By James P. Delgado
186 pages
Vancouver Maritime Museum/Stanton Atkins & Dosil Publishers
Reviewed by Christine Hearn

This lavishly illustrated gem gives us the history of the Lower Mainland from a maritime perspective. In six concise, readable chapters alumnus James Delgado shows us the central role ports have played in the development of the region.

“The Northwest Coast” covers the formation of the land, the earliest First Nations settlers, the explorers, and the fur traders. There are intriguing copies of old maps and some original accounts from early visitors. “Skid Road Logging Port 1858 — 1826” recounts the establishment of various logging camps along the shore. In “Rails Meet the Sea 1887 – 1913,” the arrival of the CPR brings new prosperity and new challenges. There are beautiful photographs and iconic CPR publicity posters.

In “Dreams and Development 1914 — 1939,” the opening of the Panama Canal provides new opportunities and we see aggressive lobbying for federal support to ensure Vancouver and the Fraser River ports get their fair share of business. During the war and the early 1920s, shipbuilding is a booming enterprise. Soon the depression of the thirties leads to unemployment, a cut in longshoremen’s wages, and finally a riot on Ballantyne Pier, complete with police machine guns.

“The Boom Years 1940 — 1959” takes us through World War II, again with a surge in shipbuilding, the construction of new piers on the waterfront during the post-war era, and the arrival of the first expressly designed container ship in 1955. “The Rise of the Ports 1960 to the present” highlights globalization, more new port facilities, including the Deltaport container facility, designation of industrial land in False Creek for housing and for Granville Island, and the massive increase in cruise ship traffic.

This book is a gorgeous look at a fascinating element of our history. Buy it. Read it.

Out of Africa
The role of the civil servant in colonial Africa was a key one. Although the positions outwardly had little power, in practice the occupants of these positions functioned as lynchpins of colonial rule. We get a new perspective on this in Intermediaries, Interpreters and Clerks: African Employees in the Making of Colonial Africa, edited by Benjamin N. Lawrence, Emily Lynn Osborn, and Richard L. Roberts. Alumnus Roberts is professor of history and director of the Centre for African Studies at Stanford University.

Books, Books, Books
Members of the English department are busy publishing eight books in six months. Peter Dickinson writes Screening Gender, Framing Genre: Canadian Literature into Film, examining the history and theory of films adapted from Canadian literature, and, with UBC’s Richard Cavell, co-edits Sexing the Maple, a sourcebook designed to raise issues of nationalism and sexuality in Canada.

Steve Collis looks at the writing of Susan Howe in Through Words of Others: Susan Howe and Anarcho-Scholasticism, while Carolyn Lesjak reconceptualizes Victorian Literary History in Working Fictions: a Genealogy of the Victorian Novel. Roy Miki follows up his 2002 Governor General’s poetry award-winning book Surrender with There. Mary Ann Gillis and Capilano College’s Aurelea Mahood provide a critical assessment of British literature from 1900 to 1945 in Modernist Literature: An Introduction.

Susan Brook’s Literature and Cultural Criticism in the 1950s: The Feeling Male Body looks at a key element in the era’s literature. Colette Colligan’s The Traffic in Obscenity from Byron to Beardsley examines obscenity in 19th century British print culture.

Bullying
Schools need to work past short-term solutions for bullying, says Brenda Morrison, an associate professor at the SFU Centre for Restorative Justice. In Restoring Safe School Communities: A Whole School Response to Bullying, Violence and Alienation, Morrison advocates a health-care model built on interventions that restore the social and emotional health of young people and their schools.
<www.federationpress.com.au/>

Relationship Woes
According to alumna Valerie Whiffen, depression in women is different from depression in men, and much of it is related to relationships. In A Secret Sadness: The Hidden Relationship Patterns That Make Women Depressed, psychologist Whiffen focuses on how to help.

Sexual Help
Alumnus Douglas Flemons (with Shelly Green) edits Quickies: The Brief Handbook of Sex Therapy. It offers readers an “array of time-efficient, client-focused approaches to sexual problems,” including case studies.
<www.norton.com>

Insightful
Alumna Deirdre Maultsaid’s This Crisis, These Blessings is a collection of lyrical, experimental essays of women’s experiences of crisis, illness, rape, motherhood, housework, and family travel.
<www.trafford.com>

Carole Gerson: the definitive look at the book in Canada

Landmark Project
SFU English professor Carole Gerson and co-editor Jacques Michon of the University of Sherbrooke complete a great scholarly project: The History of the Book in Canada/Histoire du livre de l’imprime au Canada, Volume III. The work, six years in the making, covers the period from 1918 to 1980 and involves more than 100 authors. The project, published in both official languages, was made possible with a $2.3 million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. aq

Column Art courtesy Erik Tofsrud (book cover), Carole Gerson by Greg Ehlers

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