The Editor’s Desk
It is fitting in a period of destabilized political culture in Canada – with an authoritarian government by a prime minister who covets total control and brooks no dissent – that this issue of The Underhill Review should feature a sustained discussion of the nature and history of “the liberal order.” After all, how a nation reconciles freedom and order says much about the nature and health of its polity.
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Fall 2009
The Camouflaged Piano or French Roundels (1965-66).Oil on plywood with hotel sign and incandescent lights, 183 x 301.5 x 13 cm. National Gallery of Canada. ©The Estate of Greg Curnoe.
Featured Artist
Few Canadian artists expressed the spirit of the 1960s as vividly as Greg Curnoe (1936-1992). Charismatic, outspoken and irreverent, the native of London, Ontario, was actively involved in many of the important debates and issues of the decade. Proudly proclaiming that he was a “regionalist and an anti-American,” he was a challenging and controversial figure. Believing that meaningful art could only derive from everyday experience and individual convictions, in his work Curnoe explored subjects from the personal to the political to the absurd.
Essays:
Ah, the sixties: love-ins, peace rallies, civil disobedience. But how widespread was the radicalism and where did the rebels go? Jean-Philippe Warren considers the case of Montreal. … more
Celebrity, journalist, and popular Canadian historian Pierre Berton became an iconic cultural brand. But just how did this happen and what was involved? Brian McKillop provides some reasons. … more
Feature Review Essay:
Ian McKay’s new book on the Canadian left, Reasoning Otherwise, is an “undeniable achievement,” says Bryan Palmer. But does it reflect or encourage truly radical reasoning? Palmer addresses this issue, and others, in our feature review essay … more
Review Essays:
“Finally, the social history of America’s most destructive conflict might be fully underway.” So Susan-Mary Grant suggests, and the principal force will not be a “new” military history but what Grant calls “mortality studies.” … more
O Canada! A nation where even community, civility, and cultivation of a reading audience are problematic, at least where identity is concerned. Linda Morra explains why. … more
We are pleased to publish revised versions of the presentations on Ian McKay’s work-in-progress on “the Liberal Order” made by four distinguished historians as a round table, “Liberalism and Hegemony: Debating the Canadian Liberal Revolution,” during the 2009 annual meetings of the Canadian Historical Association on 25 May, 2009.
… Janet Ajzenstat
… Nancy Christie
… Jean-Marie Fecteau
… Martin Pâquet