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“The Conservative Party and Perceptions of the British Middle Classes, 1951 – 1974,” explores conceptions of middle-class voters at various levels of the party organization after the Second World War. Since Benjamin Disraeli, Conservatives have endeavoured to represent national rather than sectional interests and appeal widely to a growing electorate. Yet, the middle classes and their interests have also enjoyed a special position in the Conservative political imagination often because the group insists they receive special consideration. It proved especially difficult to juggle these priorities after 1951 when Conservatives encountered two colliding challenges: the middle classes growing at a rapid rate, failing to form a unified outlook or identity, and the limited appeal of consumer rhetoric and interests owing to the uneven experience of affluence and prosperity. Conservative ideas and policies failed to acknowledge and resonate with the changing nature of their core supporters and antiquated local party organization reinforced feelings of alienation from and mistrust of new members of the middle classes as well as affluent workers. This research shows that there was no clear-cut path between postwar Conservatism to Margaret Thatcher’s brand of Conservatism in which the individual, self-sufficient and acquisitive middle-class consumer became the champion. Moreover, the Conservative Party revealed, in these discussions, that it was much less ideologically certain than narratives have allowed previously.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Heathorn, Stephen, History.

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What kind of animal was a black bear? Were black bears primarily pests, pets, furbearers or game animals? Farmers, conservationists, tourists, trappers, and hunters in early twentieth-century Ontario could not agree. Even as the century progressed, ideas about bears remained twisted and there was often very little consensus about what the animal represented. These varying perceptions complicated the efforts of the provincial Department of Game and Fisheries and its successor agencies, the Department of Lands and Forests and the Ministry of Natural Resources, to develop coherent bear management policies. Perceptions about black bears often conflicted and competed with one another and at no one time did they have a single meaning in Ontario. The image of Ontario’s black bears has been continuously negotiated as human values, attitudes, and policies have changed over time. As a result, because of various and often competing perspectives, the province’s bear management program, for most of the twentieth century, was very loose and haphazard because the animal had never been uniformly defined or valued. Examining the history of these ambiguous viewpoints towards the black bear in Ontario provides us with a snapshot of how culture intersects with our natural resources and may pose challenges for management.

Dissertation

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Cruikshank, Ken, History.

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The following dissertation examines the history of general hospitals in modern, central and western Canada. It follows extensive case studies of the Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver general hospitals. The last few decades have seen an expanded interest in hospitals by Canadian medical historians, but the overall literature is thin. Further, many of the extant histories focus on a particular constituent: the medical profession, administrators, or architects. In this dissertation I argue that these general hospitals were contested spaces, and that their organization and layout reflected negotiation between several parties. A further important vector is the role hospitals played in the social life of their communities. As these general hospitals grew, and began treating middle-class patients, they also required large sums of money from the public purse. Administrators had to account for the shape and use of medical space to the general public that helped finance it, as they did to the doctors who worked there. During the period 1880-1945 general hospitals moved from the periphery of medical care to the centre, but not without substantial growing pains. These institutions routinely lacked funds and space, and remained in operation as much through the efforts of medical professionals as by concerned citizens. After the Second World War the Federal Government shifted from a standoffish institution to one ready to release funds and administrative energies towards new ideals of social welfare. Funding increased dramatically for the building of new hospitals, and legislative developments such as Medicare transformed the social and political relationship between hospitals and patients.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation began with the question: why do our general hospitals look the way that they do? It goes on to examine the ways in which multiple actors, including many non-medical ones such as local citizens, city councils, architects, and patients, interfaced with administrators and doctors to establish and build general hospitals in four Canadian cities. The core argument is that these were contested spaces, which reflected the communities in which they existed.

Advisors/Committee Members: Weaver, John, History.

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This thesis examines the safety policies implemented by three British Columbia forestry companies between 1943 and 1968. Companies sought to increase the efficiency of their operations by reducing the number of compensable accidents and fatalities among their workers. These companies, along with other member-companies in the BC Loggers Association and BC Lumber Manufacturers Association, took the lead in creating a safety regime in BC’s coastal forest industry, but were joined in the endeavor by the provincial Workmen’s Compensation Board (WCB) and the forest workers’ union, the International Woodworkers of America. In order to obtain worker consent for new safety programs, companies targeted worker’s masculinity. Workers who had seen themselves as following in the footsteps of the rugged and independent Paul Bunyan were a problem for companies who wanted to create a sense of mutual responsibility for safety across their entire workforce. Safety programs, accordingly, were heavily gendered and promoted a white, hetero-patriarchal masculinity. This masculine ideal was intended to reduce worker’s willingness to take unnecessary risks. In the later years of this study, companies obtained greater control over the work process by introducing tight controls over the work process in the name of safety. Overall, efforts by companies, as well as the union and the WCB, were successful in reducing many of the hazards of working in forestry by the later 1960s. However, many of the dangers in this industry persist into the twenty-first century.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis looks at the safety policies implemented by three British Columbia forestry companies between 1943 and 1968. Companies sought to increase the efficiency of their operations by reducing the number of compensable accidents and fatalities among their workers. They took the lead in creating a safety regime in forestry, but were joined in the endeavor by the provincial Workmen’s Compensation Board (WCB) and the forest workers’ union, the International Woodworkers of America. Safety programs were heavily gendered, with companies promoting a hetero-patriarchal masculinity in an attempt to reduce worker’s risk-taking. Efforts by companies, as well as the union and the WCB, were successful in reducing many of the hazards of working in forestry. However, many of the dangers in this industry persist into the twenty-first century.

Advisors/Committee Members: Frager, Ruth, History.

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This dissertation examines the origins and development of the cheese industry in rural Ontario between the 1860s and 1930s from the perspective of environmental history. Scholars have generally accepted contemporary beliefs that cheese was a “natural industry of this country” and that its growth was cooperative and inevitable. This dissertation tests these claims by comparing the rhetoric and actions of the rural elite and state officials against the human and extra-human work involved in manufacturing cheese for export, a method that has yielded new interpretations about the character and development of the industry. I build on James Murton’s concept of “alternative rural modernity” to argue that rural cheese manufacturing was a project of rural reform encouraged by elite ‘dairy reformers,’ rather than a natural development. Reformers believed cheese factories could support the social, economic and environmental stability of rural society indefinitely. Through cheese, they sought to create a society that was liberal and capitalist, but also cooperative and stable. They also believed that dairying would restore fertility to the region’s soils. In practice, however, their results were mixed. Although cheese became one of the province’s most significant export-oriented industries, transformed the environment, and deepened liberal values amongst rural people, it failed to deliver the alternative rural modernity reformers had envisioned. I provide two reasons why. First, the reformers’ mechanistic vision could not contend with the complexity and unpredictability of the socio-ecological world they sought to control. Second, the industry could not withstand the pressures of the emerging global capitalist food system and, ironically, facilitated the rise of ‘Big Dairy’ after the First World War, which hastened the industry’s demise. Overall, this dissertation emphasizes the dynamism of rural Ontario, contributes to an environmental history of liberal order in Canada, and contextualizes the resurgence of craft-based rural development in the twenty-first century.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation examines the origins and development of the factory cheese industry in rural Ontario between the 1860s and 1930s. I challenge the belief that cheese manufacturing was a “natural industry of this country” whose development was cooperative and inevitable. Instead I argue that the industry was a deliberate project of rural reform encouraged by elite ‘dairy reformers’ who believed cheese factories could sustain the social, economic, and environmental progress of rural society indefinitely. The industry failed to deliver all the reformers promised, even though it became one of the province’s most significant export-oriented industries by the early-twentieth century and transformed the environment and rural society in the process. Rural people and the environment behaved in more complicated ways than reformers anticipated, and the changing capitalist economy made the industry’s long-term success untenable. This…

Advisors/Committee Members: Egan, Michael, History.

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From the 1850s Glasgow was a major industrial, commercial and mercantile city, with notoriously poor working-class housing. During the 1915 Rent Strike many women physically resisted rent increases and prevented evictions from the tenements. The strikes ended when the Government passed the Rent Restrictions Act 1915, which returned rents to pre-war levels. This was in response to a political and working-class struggle that challenged the rule of law. Rather than focussing narrowly on the role of the women alone, or on the strike as inspiration for anti-capitalist resistance, the 2015 Centenary seemed opportune to examine why the Rent Strike was successful, its place in the longer struggle for decent housing, the role of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and its leaders, and their collaborations with labour and women’s organisations. From the 1890s the ILP was central to labour’s campaign in elections and in fostering political collaboration with many groups representing labour. John Wheatley and Patrick Dollan, former miners, were leaders in strengthening the ILP organisation and its community relations. This collaborative structure supported the women leading the rent resistance in the tenements. It was also the platform for Wheatley and Dollan, nationally and municipally, to continue their life-long work to improve the housing and living standards of working people. Wheatley became Minister of Health in 1924 in Britain’s first Labour Government, and Dollan was Lord Provost in Glasgow’s first majority Labour Council in 1938. Glasgow’s systemic anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudice has, surprisingly, remained unexamined in relation to the Rent Strike. Two historians claimed, without presenting evidence, that bigotry was overcome or briefly transcended. The evidence reviewed here indicated that it did not go away, but that it had no impact on the Rent Strike as it simply offered no stimulus or opportunity to express the existing racist or religious prejudice.

Thesis

Master of Arts (MA)

Glasgow, with notoriously poor working-class housing, was a major centre in 1915 for British engineering, munitions and shipbuilding industries during the First World War. Women who lived in Glasgow’s tenements organised rent strikes and physically resisted rent increases and evictions. They were supported by the Independent Labour Party and the collaborations it developed before and during the war with organisations representing the interests of women and labour. These strikes, the rent agitations in England, and the threat of industrial action in Glasgow, forced the Government to pass the Rent Restrictions Act 1915, which limited rents to pre-war levels. Two former miners, John Wheatley and Patrick Dollan, were leaders in organising this class victory. They recognised the Act’s limitations and then worked nationally and municipally in the longer struggle for better working-class housing. Glasgow’s systemic anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry did not disappear but played no…

Advisors/Committee Members: Heathorn, Stephen, History.

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In 1919, the Bolshevik Party of Russia formed the Communist International (Comintern) to lead the international communist movement. As part of its efforts, it maintained a strong commitment to supporting colonial liberation, self-determination of nations, and racial equality. Many scholars of the Comintern and the Soviet Union assume that Moscow demanded firm discipline of all member parties and these parties largely followed its lead. But the Comintern was not as monolithic as is often presumed. Colonial affairs frequently were overlooked and European Communist Parties often skirted their commitment to supporting their colonial counterparts. Individual communists took it upon themselves to promote anti-imperialism or racial equality, but their efforts were frequently hampered by the tactical shifts of the Comintern and eventually, the erosion of Moscow’s interest. Frequently, the prioritization of certain issues in the Comintern proved to be the most important factor in determining Comintern interference in member parties. This dissertation includes the first comparative analysis of the Communist Parties of South Africa, Canada and Australia on issues of anti-imperialism, nationality, and race. In comparing these parties, this study explores the limits of Moscow’s control of other Communist Parties, while detailing the similarities and differences in the efforts of these three parties to combat imperialism, support colonial liberation, and fight for national rights and racial equality. This dissertation is the first to detail the Canadian and Australian communism’s efforts, sometimes on their own initiative, on anti-imperialism, nationality and racial equality during the interwar period, to provide new conclusions about Comintern intervention in South Africa, and to highlight the prioritization of the Comintern as each party sees Moscow’s intervention on these issues to very different degrees.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In 1919, the Bolshevik Party of Russia created the Communist International, an organization to lead communist parties throughout the world. Through this body, the Bolsheviks and international communists promoted colonial liberation, racial equality, and self-determination of nations. This dissertation uses the examples of the Communist Parties of South Africa, Canada, and Australia to show that each party dealt with these issues differently, saw different levels of intervention from the Communist International, and the severity of this intervention is directly tied to the priorities of the Soviet Union and the Communist International. Also included in this study is a comparative analysis of the tactics of all three parties, including the efforts of individual communists in each nation in developing platforms unique to the local conditions they were facing.

Advisors/Committee Members: McDonald, Tracy, History.

▼ Placing coffee at the centre of its analysis, this dissertation reveals the intersections between consumption, culture, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR)’s involvement in the developing world. State planners took steps to promote coffee as a good consumed not only for its value as a stimulant but also for enjoyment. Enjoying a warm cup of coffee represented East Germans’ participation in socialist society, and in a global coffee culture. Moreover, by adopting and weaving the older ideals and traditions associated with coffee into its messages of a bright socialist future based on modernity, progress and culture, the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) used coffee as part of its long-term goals of reforming society along socialist lines. When a major frost destroyed two thirds of Brazil’s coffee trees in July 1975, causing world prices to quadruple by 1977, GDR planners faced a genuine ‘Coffee Crisis’ that challenged the state’s political well-being. The regime replaced the most affordable brand ‘Kosta’ with ‘Kaffee-Mix,’ a blend of 51 per cent coffee and 49 per cent surrogate. Vehement public rejection of the replacement necessitated the hasty conclusion of new trade deals to solve the supply problem, deals which brought the GDR into contact with the developing world in ways it had not anticipated. This project considers four case studies – the GDR’s coffee deals with Angola, Ethiopia, Laos and Vietnam, and I argue that these coffee deals reveal as much about the GDR’s engagements with the global south as they do about its own self-image as a modern state in a divided, yet globalizing world. The GDR consciously approached these relationships as an industrially developed nation needing to ‘guide’ these newly independent states toward (a socialist) modernisation. Furthermore, these trade agreements reveal the balance between pragmatism and ideology which characterized the GDR’s pursuit of coffee; ideology often informed state representatives and framed the negotiations, but pragmatic concerns generally found primacy throughout the process. The GDR invested heavily in these developing countries’ coffee industries, sending technical equipment, along with agricultural and technical experts to help these countries meet East Germans’ import needs. In Angola and Ethiopia, the GDR provided weapons for coffee, while contracts with Laos and Vietnam led to lengthy development projects to ‘modernize’ each country’s coffee industry. This investment in turn helped change the balance of the world coffee trade; the most striking example of this process was the explosion of the Vietnamese coffee industry through the 1980s, which ultimately made Vietnam the world’s second largest producer of coffee next to Brazil. The need for coffee in the GDR, then, sparked a specific expansion of its involvement in the Global South, a process that complicates scholars’ positioning of the GDR within international relations. The example of coffee and the trade agreements it spurred suggests the need to move beyond questions about the… Advisors/Committee Members: Swett, Pamela, History.

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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the provincial system for administering justice in rural Ontario was criticized in the press and by some local justice officials in the counties. Criticisms were in response to apparent moments of criminal crisis. The public learned about the crimes of violent groups and gangs mainly through the press. There were stories of sensational property crime, violent attempts at social control, and more rarely, vigilantism. Ontario, however, appeared to be a peaceable province, which moderated calls for improvement in the system. The slow pace of reform, and evidence of a system that functioned well under most circumstances, suggests that the province had only marginal interest in reform. An antiquated system of rural constables was useful to critics advocating reform. In some cases however, the local knowledge of the county constable complimented the investigative strength of the provincial detectives. The rise of the Ontario Provincial Police in the 1910s and 1920s promised a change for the better, but the force was not designed to meet the needs of rural Ontarians, and did not take over rural policing until 1929. The challenges faced by the force in its early years, as well as issues of performance, leaves open for consideration the extent to which crime management in rural Ontario actually improved.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Cruikshank, Ken, History.

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“From Wilhelm to Hans: Ethnicity, Citizenship, and the German Community of Berlin/Kitchener, Ontario, 1871-1970s,” examines how the ethnic elite, a group of politicians, businessmen, professionals, and leaders of cultural organizations defined German ethnicity. It argues that claiming a place for Germans as loyal Canadian citizens was central to how the ethnic elite defined German ethnicity. The ethnic elite, however, did not define German ethnicity in isolation. Rather, German ethnic identity was arrived at through the interaction between the ethnic group and the host society. In forums such as public celebrations, newspaper debates, politics, and business, immigrants and established Canadians negotiated their respective identities and their relationship to one another. This relationship was shaped by factors such as the two World Wars, Canada’s relationship with Britain, and Canadians’ changing attitudes towards race and racism. German ethnicity, therefore, was not a static inheritance from the Old World. It was dynamic, continually being contested, negotiated, and redefined. Recently historians have looked to ethnic group identities to locate the origins of Canada’s multicultural identity. By studying German ethnicity through the lens of citizenship, however, this dissertation demonstrates that multicultural citizenship was not the inevitable result of immigration and ethnic diversity. To seek a place for Germans as Canadian citizens, the ethnic elite’s definition of German ethnicity was premised on the exclusion of others who did not fit the class, gender, or religious distinctions of Canadian citizenship. Furthermore, throughout the period under study, Anglo-Canadian critics challenged the place of Germans as Canadian citizens. At times, these critics were only a small minority, but there were others, such as the First World War, when the rights of Germans as Canadian citizens were challenged more broadly. Thus, the acceptance of Germans as Canadian citizens was always contingent and never fully settled.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Frager, Ruth, History.

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In this study I examine the two major cosmetic categories - products for skin and products for hair - aimed at frican American women and advertised within the black press between 1920 and 1960. Specifically, I examine the Chicago Defender, Afro-American, Plaindealer, and Ebony. My project analyzes the images and conceptions of blackness and beauty sold to women of colour by white-owned and black-owned cosmetics companies.  I explore the larger racial and social hierarchies these advertising images and messages maintained or destabilized. A central theme of this project has been tracing the differences in advertising messages and conceptions of beauty communicated by black-owned and white-owned companies. Many of the images and much of the advertising copy produced by black-owned cosmetic companies challenged hegemonic beauty ideals that venerated white beauty and sold white idealization as a norm. The black cosmetic industry, however, was dominated by white-owned companies. The dominant position of white-owned companies was linked to the advantages associated with whiteness, which allowed these companies to advertise with greater frequency throughout the forty-year period. White-owned and black-owned companies often pursued diverging advertising strategies and messaging about black beauty. An important finding of the project is that white-owned companies were more likely to use degrading language and stereotypes to describe black beauty in their advertisements. However, a company’s racial identity did not always determine advertising strategies or messaging about black beauty. An important concept that permeated the 1920s and 1930s was the strategy of racial uplift, which was promoted by several black-owned companies. This strategy tapered out by the1940s as new technologies like photography regularly depicted black women with dignity and accuracy. The 1940s and 1950s witnessed new advertising strategies including the appeal to glamour. This period also saw the introduction of Ebony magazine, which fundamentally altered advertising messages through their appeal to middle class sensibilities.

Thesis

Master of Arts (MA)

My project analyzes skin bleaching and hair straightening advertisements appearing in four black-owned periodicals between 1920-1960: Chicago Defender, Afro-American, Plaindealer, and Ebony. The main goal has been to document the advertising messages about blackness and beauty communicated to black women through the advertisements of black-owned and white-owned cosmetic companies. I explore the larger racial and social hierarchies these advertising images and messages maintained or destabilized. A major finding of this project has been that advertising messages usually, but not always, diverged along racial lines. White-owned companies were more likely to use denigrating language to describe black hair and skin, and more likely to measure the beauty of black women based on how closely they approximated whiteness. Black-owned companies tended to challenge this ideology. They used messages about…

Advisors/Committee Members: Balcom, Karen, History.

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This project is about the visual ways people represent the nonhuman world, and the struggles over its meaning. It is the story of how the Canadian government used the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) to manufacture and sustain a national identity that was defined by its encounters with nature, and how those definitions morphed over time. The NFB was established in 1939 by the federal government. It was to be the eyes and ears of Canada, a way for Canadians to experience the nation. As a cultural institution supported by the state, the NFB is fertile ground for an examination of state discourses about nature. In particular, I analyze NFB films as vehicles for the Canadian government’s long-running nation-building project. Between 1939 and 1974, NFB filmmakers aligned their representations of nature with the views of the government. They imagined nature as a unifying symbol of national identity and as an object to be surveyed, rationalized and exploited by government institutions. Utilitarian narratives about natural resources and wilderness management served other ideological motives too. Specifically, NFB films about nature in the postwar period privileged a high modern way of seeing the environment. This project also seeks to discern instances of ideological conflict between filmmakers and official “environmental” viewpoints, where government strategies are questioned, ridiculed or reformulated in the films themselves. Although the NFB is a product of state policy as well as an interpreter of it, it was also actively involved in producing grass-roots narratives about the environment. The NFB’s directive to “interpret Canada to Canadians” unwittingly created opportunities for independent filmmakers to share their own visions of nature that often diverged from the state. This project therefore investigates moments where filmmakers used the camera as an apparatus of reflection to challenge and subvert state modes of thinking.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) was established and financed by the federal government to be the “eyes of Canada.” It is therefore a valuable site in which to examine, among other things, how the state defined the limits and uses of nature. While NFB discourses about the environment often mirrored state ideology, they also reflected alternative voices and perspectives. Filmmakers made documentaries within the NFB production system that challenged, questioned, or even ridiculed state ideology. In other words, nature was not only imagined as a national resource to be exploited and controlled through technology and science, it was also envisioned as something to be appreciated for its ecological diversity and its wildness.

Advisors/Committee Members: Egan, Michael, History.

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The discovery of gold at Porcupine Lake in 1909 brought a well-practiced era of ecological change to northern Ontario. By the early twentieth century gold rushes followed predictable patterns. Deforestation, soil depletion, water-shed modification, rapid immigration, transient populations, “get-rich-quick” ambitions, conflicts with Indigenous people, major fires, and hasty infrastructure development characterized multiple rushes in Africa, the Americas, and Australasia. In the aftermath of the nineteenth century mining booms, the 1909 Porcupine rush brought global gold mining knowledge and technology to northern Canada. At Porcupine, experiments in industrial extraction matured into a set of efficient methods for large-scale corporate extraction of low-grade gold. Although historians traditionally frame gold rushes as national or regional events, Porcupine shows how borders were permeable to people, objects, and ideas moving between mining zones to shape local environmental history. Porcupine’s gold-bearing landscape became a site of convergent historical forces between 1909 and 1929. The rush brought northern Ontario into an international community of mining frontiers at a moment of development in the province’s northern hinterland. Local conditions (such as climate and geology) worked together with transnational networks to shape the land and its communities. Industrial mining also created problems including fires, droughts, and industrial disease. By 1929, Porcupine had become a major player in the global industrial mining industry. The Porcupine rush set the stage for twenty-first century dominance in international gold economy and laid the groundwork for Canada’s modern relationship with nature.

Dissertation

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation argues that international forces shaped local environmental history in the gold mining district of Porcupine, northern Ontario, between 1909 and 1929. During these years, Canadian mining transformed from a relatively small extractive economy into a large-scale industrial one  – with a host of associated social and environmental consequences. The geological, climatic, and cultural characteristics of the Canadian Shield environment created significant challenges (including fires, floods, rock-falls, pollution, use conflicts, and disease) which required adaptation from the industry’s stakeholders. People solved environmental problems by relying on support from transnational gold mining networks of investors, managers, prospectors, geologists, prospectors, miners, communities, and governments. As a result, Porcupine’s environmental history was shaped by the convergent forces of its gold-bearing geology, an international context, and local Canadian history. Largely complete by 1929, the legacy of Porcupine’s environmental history lives on in the power of Canada’s international mining industry on modern extractive frontiers.

Advisors/Committee Members: Egan, Michael, History.

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This dissertation asks why the system of time measurement set up towards the end of the nineteenth century took the form that it did. The answer is partially dependant on the advent of new technologies such as railways, steamships, and telegraphs. However, instead of focusing on a teleological story of technological progress, this dissertation derives its answer by examining the social, political, and cultural context of the individuals involved. The dissertation uses the 1884 International Meridian Conference as a case study to suggest that time reform was driven by professional context more than by technological imperatives or national interest. Astronomers and engineers came to the conference with very different visions for modern timekeeping. Using a constructivist lens, this dissertation examines the decision-laden process by which temporal knowledge was constructed. Questions about the very nature of accurate time was at the heart of the debate: was time a public good, a commodity, or a specialized tool? The answers to these questions depended heavily on one’s profession, and as a result the conference, directed by astronomers who preferred time as a specialized tool, rejected standard time as a broad reformation of civil timekeeping for the public. The process of construction continued after the conference as well, as the universality of standard time became wrapped up with the heightened accuracy required by specialized astronomical time. Entrepreneurs latched on to this, selling accurate time as a desirable symbol of modernity, while at the same time large numbers of people continued to use older timekeeping methods that were more convenient. New timekeeping methods did not sweep aside the old, leaving timekeeping a more complex, rather than a simplified, process. The standard time system which emerged from this complexity was far from inevitable, and in fact remained largely incomplete.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation asks why the system of time measurement set up towards the end of the nineteenth century took the form that it did. While partially dependent on new technologies such as railways and telegraphs, timekeeping was shaped more directly by the cultural context of the individuals involved. The dissertation uses the 1884 International Meridian Conference as a case study to suggest that time reform was driven by professional norms more than by national interest or changes in technology. Astronomers and engineers came to the conference with very different visions for modern timekeeping. Indeed, questions about the very nature of accurate time was at the heart of the debate: was time a public good, a commodity, or a specialized tool? The answers to these questions depended heavily on one’s profession, and as a result the standard time system that emerged was far from inevitable, and in fact remained incomplete.

Advisors/Committee Members: Heathorn, Stephen, History.

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This dissertation contributes to literature on postwar philanthropy and the Franco-American relationship. It examines the private voluntary relief organization, American Aid to France (AAF), which provided emergency supplies, rehabilitative services, and assisted in the reconstruction of France following the Second World War. Unlike other devastated European countries, Charles de Gaulle did not invite the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to host a program, which limited France’s participation in the transnational relief movement of the immediate postwar period and allowed AAF to become the principal foreign private voluntary aid agency operating in Liberated France. From 1944 to 1956, AAF asserted that its assistance reflected the strength of the Franco-American alliance, and kinship felt between two countries with a shared history of liberal revolution and republicanism. AAF’s statements expressing “goodwill” and “historical friendship” towards France rapidly began to assume a more political tone as Cold War tensions intensified. From 1947 onward, AAF became increasingly outspoken in its support for capitalism, democracy, and international cooperation. These statements were crafted for, and appealed to, U.S. authorities who believed France was the key to containing communism in Europe. In reality, AAF’s main concern was redressing the destruction of Normandy caused by Allied bombing campaigns, and the organization showed no hesitation to work with mayors from across the political spectrum in devastated French communities to achieve this goal. AAF’s private voluntary status shielded the organization from French criticisms of Americanization chiefly aimed at the Marshall Plan. This dissertation demonstrates that AAF was part of an independent, robust private voluntary relief sphere that contributed to Europe’s recovery, and helped citizens in the United States and France come to terms with the transition from war to peace.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation contributes to literature on postwar philanthropy and Franco-American relations. It examines American Aid to France (AAF), one of hundreds of U.S. private voluntary relief organizations founded during the Second World War to help devastated civilians. Operating from 1944 to 1956, AAF’s efforts to provide emergency supplies, rehabilitative services, and assist in the reconstruction of Liberated France was a significant private affirmation of the Franco-American alliance during a period of increasingly tense international relations. Private voluntary relief organizations have been overlooked in scholarship in favour of larger agencies such as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), which has resulted in a considerable emphasis on transnationalism in the literature on postwar relief. Examining Franco-American relations through the prism of AAF’s relief reveals that a dynamic alternative network of private assistance, which operated firmly outside of the transnational relief movement,…

Advisors/Committee Members: Horn, Martin, History.

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This dissertation examines the Ottoman grand strategy during the turbulent years of war and reform between 1826 and 1841.The concept of grand strategy utilized in my thesis does hereby not refer to purely military matters. It is rather a notion that explains how a political authority strives to realize its long-term aims through mobilization of its available instruments and resources. During 1820s-1840s, facing grave internal and external threats, the Ottoman grand strategy was directed at defending its existing possessions and re-establishing the center’s authority throughout the empire. To ensure their aims, Ottoman decision-makers initiated a radical bureaucratic-military reform agenda and mobilized available fiscal, military and ideological resources at their disposal. The majority of the existing scholarship tend to interpret the Ottoman reforms in an overly descriptive or superficial manner, therefore neglecting the Ottoman decision-makers’ perceptions, plans, and broader goals as well as the subsequent effects (and repercussions) of those policies within the empire. The “Eastern Question” literature, which is mainly based on European sources, often ignores the Ottoman agency and obscures the rather complex nature of Ottoman policy-making by assessing it within a facile “modernist-reactionary” bipolarity for the period in question. With my holistic approach and utilization of unused archival material, I will contribute to the existing knowledge about Ottoman policy-making and political-military transformation during the era in question. I argue in my thesis that the imperial center consciously, if frantically, responded to the internal and external challenges by tightening its grip around its subjects and making far-reaching changes in its governmentality. Aided by an expanding and diversifying military-administrative bureaucracy, Ottoman rulers managed to collect more taxes, create and expand a disciplined army, limit the power of provincial notables, standardize governing practices and pragmatically used their newly established European embassies to achieve their foreign goals. The social and economic costs of these policies were also immense, as I clearly underline in my study. Many common subjects and members of the higher classes expressed neither optimism nor pleasure about the top-down reforms and state policies. They were heavily taxed, suffered from rampant inflation, while tens of thousands of men were pressed into the new military formations to serve until they became disabled, deserted or died.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Grounded in archival research in Turkish historical repositories, this thesis examines the Ottoman ruling elite’s efforts to ensure the empire’s integrity and re-establish central authority by military-bureaucratic reform and internal negotiation in the second quarter of the 19th century. Going beyond the standard institutional histories and Eurocentric narratives of the Eastern Question, it explores how the Ottoman sultans and bureaucrats mobilized the…

Advisors/Committee Members: Aksan, Virginia H., History.

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Title: Healing the 'African Body' in the Age of Abolition? British Medicine in West Africa, circa 1800-1860, Author: John Rankin, Location: Mills

This investigation provides an in-depth examination of British and African interactions in British West Africa within the field of health and medicine, circa 1800- 1860. It examines how Britons perceived, created, and understood Africans and their bodies during a period of extensive and significant change. This assists our understanding of one of the historical roots of racialized medicine, provide insight into British perceptions of and interaction with overseas peoples, and illuminates how Britons developed or expanded notions about Africans, their bodies, and their health during a relatively neglected period for relevant scholarship. It also examines African responses to European medicine in a variety of contexts. In order to gain a clearer understanding of the intersection of race and medicine during this period, the study examines how leading theorists of race formulated and constructed the African body, explores how missionaries from the Church Missionary Society and Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society understood health and medicine, examines the British medical system established in West Africa and particularly the ways in which it handled the care of liberated Africans, and studies the health of European and African personnel in the armed forces stationed in West Africa. The thesis emphasizes the multiplicity both in forms of medical practice and in approach to ' the African body. '

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Alsop, James D., History.

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The historiography surrounding the Irish in Canada has generally adopted an American framework that has equated Irishness with Catholicism, thereby creating a very one dimensional picture of what it meant to be Irish in nineteenth century 'Amerikey'. Although historians have shown that the greatest emigrant outpouring for this period was not only an Irish one, but also a Protestant one, relatively little has been done to understand that group on its own terms. Where solid work does exist on Irish Protestant groups in Canada, rarely does one hear them speak in their own words. Rather, where and how quickly they settled, the singular importance of kin networks and the peculiarity of certain institutions is detailed. Little has been done with respect to understanding Irish Protestant identity: how they viewed their new world upon arrival and more importantly, how they would now and later view themselves. Indeed, the question 'Whatever Happened to the Irish?' was answered: Irish Protestants despite the strength of their numbers and their institutions, simply acculturated willingly and quickly into a larger, more encompassing 'British' identity. The assumption has followed that Irish Protestants were never very Irish in the first place. On the contrary, this thesis argues that far from simply fading away, a recognizably Irish Protestant culture - one that identified itself as the Irish nation - overcame early nineteenth century prejudice against 'things Irish' and eventually came to predominate many a local landscape in Ontario. Relying heavily on emigrant letters, this thesis emphasizes an Irish Protestant discourse that enjoyed a distinction and longevity that has yet to be recognized. It also maintains that Irish Catholicism was an integral component to the expression of that identity. Irish Protestants in Ontario remained distinctively Irish for a period longer than their countrymen in Ontario and their co-religionists in the homeland.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Gauvreau, Michael, History.

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This study explores the relationship between soccer and Toronto’s Italian immigrants throughout the 1970s to the now-mythical 1982 celebration of the Italian team’s FIFA World Cup victory on Toronto’s Corso Italia. The celebration’s location in a distinctly ethnic neighbourhood is linked to concepts of ‘place’ and ‘identity’ which made it central to the construction of an Italian-Canadian identity during the era of Multiculturalism policies. Toronto’s Italian-Canadians used the victory as a way of recognizing their own worth to society and to proudly and publicly solidify their integration into the Canadian multicultural landscape. Soccer helped them create and maintain a multi-dimensional transnational identity that reinforced the importance of their ethnic community. It also provided them with a visual way to relate to the nation. This study shows that this nationalism transcended traditional gender constraints and transformed this sport victory celebration into a family event, which included males and females alike. Eighteen interviews of Italian-Canadians who lived in and around the Toronto area throughout the 1970s and early 1980s reveal what they remember about the soccer-related events of that time period and how they feel about those memories now. This study also examines various Italian, Italian-Canadian, and English-language Canadian newspapers that covered specific sporting events and celebrations from 1978 to 1983, with a particular focus on the 1982 World Cup. It argues that in this case a collective memory has been created and conditioned by the way the media portrayed the event and how Toronto’s Italian-Canadian cultural community sustained it.

Master of Arts (MA)

Advisors/Committee Members: Bouchier, Nancy, History.

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In Canada, as in the United States, cities seemed to many to be in complete disarray in the 1960s. Growing populations and the resultant increased demands for housing fed rapid suburban sprawl, creating a postwar burst of urban and suburban planning as consultants were hired in city after city to address the challenges of the postwar era. During this period expressway proposals sparked controversy in urban centres across the developed world, including every major city in Canada, namely Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montréal and Halifax. Residents objected to postwar autocentric planning designed to encourage and promote the continued growth of city centres. Frustrated by unresponsive politicians and civic officials, citizen activists challenged authorities with an alternate vision for cities that prioritized the safeguarding of the urban environment through the preservation of communities, the prevention of environmental degradation, and the promotion of public transit. As opponents recognized the necessity of moving beyond grassroots activism to established legal and government channels to fight expressways, their protests were buoyed by the rapidly rising costs that plagued the schemes. By the latter half of the 1960s, many politicians and civil servants had joined the objectors. Growing concerns over the many costs of expressways  – financial, social, environmental, and eventually, political  – resulted in the defeat of numerous expressway networks, but most were qualified victories with mixed legacies. Expressway disputes were an instrumental part of a wider struggle to define urban modernity, a struggle that challenged the basis of politicians and civil servants power by questioning their legitimacy as elected leaders and uniquely qualified experts, respectively. The subsequent emergence of urban reform groups that sought to change the direction of city development by challenging the autocratic municipal bureaucracies was the direct legacy of expressway and other development battles. Despite this, autocentric planning continued and demands for greater citizen participation did not result in significant changes to the form and function of municipal governments.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Weaver, John, History.

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This dissertation explores the role of religion in the origins of the Cold War from 1880 to 1948. Building on David Foglesong’s research into the role of religion in shaping American missionaries, businesspeople, and public intellectuals’ perceptions of Russia, as well as Andrew Preston’s insights into the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration’s use of religious tropes to justify intervention against Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945, this project focuses on the White House and US State Department’s efforts to manage diplomatic tensions and public controversies surrounding religious repression in Russia during the origins of the Cold War from 1880 to 1948. The central finding of this project is that during the period from 1933 to 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his personal allies such as Joseph Davies sought to minimize popular and official criticisms of Soviet religious policies as a part of Roosevelt’s program of pragmatic cooperation with the USSR. Eventually, anti-communist officials in the State Department managed to undermine Roosevelt’s public relations program in order to justify a more confrontational approach to the Soviet regime. Roosevelt’s poor health, growing personal isolation, and neglect of personal relationships with American Catholic leaders after 1943, as well as his failure to create a bureaucracy committed to his vision of post-war cooperation, meant that after his death religion could be used by anti-communists in their campaign to denigrate the Soviet Union. To gain popular support for its containment and roll-back strategies, the Truman administration called for a worldwide Christian crusade to eradicate atheistic communism. By shedding light on how well the Roosevelt administration was able to overcome US-Russian religious tensions, this project supports the “missed opportunities” thesis that the Cold War was not inevitable. It also stands as an example of a growing body of scholarly research linking religion, diplomacy, and US foreign relations.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Streeter, Stephen, History.

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This investigation contributes to studies of post-1945 Europe and the Cold War by examining Franco-Yugoslavian relations in the period 1944–1969. In analyzing the diplomatic, economic, military, and cultural relations between the two countries, this dissertation argues that contrary to dominant narratives, neither the destruction wrought by the Second World War nor the ideological divide imposed by the Cold War swept away pre-1945 structures. Rather than jettisoning their “traditional friendship” that had been forged in the First World War, after the defeat of Nazi Germany France and Yugoslavia revived their many forms of cooperation despite the radically changed political landscape. That each sought to exploit the friendship for its own gain was not surprising. While it has been assumed that France quietly retreated from its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe after 1945, this work argues that until 1966 Yugoslavia was an important site for the reclamation of French power and prestige vis-à-vis the British and Americans. Although Yugoslavia’s claim to international status was its leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement, its security concerns remained in Europe. Consequently, it sought to capitalize upon its friendship with France for a variety of purposes, including to facilitate the legitimation of the new regime and its territorial claims against Italy, insurance against German resurgence, and cooperation on the international stage. Belgrade’s desire for cooperation with France stemmed from the similarities between “Gaullism” and “Titoism.” The crucial ideologically-derived differences between the two, however, precluded any meaningful form of collaboration. In addition to reintroducing ideology into the realism-dominated field of Cold War studies, the evidence in this dissertation – that both France and Yugoslavia remained invested in the “traditional friendship” – demonstrates that the post-1945 political and ideological division of Europe after was porous.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Horn, Martin, History.

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International humanitarian organizations played a prominent role in the Nigeria-Biafra War, but scholars have paid little or no attention to the humanitarian crisis in the war and the global humanitarian intervention that followed it. This thesis aims to fill a gap in the historiography of international humanitarian aid in the Nigeria-Biafra War by focusing on the Joint Church Aid (JCA), a consortium of Catholic and Protestant Churches that provided relief aid for the starving civilians in Biafra. This study of the JCA is broken down into three parts: the humanitarian impulse in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, the formation of the JCA and its relief organization, and the challenges of relief operation in Biafra. The research provides a window into understanding the complex nature of international humanitarian aid in political conflicts. This dissertation argues that the JCA’s humanitarian operation, though relatively successful, had unintended consequences. While the JCA aimed to provide relief for the starving Biafran population, it was interpreted by the Nigerian government as political support for a “rebellion.” Convinced that the humanitarian organizations engaged in arms dealings with the Biafran government, the Nigerian government intensified military counter-action against the relief operation. The Nigerian government refused to separate international humanitarian aid from the political objectives of the war hence starvation came to be seen as a legitimate instrument of warfare. On the Biafran side, however, there was an effort to separate international humanitarian aid from the politics and hostilities of the war. Consequently, humanitarianism became a deeply contested issue that brought the humanitarian agencies into direct conflict with the Nigerian government. This study contributes to the scholarship on international humanitarianism and the internationalization of armed conflicts in postcolonial Africa.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Ibhawoh, Bonny, History.

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This dissertation explores the social history of genetic counseling in the United States between 1930 and 2000. I situate genetic counselors at the interstices of medicine, science, and an increasingly “geneticized” society. My study emphasizes two central themes. First, genetic counselors have played a crucial role in bridging the “old eugenics” and the “new genetics” as mediators of genetic reproductive technologies. Genetic counselors negotiated the rights and responsibilities of genetic citizens in their patient encounters. Discourses of privilege and duty were also extrapolated outward to public debates about the new genetics, demonstrating the highly-politicized contexts in which counselors practice and women make reproductive choices. Second, I interrogate the professionalization process of genetic counseling from a field led by male physician-geneticists in the 1940s and 50s, to a profession dominated by women with Masters degrees by the 1980s and 90s. This transformation is best understood through the framework of a “system of professions,” and counselors’ professional position between “sympathy and science.” These frameworks similarly structured the client-counselor relationship, which also centered on concepts of risk, the promotion of patient autonomy, and the ethics of non-directiveness and client-centeredness. These principles distanced counselors from their field’s eugenic origins and the traditional doctor-patient relationship. I emphasize the voices of genetic counselors based on 25 oral history interviews, and hierarchies of gender, race, and educational status at work in the profession’s history. A study of genetic counseling is an important contribution to the histories of health and medicine, medical sociology, bioethics, disability studies, and gender and women’s studies.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Balcom, Karen, History.

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This thesis provides a historical study of the Canadian government's changing foreign policy toward the development of an international bill of rights at the United Nations from the 1940s to the 1970s. Canada was initially reluctant to support international human rights instruments because the concept of 'universal human rights' articulated at the UN challenged customary understandings of civil liberties in Canada, and federal policy makers felt an international bill of rights would have a negative impact on domestic policy. By the 1970s, however, the Canadian government was pushing for the ratification of the International Covenants on Human Rights and working to present Canada as an advocate for the UN's human rights regime. This study considers this change in policy by examining the domestic and global factors that influenced the government's approach to international human rights. Within Canada, rights activism led to increased public awareness of human rights issues, and transformed Canadian understandings of rights and of the role of government in promoting these rights. This led to pressure on the Canadian government to support human rights initiatives at the United Nations. In this same period, the geopolitics of the Cold War and the rise of anti-colonialism shaped debates at the UN over human rights. As global support for the UN's human rights instruments grew, Canada became the subject of criticism from other states. Concerned about the negative implications, at home and within the international community, of appearing to stand in opposition to the principles of human rights, Ottawa changed its policy. Despite the government’s new rhetoric of support for the international bill of rights, however, federal policy makers continued to question the benefit of these instruments for Canada. This lack of commitment accounts, at least in part, for Canada’s continued failure to fully implement its international human rights obligations.

Dissertation

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Frager, Ruth, History.

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The following dissertation examines the little-known history of Canada’s Great War disabled. During the Great War Canada mobilized 620,000 soldiers, most of them volunteers. Nearly 120,000 would one day receive compensation for a disability incurred on, or aggravated by military service. Thousands more suffered from related injuries, diseases, or traumas but lacked the documentary evidence necessary to garner material support from the state. The core objective of this dissertation is to explore how policy-makers responded to these challenges, and how their efforts shaped the daily experiences of veterans from all walks of life. By fusing an analysis of policy with a social history of disability, this study uncovers the multiple paths disabled veterans embarked upon during their civil re-establishment. Few followed unfirom trajectories. The affects of disability on a veteran’s wellbeing varied widely based on numerous factors including pre-war social standing, support networks, material resources, age, and overall health. While most studies of disability and the Great War have focued on the cultural, medical, or political impact of disability, few adequately explain how both government policy and extraneous forces affected the lives of disabled veterans. Utilizing a wealth of statistical data and a large sample group of case files, “State, Service, and Survival: Canada’s Great War Disabled, 1914-44” is the first Canadian study to address this gap in our collective understanding of the war’s legacy.

Dissertation

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Weaver, John, History.

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Abstract During the 1960s both the federal and provincial governments continued to take on new and larger responsibilities. During this same time period citizens began to mobilize and challenge the state on a number of social issues including race, gender, labour, urban sprawl and the environment. Citizens believed that not only did they have the right to challenge the authority of government in planning public policy, but they also had a right to participate in the decision-making process as much as any bureaucrat, expert, or elected official. In planning airports in Pickering, Ste. Scholastique and Sea Island, the federal government was opposed by citizen groups in each of these three cases. Citizens believed their voices were not being heard and that government officials did not respect them. As a result, they disrupted the meticulously laid out plans of elected officials and policy planners by drawing on evidence and expert advice. The conflict over federal airport development is an example of the evolution of the consultation process with citizens, as citizens challenged the way public policy was planned. Governments now had to justify policies like expropriation for the public good since citizen groups would form over any intrusion into their private lives. The debates over airport planning highlights the role of citizens, bureaucrats, provincial and federal politicians as they all tried to navigate the complex shifting landscape of the Canadian state. By 1976 the Pickering Airport had been canceled, Mirabel was opened, and the Sea Island runway expansion would be delayed for 15 years. Although the citizen groups never had complete victories, citizen participation became more paramount to state planning after these events. Public policy planning in Canada had become far more inclusive than ever before. Whether the politicians, bureaucrats or citizens were aware of the consequences remain to be seen.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Abstract During the 1960s both the federal and provincial governments continued to take on new and larger responsibilities. During this same time period citizens began to mobilize and challenge the state on a number of social issues including race, gender, labour, urban sprawl and the environment. Citizens believed that not only did they have the right to challenge the authority of government in planning public policy, but they also had a right to participate in the decision-making process as much as any bureaucrat, expert, or elected official. In planning airports in Pickering, Ste. Scholastique and Sea Island, the federal government was opposed by citizen groups in each of these three cases. Citizens believed their voices were not being heard and that government officials did not respect them. As a result, they disrupted the meticulously laid out plans of elected officials and policy planners by drawing on evidence and expert advice. The conflict over federal airport development is an example of the evolution of the consultation process with…

Advisors/Committee Members: Cruikshank, Ken, History.

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In the first two centuries of European exploration of North America, accounts of monsters, including ones given by Indigenous guides, were largely accepted by Europeans as reflecting actual creatures. Gradually, under the influence of a range of factors, this dynamic shifted over time. Continued exploration, the spread of Enlightenment ideas, and changing material circumstances led to a decline in the belief in monsters—or at least put the belief in them beyond respectability, thereby enlarging the cultural gulf between various Indigenous cultures and European explorers and settlers, or at least the social elite of that latter group. In Canada, as argued here, the “sasquatch” was a hybrid creation combining Indigenous and European traditions; the windigo was an Indigenous monster tradition; the “grisly bear” was predominately a monster of the European imagination. Perceptions of each in European exploration literature followed a similar trajectory of increasing skepticism. Each evolved from creatures that were depicted as innately hostile or dangerous into somewhat more benign pop culture images as they lost their potency once the frontier receded and North America urbanized. As the gap in perspectives on monsters widened in exploration and frontier literature over the course of the nineteenth century, new narratives emerged that were much more negative in their depictions of Indigenous peoples. Frequently, this negativity, when connected with monster legends, depicted Indigenous peoples as cowardly or superstitious. With the sasquatch, European stereotypes about Indigenous people had by the 1870s partially supplanted what had once been a sense of genuine mystery regarding this frontier legend. The exploitation of windigo stories to portray Indigenous peoples as cowardly and superstitious also arose mainly after the 1870s, as earlier generations of explorers and fur traders had exhibited more receptive attitudes. Meanwhile many voyageurs and lower status trappers retained beliefs on monsters closer to their Indigenous counterparts, and as a result were often lumped into the same category as sharing premodern, superstitious beliefs by their social elites. Finally, in the third example, the “grisly bear” became a bloodthirsty monster in the European settler imagination. It was the last mainstream European monster myth, before it too largely faded away in the face of skeptical inquiry. However, such skepticism, voiced normally from afar, frequently misunderstood and misconstrued the nature of these legends, and the truths they had contained.

Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Cruikshank, Ken, History.

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The first section of this thesis identifies two schools of economic thought that were prominent between 1923 and the 1960s. Both employed a staples approach to organize, explain and interpret Canada’s history but used different scopes of inquiry, methodologies and time horizons. I call these two schools Innis’ staples thesis and Macintosh’s staple economics. No sooner were these two schools firmly established than the economics profession underwent a fundamental shift. Economic historians abandoned the old Canadian political economy in the 1960s and followed international trends toward increased specialization. Academic economists concentrated on theoretical and deductive methods with little concern for historical time. During this period of rapid transition, Mel Watkins developed a third approach known as the staple theory. If contemporary economists are cognizant of a staples approach, they most likely think about Watkins’ theory which was written during the ascendancy of the ‘new’ economic history in the United States. One of the legacies of the old political economy was the construction of historical data sets, but they are rarely used in contemporary studies. The collection of historical data related to staples activity waned as the focus shifted to the construction of national accounts. The reconstruction of Canada’s trade flows was abandoned. The last five chapters of this thesis remedy this neglect with a new series of trade flows for all British North America from 1829 to 1960. Economic historians will now have a continuous series of meaningful trade statistics to facilitate future research on the role of staples in international economy of British North America. With this information, research can begin to evaluate the long-run evolution of the structure, behaviour and performance of Canada’s external economy from a simple colonial society to a modern industrial nation.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Weaver, John, Cruikshank, Ken, History.

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The thesis offers an interpretive account of the formation of a field of struggle relating to low-income housing in Toronto during the Depression. The stakes in the struggle are established by showing how rival authorities competed for influence over the definition of a housing problem and promoted new state projects of slum clearance, district redevelopment, public housing, and neighbourhood rehabilitation. A particular contribution of the research is to link interventions made to direct state development with the production and reproduction of spatially constituted social structures of Toronto. Through the reconstruction of the form and trajectory of a local housing market using oral histories, archived commentaries, photographic and quantitative sources, practices of housing provision are connected with patterns of service that contributed to class relations in the city.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Advisors/Committee Members: Harris, Richard, Gauvreau, Michael, Frager, Ruth, History.