Harold Innis Reflects: Memoir and WWI Writings/Correspondence

(Hardback)

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Offering fresh insight into the early life of Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952), this volume makes available a number of previously unpublished writings from the renowned Canadian economic historian and media scholar. Part I, Inniss autobiographical memoir, chronicles his farm-based family background, early education, military service during World War I, and the beginnings of what would become a distinguished academic career. Part II features a selection of correspondence during his military service, revealing both the pain and perceptions derived from that experience, and other war-related writings. It also includes The Returned Soldier, a detailed piece of research and a compassionate plea to recognize how the aftermath of the Great War would affect those who served as well as the individuals and institutions on the home front. Years before the term post-traumatic stress disorder was coined, Innis was acutely aware of the condition and suggested ways in which it might be treated. Other war-related items included are Inniss first published article (dealing with the economics of the solider) and a draft speech composed in the fall of 1918. All original materials have been extensively annotated to provide context for the contemporary reader and researcher.

Reviews

The editors of this volume have brought together a variety of writings from the early life of Canadian economic historian and media scholar Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952). Included are a memoir, written in the last year of Inniss life, covering the first 26 years of his life, 44 letters written in 1916 and 1917 (many from France), and miscellaneous documents, including his 1918 masters thesis at McMaster University, which examined the condition of Canadian soldiers returning from World War I and what could be done to help them. This topic of course remains important today. While not exploring the fields of expertise for which Innis became known and respected, these items present the youth of an important Canadian scholar. Clearly a specialized collection of documents, this book will be of interest to Canadian readers and people interested in a personal view of World War I. * American Reference Books Annual *
Recent developments in media theory and communication studies have renewed interest in the foundational role Harold Innis played in these fields. This carefully-curated set of primary materialsavailable here for the first timeis a treasure trove for scholars of Innis, political economy, communication, and Canadian history. The material is thrilling in its intimacy and full of fresh insights into Inniss life and thought. It is an indispensable and generative resource for readers across the many fields that Inniss work continues to shape. -- Darin Barney, McGill University
Writing to his mother from France in March 1917, Harold Innis reported that "the only way this country could be muddier would be to be bigger." A few months later a piece of German shell casing slammed into his thigh, ending his war. Of course, his war never really ended, and he would spend his career wondering what happened not only to him but to an entire generation. In this carefully edited collection, we see the origins of that intellectual journey in what Innis called "the furnace of war." No one is better suited to bring this volume together than William Buxton, Michael Cheney, and Paul Heyer, all accomplished Innis scholars. -- Donald Wright, University of New Brunswick
This book provides insights into the formative years of one of Canadas most important intellectuals, economic historian and communications theorist Harold Adams Innis. A strikingly original thinker, Innis continues to be relevant, but few people read the full range of his work. Harold Innis Reflects brings to readers Innis previously-unpublished reflections upon his early life, including his earliest scholarly writings and thoughts about the effects of the First World War upon soldiers such as himself. The collection is a valuable contribution to Innis scholarship. -- Jeff A. Webb, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Harold Innisrenowned among scholars of history and communications alike for his rigorous academic research and far-ranging theorieshere reveals different sides of himself: as a warm-hearted, perceptive, and sometimes darkly comic observer of the horrors of the First World War and as a wry memoirist of his own life. This well-edited and accessible collection offers us invaluable new insights into the life and thought of one of the twentieth centurys most probing and original minds. -- Ian McKay, Wilson Chair in Canadian History, McMaster University
Few people hated war more than Harold Innis; he found it a venal, stupid business, symptomatic of a West in decline. Even a cursory examination of his academic work shows the impact of World War I on his life and thinking, and with the publication of Harold Innis Reflects, we are now in a better position to understand why that was so. This volumes presentation of Inniss early writings and correspondence gives Innis scholars vital context for a man who still shapes our thinking about the technological past, the communicative present, and the digital future. -- John Bonnett, Brock University
Harold Innis Reflectsis a vital contribution to our knowledge of one of Canadas great thinkers. More than a half century after the scholars death, readers are provided the rare treat of reading Innis on Innis, rendering the unknown Innis a little less so. By publishing these additions to the Innis record and informing them with comprehensive and insightful annotation, Buxton, Cheney, and Heyer also bring the scholars critical and personal perspectives to a range of subject matter all the way from life in rural Ontario to the history of Canadas participation in the supposedly Great War. -- Jeffrey Brison, Queen's University
Bill Buxton, Michael Cheney, and Paul Heyercollectively a dream team of Innis scholarshave produced a gem of a collection related to the early life of Canadas most famous social scientist. The introduction is lucid and meticulously researched, but the real strength of this work lies in the publication and annotation of Inniss own previously unpublished material. Of greatest import are Inniss own reflections on his background and early life, via the incomplete memoir he began dictating just prior to his death in 1952. This memoir is complemented both by his wartime correspondence to family and friends and also by the inclusion of a fascinating and surprisingly brief (and off-the-cuff) 1918 piece on The Returned Soldier of the Great War. Scholars and nonspecialists alike will find the work compelling and will benefit greatly from the detailed annotations of the text. -- Jim Mochoruk, Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of History, University of North Dakota
The publication of Harold Inniss unfinished memoir and selected letters brings Innis to life as a very contemporary observer a hundred years after the events of his rural youth and the First World War. Readers will be struck by how much well-digested life experiencein Canada, Europe, and the United StatesInnis had already achieved by his mid-twenties when he began his career at the University of Toronto. His frank and detailed thoughts about farm life, the natural world, his family as settlers in Canada, religion, war, politics, and his chosen field of political economy emerge as the foundation of his lifes work. The editors can be commended for continuing their many publications exploring Inniss legacy with this enlightening volume, in which they have had generous assistance from the Innis family. -- Alison Beale, Simon Fraser University

Author Bio

William J. Buxton is professor of communication studies at Concordia University in Montreal; his numerous publications include Talcott Parsons and the Capitalist Nation-State, Harold Innis in the New Century, and Harold Innis and the North. Michael R. Cheney is professor of communication and associate professor of economics at the University of Illinois Springfield. He served as inaugural editor for the Journal of Media Sociology and publishes on politics, culture, and technology. Paul Heyer is professor of communication studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His publications include Communication and History, Titanic Century, and Harold Innis.