameras in camp and the
evolution of  camera policies with the help of  the War Relocation Authority
(WRA) administrators. Cameras were considered contraband immediately after
war broke out and accessing them at camp was difficult. It was not until later in
the war that the ban was lifted among individual camps outside the restricted
military zone, allowing some of  those imprisoned to be able to capture memo-
ries of  their family, especially of  their children growing up. She explains that this
is how Bill Manbo was able to capture these nostalgic photos of  the Heart
Mountain incarceration experience and life in general. Alinder also touches on
the subject of  cultural pluralism and with the complement of  American cultural
practices of  the Boy Scouts and school dances with Japanese cultural practices of
sumo and Bon Odori at Heart Mountain. She clearly reminds the reader that,
“the WRA allowed for a kind of  cultural pluralism that the military would have
characterized as un-American” (92). Alinder also brings attention to the ways in
which “[t]he images of  Billy at play reveal the dislocated normality that parents
face in their efforts to secure a nurturing childhood environment” (94). 
Lon Kurashige’s essay describes the conditions of  Heart Mountain and
how they enabled Alan Simpson and Norman Mineta to create a long lasting
friendship (103). Like Alinder, Kurashige touches on the cultural pluralism that
Manbo captured in his images. Kurashige describes the camp experience as a
sort of  Americanisation assimilation of  those incarcerated but one that eventual-
ly evolved into the “prewar bicultural orientation” that was supported by WRA
officials (111). Kurashige uses euphemistic words including “internment” and
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 137
Book Reviews138
“internee,” setting him apart from the other contributors. The Japanese
American Citizens League (JACL) Power of  Words campaign suggests using
more accurate terminology to describe the Japanese American experience and
avoiding euphemisms from government propaganda. This measure was passed in
2010 at the JACL National Convention, but this discussion of  appropriate termi-
nology goes back to the 1980’s when Raymond Okamura submitted an essay to
the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of  Civilians in Seattle
on this subject; and more recently in Roger Daniels’s “Words Do Matter: A Note
on Inappropriate Terminology and the Incarceration of  Japanese Americans” in
2005. 
Bill Manbo was an amateur photographer, a hobbyist. His photographs
captured images of  life at camp, allowing the reader the rare opportunity to view
the ways life continued while incarcerated in camp at Heart Mountain. The
vibrant colour Kodachrome images show a different view of  daily life than the
black and white images produced by the United States government. These
images are candid unlike the staged War Relocation Authority images (83). These
photographs show how those imprisoned tried to make life normal while in
camp. Manbo’s work “captures the scenes of  beauty, action and pleasure” with
the subtle contrast of  being imprisoned (7). 
Although incarcerated, those who were incarcerated had the strength to
carry on. Maybe it was to shield the imprisonment from the children with the
common Japanese saying in camp, kodomo no tame ni, for the sake of  the children.
The human spirit is amazing during times of  distress as seen in the Bon Odori
images (60-62). Even though they were incarcerated due to their ancestry, the
incarcerees managed to come together and celebrate their culture and heritage.
These intimate images of  daily life depicted were similar to anyone’s childhood:
baseball, Boy Scouts, theatre, family photographs, and cultural festivities. The
only difference is the tar-papered barracks and guard towers in the background,
all behind barbed wire. His images invite readers into his life; the joys of  family,
community, festivities with a touch of  despair from being imprisoned. Manbo
paired the contrast of  daily life with barbed-wire fencing, guards, and guard tow-
ers; these might make one wonder about how this could have happened. These
images take one’s breath away with the beauty of  life, family, and the Wyoming
landscape, but leave viewers saddened knowing the pain and misery these images
conceal. Bill Manbo’s collections of  Kodachrome photographs are stunning and
rare. It is a privilege that his family decided to share with the world these treas-
ured images.
Hanako Wakatsuki
Johns Hopkins University
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 138


Eric Muller, Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

Peddie, Francis

Shaming an Unwilling Host: The Chilean solidarity movement, Fall 1973

Fiorino, Daniel

Book Reviews134
ence would need to be grounded in a much richer deep-historical discussion of
the kind flagged in my opening paragraph above, then on the other hand its
genealogies require far more elaborate analysis of  the immediate contexts than
this pared-down political narrative remotely allows. Moreover, nowhere is “left”
ever defined, allowing Rizas to ignore both the dramatic popular-democratic
upsurge of  “1968” (i.e. not just the events per se, but all of  the surrounding tur-
bulence of  1967-75, including the largest pan-European strike wave since the
1920s) and the later emergence of  Eurocommunism (which more than anything
else drove the Cold War anxieties of  NATO and the US). The more detailed
omissions and consequent distortions of  the account are far too numerous to
mention. For example, the pivotal role of  the SPD in both funding and political-
ly shaping the otherwise flimsy implantations of  Spanish and Portuguese social-
ism is entirely effaced by foregrounding the British Labour Party, whose promi-
nence is an artifact of  the book’s restrictive “Anglo-American” focus. Vast histo-
riographies go unmentioned. Astonishingly, for instance, neither the monographs
of  Richard Gillespie and Donald Share on the Spanish Socialist Party (each
1989), nor the older classic of  Raymond Carr and Juan Pablo Fusi, Spain:
Dictatorship to Democracy (1981), nor Pamela Radcliff ’s recent Making Democratic
Citizens in Spain: Civil Society and the Popular Origins of  the Transition, 1960-78 (2011)
are captured in the bibliography. 
Geoff  Eley
University of  Michigan
Judith A. Layzer, Open fo r Busin ess :  Conserva ti ves ’  Opposi t i on  t o Envi ro -
nmental  Regula ti on (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012).
The ideological conflicts that have characterized US politics over the past few
decades are rarely as apparent as they are in environmental policy. In Open for
Business, Judith Layzer carefully documents these policy debates over the last four
decades of  modern environmental politics. The result is a detailed and insightful
narrative of  the role of  political conservatives in shaping environmental regula-
tion. This conservative influence has been well coordinated, sustained over many
decades, and effective in impeding progress, if  not in rolling back basic environ-
mental protections. The consequences for the nation and, given the need for US
leadership, for the world are profound.
The book includes a chapter on policy theory as a framework for analyz-
ing the influence of  conservative ideas and politics. This is a useful review in its
own right, but is not essential for following the story in the book. Except for the
conclusion, the remaining chapters are organized chronologically, beginning with
the “environmental decade” of  the 1970s and following the story from the Reagan
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 134
Left History 17.1 135
through to the second Bush administrations. The three issues of  air quality, endan-
gered species protection, and climate change provide the cases for in-depth analy-
sis against the larger backdrop of  conservative ideas and influences. The writing is
lively, the research is thoroughly documented, and the political analysis is astute.
The ideological touchstones of  the conservative arguments are limited
government, unrestrained growth, property rights, and free markets. Interestingly,
there is little interest in conservation in this conservative critique. This was not always
the case. There was a time when moderate Republicanism made substantial con-
tributions to environmental protection. Such leaders as Russell Train, William
Ruckelshaus, and William Reilly were pragmatic regulators who led with integrity
and pushed their party and presidents to deal responsibly with the environment.
Yet that tradition, like much of  the middle in American politics, is gone, at least
for the moment. The result is that environmental politics has become increasing-
ly polarized, and progress of  any kind is more difficult. That story comes through
clearly in this book.
The book does have its own limitations from a policy perspective.
Environmental agencies do important and necessary work, and much of  it is done
well. The practical reality is, however, that many environmental regulations are
cumbersome and difficult to implement, cost more than they should, and present
firms with a complex and often contradictory array of  requirements from multi-
ple levels of  government. A recurring theme in the book is that efforts to improve
or reform regulation are motivated solely by politics. Yet serious advocates of  envi-
ronmental protection who see a need to improve the regulatory system in response
to new problems and relationships have led much of  this effort at reform. Like
much of  the environmental policy literature, there is an assumption that what
emerges from the high level regulatory struggle is what matters most and imple-
mentation on the ground an afterthought. It is also worth acknowledging that the
left has its own storylines, techniques, and public relations tools; none of  this is
the exclusive domain of  the right. The right may be more unscrupulous, and their
ends far less defensible, but both sides know how to play the game.
What is most disturbing about the story that Layzer so ably tells, espe-
cially over the last decade or so, is the cynicism and lack of  integrity with which
the attacks from the far right have been argued. The trashing of  mainstream envi-
ronmental (especially climate) science and a willingness to interfere with scientific
and policy analysis before they can be debated in the political sphere is a disturb-
ing trend. The consequences for energy and climate, public health, habitat protec-
tion, and many other critical issues are obvious, and at some point the economic
as well as ecological costs will become overwhelming. Even more consequential,
however, is that the nation that once was and should still be a leader in addressing
the environmental, energy, and resource challenges of  our time is hobbled by the
opposition and opportunism of  the right. Without leadership from the US, the
limits of  global ecosystems will increasingly be at risk, and their limits eventually
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 135
Book Reviews136
will be breached. The ultimate cost of  conservative influence may be the lost
opportunity and the damages not only to the environment, but also to the physi-
cal and social foundations on which further progress in human well-being
depends.
Judith Layzer has done a remarkable service with this thoughtful, well-
researched, and compelling analysis of  the conservative influence on environ-
mental regulation. That she could have given a bit more of  the other side of  the
story is a minor complaint in the face of  the important contributions she makes
in this book. Anyone interested in American politics, and not just environmental
politics, will benefit from this impressive political and historical analysis.
Daniel Fiorino
American University
Eric Muller, Colors o f  Con fin ement :  Rare Kodachrome Photographs o f
Japanese Amer ic an  In carcerat ion in  Wor ld  War  II (Chapel Hill: University
of  North Carolina Press, 2012).
Eric Muller’s remarkable new book, Colors of  Confinement, acquaints readers with
the marred history of  the Japanese American incarceration experience during
World War II through Bill Manbo’s family stories and photos. Not only do these
stunning colour images provide a unique view into the lives of  Americans incar-
cerated during World War II, but they also reveal the deeper issues of  civil liber-
ties violations and racism on the home front through the lens of  Manbo. The
Japanese American incarceration was one of  the worst civil liberties violations
the United States government engaged in; violating Americans’ civil liberties, the
constitution, and allowing for the presence of  institutionalized racism in military
and presidential executive orders due to fear and war hysteria dictating national
policy. Heart Mountain was one of  ten American incarceration camps during
World War II where people of  Japanese ancestry were sent if  they lived on the
West Coast.
Muller clearly states he does not focus on what the images show, but
rather on what they concealed (1). His essay provides great context in which the
story of  Bill Manbo and his family takes place. He describes the aggressive poli-
cies the United States enacted to limit Japanese immigration and naturalization
while telling of  the incarceration experience Manbo and his family endured,
which was very similar to other families who were forcibly removed from their
homes. Muller details the uprooting of  the Manbo family to the Santa Anita
Assembly Center where they were housed in horse stables that reeked of  the for-
mer occupants (6). He retraces the story of  the Manbo family’s transfer to Heart
Mountain and their “interrupted lives” there (1). Muller touches on the divisive
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 136


Judith A. Layzer, Open for Business: Conservatives’ Opposition to Environmental Regulation (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012).

López, Marina Díaz

Book Reviews146
tends that the Cold War as an idea — rather than a categorical period or a popu-
lar mindset in the United States or the Soviet Union — has yet to be properly
historicized. He, above all, calls for ground-breaking shifts in Cold War studies
along two key axes: time and space. Whereas most now speak of  a global Cold
War that took place primarily between three or more actors in the so-called
Third World, Stephanson somewhat oddly asks that the conflict be re-centered
in its place of  origin. The Cold War — invented in 1947 by renowned U.S.
columnist Walter Lippmann — was exceptionally a U.S. project and should be
understood strictly as such. While there were many Cold Wars in the second half
of  the twentieth century, the idea of  the Cold War in its original form ended in
the early 1960s, following the Cuban Missile Crisis. 
The aforementioned Odd Arne Westad, whose contribution follows
Stephanson’s, directly rebuts the latter’s containment of  Cold War borders, going
as far as accusing the former of  reductionism. “Reducing the history of  the Cold
War to be a section of  the history of  the United States,” Westad forcefully con-
tends, “is neither methodologically meaningful nor historiographically liberating”
(57). The Cold War, after all, is not U.S-driven story. The United States, in other
words, did not dictate the Cold War; rather it was a product of  global power
negotiations. Westad—whose scholarship has, in the last decade or so, trans-
formed Cold War studies—in turn suggests an alternative model, which essen-
tially elaborates on his previous appeal to pluralize the Cold War, rather than
center it on Europe and North America.
After reading Uncertain Empire, many will easily conclude that the Cold
War and its myriad shades continue to be a vibrant site of  contestation in aca-
demic imaginations. Some may even argue that, on a discursive level, the Cold
War is far from over. And others will surely disagree. But thanks to Isaac and
Bell’s volume, the terrain in which “the” Cold War is discussed has been revital-
ized. For this reason, this book merits a long-shelf  life.
Maurice Jr. M. Labelle
University of  Saskatchewan
Matthew B. Karush, Cultur e o f  C lass :  Radio  and Cinema in the Making of
a  Divided Argen tina , 1920-1946 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).
In the last pages of  Karush’s book, the reader is situated in the world announced
by the coming of  the television and a new youth culture symbolised by jeans and
rock ‘n’ roll. It seems that he or she has travelled a long journey in order to reach
a point that most likely readers of  the book know perfectly. As Andrés di Tella
suffers in his documentary film, La televisión y yo (2002), most of  the readers
would recognise that the television is the key source in getting to understand our
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:59 PM  Page 146
Left History 17.1 147
20th century culture and how it compounds the profile of  the history and the
future of  that particular society. Now we are probably living a new change in the
mass media that will involve a total transformation in our way of  thinking about
ourselves. According to this, the book explains which media, and therefore,
which society provides this change in the moment the Cold War was reorganis-
ing Western civilisation, especially in a peripheral country such as Argentina,
before television appeared.
The author uses Miriam Hansen’s concept of  “alternative modernism”
to focus on how mass media (cinema and radio) introduced a series of  elements
(some of  them contradictory), that shaped the construction of  the middle and
also the working classes (8, 44). The question of  the identity of  class is crucial in
the development of  historical and cultural national identities before and after the
Second World War. As you advance through the book, where a perfect narration
of  social disposition and cultural activity during the period studied is depicted,
we come to see that Peronism was the last episode of  Argentina’s part in the
Cold War. In other words, Argentina was a country with a big population of
European immigrants and a powerful rural oligarchy. Consequently, it achieved a
well-founded status that enabled mass media to create a solid public sphere. A
“culture of  mixture” founded on urban and rural mentalities, as Beatriz Sarlo
maintains to define this period, purport the legitimacy that this media had in rep-
resenting the past and projecting the future (6).
Needless to say, the analysis of  the elements used to explain how the
classes looked for their identity portrays also the importance of  the young peo-
ple of  that time in representing the possibilities of  modernization. The terms
were success or failure, the definition of  gender and sexual difference, or the
assortment of  the family. They were the main discourses that nourished melo-
drama as the trope invoked in order to make a proposal for the representation of
classes, genders, and new social conditions. From rags-to-riches stories to a
groundbreaking realism, these narrations served as a catalogue of  interpretation
for this new modernising world. In addition to this, melodrama was also a book
of  instructions for understanding society, as Carlos Monsiváis has also explained
writing about Mexican cinema and popular culture for that period. Indeed, if  we
have to refer to popular cultural and music, both play a crucial role in the forma-
tion of  the concept of  class. One of  the main points in the book seems to stress
the importance of  sound nature in cinema and radio. It is obvious that the
sound condition of  both media is something that connects them. Moreover, the
power of  music (the tango and folk music) or lunfardo (Buenos Aires popular
slang) in contact with proper Spanish; all of  which contribute to create a national
identity, added to the Argentinean literature. 
In this sense, it is very important to acknowledge the historian Karush
for having made an intelligent use of  the sources. Having relied on the
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:59 PM  Page 147
Book Reviews148
Argentinean Cinema bibliography, he would probably have fallen in the film buff
condition and the relevant attention given to the image analysis in its traditional
books. Otherwise, the book examines in detail the protagonistic role of  music
(its diffusion through theatre culture but in radio) in the first spoken films, as
well as the role played by singers such as Carlos Gardel or Azucena Maizani, and
later, Libertad Lamarque or Tita Merello, just to cite some different but accom-
plished stars. We cannot forget how important tango music and dance were in
the construction of  Argentina’s international image. Mass media helped it to
serve as a representation of  the community. Furthermore, tango enabled an
international circulation of  Argentinean culture. The book offers a wonderful
journey from the origins of  tango in the conventillos and popular feasts to the itin-
erant role in live performing. Its immorality will come with discs and films,
although tango was already popular in France and Spain in the thirties, reaching
an international audience who yearned for modernity.
To sum up, the meticulous use of  newspapers and reviews, the combi-
nation of  analysis between filmic genres and directors, the broad attention given
to mass media producers, the neat historian procedure, make this book a won-
derful insight into a crucial time in Argentinean cultural history. 
Marina Díaz López
Instituto Cervantes
E.R. “Ernie” Forbes, The Educat ion of  an Innocen t:  An Autobiography by
E.R. “Erni e” Forbes (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 2012). 
Ernie Forbes’ The Education of  an Innocent contributes to a relatively small histori-
cal sub-discipline: historians’ autobiographies. Its total length is 142 pages, which
includes an index, a brief  introduction by Stephen Dutcher, and an interview
with Forbes conducted by current Acadiensis editor and well-known regional
historian John Reid. Ernie Forbes is one of  those historians who “needs no
introduction.” He is best known as a key figure in the broader rethinking of
Atlantic Canadian history that began in the 1970s and continues, although in dif-
ferent forms, today. The Education of  an Innocent is only peripherally about
this significant historiographical change. Instead, as Dutcher notes, it is a “per-
sonal history, a close self-portrait” that looks back on the author’s childhood,
family, friends, and working life. In many ways, Forbes has retained his inno-
cence. Indeed, one might argue that his education - if, by education we mean
integration into the scholarly milieu of  the last generation - remains incomplete.
This is the great merit of  this short book. 
There is much that one can learn from The Education of  an Innocent. One
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:59 PM  Page 148


Matthew B. Karush, Culture of Class: Radio and Cinema in the Making of a Divided Argentina, 1920-1946 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).

Spoehr, Luther

Book Reviews150
to my mind, preferable to the often-polemical exchanges and intensely politicized
debate that passed for historical discussion in the grad seminars and conferences
I attended. Indeed, I am not at all certain that the often-acrimonious exchanges
in which other historians were engaged have done much to advance our under-
standing of  the past or its potential uses today. This might be the most impor-
tant lesson to learn from Forbes’ memoire: historians can and should approach
their craft in a different way, timely words, particularly for those of  us on the
left. 
Andrew Nurse
Mount Allison University 
John P. Spencer, In the Cross f i re :  Marcus Foster  and the Troubled  Hist or y
o f  Ameri can  Schoo l  Refo rm (University of  Pennsylvania Press, 2012).
If  Marcus Foster is remembered at all today, it is as the Oakland, CA, school
superintendent who was assassinated in 1973 by crackpot revolutionaries calling
themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army, who later achieved even greater
notoriety by kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. They murdered Foster
because they mistakenly believed he was planning to put police officers in the
city’s schools.
John P. Spencer, associate professor of  education at Ursinus College,
finds much more worth remembering in Foster’s story: 
Though Marcus Foster’s murder in a crossfire of  bullets was indeed
extreme, it is, in some ways, symbolic of  a larger political and ideologi-
cal crossfire over how to effectively explain and respond to the ‘urban
crisis’ and, in particular, the persistent problems of  urban schools that
serve African American students (4).
Foster’s relatively brief  career (he was only 50 when he died) represents to
Spencer a road not taken in American school reform in the 1960s and ever since,
“a kind of  alternative” to the confrontational narrative that runs from the 1968
Ocean Hill-Brownsville standoff  to the debates over No Child Left Behind.
Spencer candidly states that he “draws on history to make an argument about
school reform debates in the present” (8-9).
To his credit, Spencer does not merely paint the past as the present writ
small, but displays commendable historical-mindedness. He situates Foster within
what has come to be known as the “long civil rights movement,” beginning well
before the 1960s, and follows an interpretive trail blazed by Thomas Sugrue,
Matthew Countryman, Robert Self, and others.
Born in Athens, GA, Foster grew up in South Philadelphia, the
youngest of  five children, whose parents separated when Marcus was very
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:59 PM  Page 150
Left History 17.1 151
young. His mother “exemplified a history of  African American striving to excel
in education”: Marcus was an outstanding student (11). He got another educa-
tion in the streets, wearing a zoot suit and belonging to a gang. Spencer argues
persuasively that this double-tracked upbringing served him well later. At
Cheyney State Teachers College, led by Leslie Pinckney Hill, he got another
injection of  inspiration about the transforming power of  education.
Starting out as a teacher, Foster became principal of  Dunbar
Elementary School in North Philadelphia in 1958. Charismatic, articulate, and
tireless, he caught the eye of  Ford Foundation researchers who made his school
part of  a pilot project in “compensatory education,” a program that was contro-
versial from the start. Critics damned it as condescending and racist (Spencer
quotes Ralph Ellison: “There is no such thing as a culturally deprived kid”) (85),
but Foster saw it as, in Spencer’s words, “first and foremost a means of  improv-
ing academic achievement” (90). He had “a conservative streak on issues of  cul-
tural identity” (86), Spencer says, and never abandoned his conviction that
African American students would be served best by learning Standard English.
As he told students years later, “You don’t have to have middle class values, but
you do have to have middle class skills” (158). He would have had no use for
Ebonics.
Foster’s effectiveness at Dunbar led to similar assignments at Catto
Disciplinary School (1963-1966) and then Simon Gratz High School (1966-
1969). In each one he further refined his stress on what he called “total school
community,” involving parents, businessmen, and the community at large, as well
as students, teachers, and administrators. At each school, improvements were
both tangible (better attendance, more college admissions) and intangible (sub-
stantially higher morale). Foster was everywhere, pushing buttons and pulling
levers: Spencer quotes a reporter’s description of  Foster as “equally at home
swapping ‘freedom handshakes’ with teenage black militants and exchanging
scholarly quips with those who understand them” (137).
Foster adapted resourcefully to the cross-currents of  social and cultural
change created by black militancy and white reaction in the late 1960s. But while
tenaciously adhering to his middle way, he paid a heavy personal price, including
apparent heart and alcohol-related problems and family tensions. Still, he 
couldn’t resist a challenge: in 1970 he accepted Oakland’s offer to become super-
intendent, and in his all-too-brief  tenure there continued to walk the line
between liberalism and radicalism, refusing to be straitjacketed by ideology.
Then, on 6 November 1973, it was all over.
Spencer, despite his “deep admiration” for his subject, hardly claims
that Foster himself  could have changed the course of  educational history (304).
Instead, his valuable and well-written (albeit repetitive) book portrays Foster as
exemplifying the kind of  pragmatic, multi-faceted leadership needed to bring
meaningful reform to urban schools, a precursor to the approaches taken today
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:59 PM  Page 151
Book Reviews152
by leaders of  the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) and the Harlem
Children’s Zone. Today, more than ever, Spencer says, we need to realize that
schools cannot improve themselves by themselves, and that teachers and admin-
istrators alone cannot guarantee equal opportunity. We need to recognize, as
Foster did, the importance of  the “total school community.”
Luther Spoehr
Brown University
Rychetta Watkins, Black Power ,  Yel low Power ,  and the Making o f
Revolu ti onary Identi t i es (Jackson: University Press of  Mississippi, 2012).
Rychetta Watkins’ Black Power, Yellow Power, and the Making of  Revolutionary Identities
offers a cultural history of  African American and Asian American “indigeniza-
tion” of  anti-colonial politics from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.
Taking seriously the paradigm of  “power,” Watkins examines the politics of  self-
determination and self-representation among racialized groups in the U.S. as they
evoked and interpreted global decolonizing movements in the aftermath of
Bandung. Black Power, Yellow Power begins with a chapter on how African and
Asian American activists interpreted Franz Fanon’s writings. It then highlights
the importance of  the “guerilla” figure in defining the political, intellectual, and
cultural subjectivities of  black and Asian American activists, academics, and cul-
tural producers. Seeking to contribute to an emerging field of  Afro Asian stud-
ies, Watkins examines how African and Asian political influences and writings
inspired the imagination and shaped the subjectivity of  African Americans and
Asian Americans. In some instances, Watkins also examines how these racialized
groups politically inspired one another, although this mentorship mainly flowed
from African American instructors to Asian American political pupils.
Watkins is a literary and cultural studies scholar who is interested in the
historical emergence and transmission of  political ideas and subjectivities. Her
study raises intriguing interpretations and unearths important cross-racial and
transnational connections. However, not all of  the claims in the book are thor-
oughly developed, and the decision to focus on particular time periods, topics,
sources, and writers, is not always substantiated. 
For example, Watkins posits the period of  the mid-to-late 1960s to the
early 1980s as an era of  power politics. This chronology is only briefly defined
and justified. The period begins with Stokely Carmichael’s use of  the phrase
“black power,” and it ends with Elaine Brown stepping down as chair of  the
Black Panther Party. I appreciate Watkins’ efforts to conceptualize a “long” black
power political movement, but I wanted more evidence as to why this time peri-
od should be treated as a cohesive era. Aside from the publication dates of  the
works that Watkins is analyzing, what political developments were occurring to
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:59 PM  Page 152


John P. Spencer, In the Crossfire: Marcus Foster and the Troubled History of American School Reform (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012).

Ng, Samuel Galen

Trans Power! Sylvia Lee Rivera’s STAR and the Black Panther Party

Ricci, Amanda

Searching for Zion: Pan-African Feminist Thought and Practice in English-speaking Black Montreal (1967-1977)

Morgan, Bonnie

Left History 17.1 143
Au final, la publication se veut une bonne introduction pour quiconque
s’intéresse à l’histoire ouvrière canadienne. Espérions qu’elle saura susciter l’inté-
rêt des chercheurs pour cette célébration bien particulière.
Marc-André Gagnon
Université de Guelph
Roberta Buchanan, Anne Hart, and Bryan Green, The Woman Who
Mapped Labrador:  The Life  and Exped iti on  Diary  of  Mina Hubbard
(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).
Mina Benson Hubbard Ellis (1870-1956) was born on a Canadian farm, and
spent 10 years teaching school in Ontario before leaving Canada to study nursing
in New York. There she met and married American journalist and amateur
adventurer Leonidas Hubbard. Following Hubbard’s 1903 death in the Labrador
wilderness, Mina organized and led a Labrador expedition of  her own. With the
help of  George Elson and in direct competition with Dillon Wallace (both of
whom accompanied her husband in 1903), Mina successfully travelled by canoe
from North West River to Ungava Bay in the summer of  1905. The personal
diary and pioneering map of  the George and Naskapi Rivers she produced on
that trip are at the heart of  this valuable collaboration. Introduced and annotated
by Buchanan and Greene, the diary is entirely and carefully reproduced (includ-
ing original corrections and errors), showing respect for Mina’s voice. Hart treats
the reader to a well-researched biography of  its author, including her life after
1905. Combining primary document, secondary analysis, and biography makes
this work interesting for general readers, but also valuable for historians of
women’s experience, relations between First Nations peoples and those of
European decent, and middle-class encounters with “wilderness”. 
The volume opens with a series of  short essays placing the diary in a
context of  gender, class and race relations, geography and landscape, history and
biography. This material could have been strengthened through integration into a
single introductory essay exploring connections between various elements and
themes. The authors’ treatment of  the indigenous peoples, settlers, and land-
scape of  Labrador is commendable, demonstrating the degree to which place
shaped Mina’s life and consciousness. Greene compares Mina’s expedition with
that of  Wallace, contrasting personnel and encounter with the Labrador land-
scape: Mina’s largely Native crew was chosen for “experience in the bush,”
Wallace preferred middle-class white men of  “scientific expertise” (10). While
Wallace felt a “sense of  menace emanating from the land,” Mina, informed by
“Native values and sensitivities, rather than white paradigms” (as argued by
Greene) wrote with “increasing awareness of  beauty and harmony in the wilder-
ness around her” (11). Unfortunately, by suggesting this awareness came from
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 143
Book Reviews144
being “shielded” from hardship by her crew (rather than from her own aesthet-
ic), and by describing the journal as written “from the heart, not the head” while
downplaying its scientific value (46), Greene perpetuated the kind of  gender
stereotyping criticized elsewhere by Buchanan. Interestingly, while Mina benefit-
ted “from both race and class privilege” (28), her willingness, as employer and
expedition leader, to defer to Scots-Cree crewmember George Elson demon-
strated how gender could sometimes trump race and class. 
In terms of  introduction and context, some additional discussion of
the social and financial implications of  widowhood was needed to better under-
stand Mina’s motivations. Her use of  racial stereotypes in the published A
Woman’s Way through Unknown Labrador when her diary was “free from the worst
aspects of  the racial prejudices of  her day” (25), for example, may have been an
effort to boost sales and lecture bookings when she needed to be self-support-
ing. Mina’s rural upbringing also needed more attention. Studies of  rural
women’s experience suggest that traits the authors admired in Mina (her determi-
nation and practicality, her rejection of  middle-class social conventions and,
especially, her spiritual response to the Labrador landscape) were typical of
women from her background. While Mina’s rural roots are referenced, one is left
with an impression that being a “farm girl” was interpreted as a limitation to be
overcome rather than a key part of  her identity and character. Mina herself
never lost sight of  this, even after a socially and financially advantageous (if  per-
sonally disappointing) second marriage. Hart described how during the 1940s
English servant shortage an elderly Mina scrubbed the floor of  her large
London home, proclaiming, “I’m not a Canadian farmer’s daughter for nothing.”
(418). Readers may also want to explore recent work on the history of  tourism,
especially the urban middle-class American interest in “wilderness,” for insight
into expedition culture. 
The book seems disjointed at times, albeit with purpose. Along with the
lack of  integrated introduction, Hart’s biography is presented in two parts (pre-
and post-1905) with the text of  the diary sandwiched between. While flow may
be compromised, the gesture of  respect to Mina’s account of  that summer, and
the emphasis placed on the transformative nature of  her Labrador experience, is
worthwhile. The biography itself  is well written and engaging, clearly sympathet-
ic towards Mina without glossing over unappealing character traits such as intol-
erance and spite. In the end, we see Mina Hubbard as adventurer and survivor –
not only of  the Labrador wild – but also of  the social roles, expectations, and
limitations faced by a woman of  her time.
Bonnie Morgan
Memorial University of  Newfoundland
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 144


Roberta Buchanan, Anne Hart, and Bryan Green, The Woman Who Mapped Labrador: The Life and Expedition Diary of Mina Hubbard (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).

Lawrie, Paul R.D.

Left History 17.1 139
Jim Downs, Sick f rom Freedom:  Afri can Ameri can  Il lness  and Suf fer ing
Dur ing the Civi l  War and Reconstru cti on (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2012).
Viewed from our seemingly ‘post-racial’ present, the racial legacies of  war, eman-
cipation and reconstruction often seem little more than distant memories. Yet
the social, economic, political, and cultural effects of  these processes have
informed American society and political economy from the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury through to the present day. Historically this racial divide has been delineated
along the lines of  poverty, housing, crime, education and health. Racial inequality
– specifically inequality defined along a black white axis - is perhaps most evi-
dent when viewed through the lens of  health. Measured across a variety of  met-
rics from mortality, addiction, disease, obesity, access to care, black health (or ill
health) has long characterized America’s racial divide. From the colonial era to
the present, the health, vitality and very contours of  the American body politic –
fundamental questions of  political and economic citizenship and its various
rights and responsibilities have been inextricably tied to the racial politics of
health and the constitution of  the color line.
In Sick from Freedom, Jim Downs locates the modern origins of  the
nation’s racial health divide in African Americans’ fractious transition from slav-
ery to freedom during emancipation and reconstruction. Downs draws on a deep
and eclectic range of  archival sources from US Army medical reports, charitable
organizations, and the records of  the Freedman’s Bureau to craft a convincing
and deeply humane counter narrative to celebratory accounts of  emancipation,
citing it “not as a jubilee, but rather as a continuous process of  displacement,
deprivation and ultimately death” (21). For Downs, emancipation was not an end
but a beginning in African Americans’ long and tortuous transition from slavery
to freedom. This transition unleashed a host of  unintended and unexpected
health consequences on the unwitting freed people and authorities - such as the
Freedman’s Bureau - charged with negotiating these shifting circumstances.
Following emancipation, millions of  freed people - freed from the ostensibly
protective embrace of  the ‘peculiar institution’- found themselves thrust into the
uncertain and unhealthy landscape of  freedom, bereft of  even the modicum of
health benefits to which they had been accustomed under slavery. This process
was further complicated by the inevitable health crisis occasioned by all wars and
the sheer scope of  the Civil War in particular which Downs cites as one link in a
longer chain of  nineteenth-century pandemics unleashed by war, fledgling
national health agencies – such as the medical division of  the aforementioned
Freedman’s Bureau - and an ill-formed knowledge of  microbiology on the part
of  global health professionals. Mobility, evinced in the unprecedented transfer of
peoples, goods, and capital facilitated by advances in transportation technologies
on rail and by sea, was the primary factor in these harvests of  death. Amidst this
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 139
Book Reviews140
maelstrom of  disease and death freed people found themselves trapped within a
kind of  existentialist nightmare in which they were condemned to freedom,
seemingly free to forge a new world out of  the detritus of  the old but ultimately
constrained and beholden to biological, social, and economic forces entirely out
of  their control.
Downs situates the African American experience within a broader
transnational narrative – informed in part by studies of  slavery in the West
Indies - which posits emancipation as a process rather than a sharp break
between slavery and freedom. Viewed through the corporal framework of  health
the African American experience of  emancipation takes on a multi-faceted char-
acter, which defies much of  the prevailing temporal and or spatial historical
models. The broken and diseased black bodies of  the freed people bore the stig-
mata of  the nation’s titanic and tragic and ongoing attempt to reconcile the con-
tradictions of  racial capitalism and egalitarian democracy. Yet Downs anticipates
and militates against any potentially inchoate flights of  theoretical fancy by effec-
tively grounding his study in the cold realities of  post-Civil War political econo-
my. Throughout the book, Downs reiterates the connections between the respec-
tive imperatives of  labor and health for the era’s various actors and institutions:
the federal authorities of  the Freedman’s Bureau, southern ex-slaveholders, and
the freed people themselves. In short, a healthy race was a laboring race and the
health of  the freed people, not as human but as labor capital was of  paramount
importance to the aforementioned parties in the process of  emancipation.
Sick From Freedom is most effective when charting the social, cultural,
and political dynamics of  health as a function of  labor capital and racial dis-
course. Downs demonstrates how in the wake of  the postwar small pox epidem-
ic which ravaged the south and claimed the lives of  thousands of  freed people
from 1862-1868 – the inadequate response of  the Freedman’s Hospitals to estab-
lish effective quarantines and vaccinations - evinced a growing tendency amongst
elites to view social problems through biological lenses. Downs contends that by
turning a “biological crisis into a discourse about racial survival” the federal gov-
ernment did very little to address the real health concerns of  the freed people.
Subsequent chapters explore the linkages of  health and citizenship and the ways
in which the nebulous status of  the freed people often had fatal effects on their
health and access to health care. Ultimately, blacks’ status as labor units during
slavery continued through the processes of  emancipation and reconstruction,
but without the imperatives which drove their captors to provide a degree of
health care –however Spartan - as a means to protect their investment. Freed
people in a fledging postwar free market labor economy faced a double jeopardy
of  a legacy of  ill health and a yet-undefined status as republican free laborers.
Downs also addresses the gendered aspect of  this process arguing that the grad-
ual displacement of  freedwomen from the labor force was the most severe con-
sequence of  the development of  free labor ideology in the south. 
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 140
Left History 17.1 141
Yet perhaps the greatest strength of  this work is Downs’s vivid and
empathic historical imagination. Through a liberal but effective use of  anecdotal
examples, Downs is able to craft an engaging analytical narrative which reframes
the often overwhelming and opaque process of  war, emancipation, and recon-
struction in decidedly and often heartbreaking human terms. Though at times
this can run towards the sentimental, somewhat diluting the book’s analytical
heft, this is a minor flaw, rendered all the more insignificant by the author’s
impassioned, sharp, and nuanced analysis of  a key chapter in the American capi-
talism. Through an ingenious corporeal framework Downs demonstrates the
deep linkages between the American republican body politic and laboring black
body – both as a lived experience and a conduit for the production of  racial
knowledge. This is a connection that would only continue to deepen in the com-
ing century as African Americans made their first tentative forays into industrial
modernity. 
Paul R.D. Lawrie
University of  Winnipeg
Robin Folvik, Sean Carleton, and Mark Leier, May Day: A Graphi c
Histo ry  of  Prot es t (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2012).
Faire tenir en moins de 30 pages une histoire cohérente et compréhensive du 1er
mai est certainement un défi de taille. D’autant plus lorsque la forme retenue est
celle de la bande dessinée. Fruit d’un travail collaboratif  sous l’égide du Graphic
History Collective, les auteurs Robin Folvik, Sean Carleton, Mark Leier et les
illustrateurs Sam Bradd et Trevor McKilligan ont su produire une publication
autant accessible que visuellement attrayante. May Day: A Graphic History of
Protest se veut donc une œuvre inédite qui propose de faire une brève synthèse
historique de cette célébration en contexte canadien.
Appelant les lecteurs à se réapproprier le 1er mai afin de reconnaitre la
lutte continuelle des prolétaires pour leurs droits, leur légitimité, et leur respecta-
bilité, le collectif  livre un véritable plaidoyer pour la transmission de l’histoire
ouvrière dans le but de conserver vivante la tradition militante qui caractérise la
journée internationale des travailleurs (4). C’est d’ailleurs dans cette optique que
le choix de la bande dessinée fut retenu puisqu’elle s’inscrit dans une lignée de
publications similaires cherchant à amalgamer l’histoire, les arts graphiques et
l’activisme politique (5). 
Le lecteur trouvera en le feuilletant une trame narrative épisodique
exposant comment le développement des célébrations du 1er mai se fit en sym-
biose de l’apprentissage de la culture militante ouvrière. À ce propos, l’œuvre
rend bien compte de la centralité du dernier tiers du XIXe siècle dans l’élabora-
Quark 17_1 draft3_Left History.qxd  13-06-25  2:58 PM  Page 141


Not a member yet