Neil Sutherland. Children in English-Canadian Society: Framing the Twentieth-Century Consensus. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2000. Pp. 355.

In 1976 Neil Sutherland published Children in English- Canadian Society: Framing the Twentieth-Century Consensus. The work became a classic in Canadian childhood history. He published When Grandma and Grandpa Were Kids in 1970, co-compiled History of Canadian Childhood and Youth: A Bibliography, co-edited Children, Teachers and Schools in the History of British Columbia in 1995, and wrote Growing Up: Childhood in English Canada from the Great War to the Age of Television in 1997. Sutherland also wrote numerous journal articles and presented his research at many conferences and congresses. Sutherland, now professor emeritus of the University of British Columbia, has deservedly been recognized as Canada’s eminent childhood historian. It is not surprising that, in 2000, Wilfred Laurier University Press paid homage to Sutherland by including a reissue of Children in English-Canadian Society in its Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada Series.

The 1976 University of Toronto Press version of Children in English-Canadian Society consists of 336 pages, a 14-page index, eight pages of bibliographical notes, 70 pages of enlightening endnotes, several tables, and delightful photographs depicting children in various situations that contextualize the story. The new edition retains all of these features and adds a three-page foreword by series editor Cynthia Comacchio, who writes that the historical significance of the book quickly becomes obvious to new readers. She correctly notes, too, that the scope of the work still arouses admiration from those familiar with the book. Upon rereading it one is overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude and impact of the impressive, vast range of documented source material that brings the history of Canada’s children to life. Sutherland is deemed Canada’s Ariès by Commachio because he pioneered childhood studies at a time when children and childhood were scarcely considered to be topics worthy of historical inquiry.

Sutherland’s foreword, even in the twenty-first century, speaks volumes. Foremost, he argues that children and childhood warrant a place in academic examination, that childhood is a life stage frequently re-conceptualized. Sutherland was one of the first historians to specifically differentiate between the sociological concept of childhood and the historical experiences of children. He clearly explains his terms and definitions by focusing on a broadly defined English-speaking Canada (excluding the French-speaking society because of its differences). Sutherland examines the cause-and-effect relationship of the vagaries of childhood in Canadian childhood history from the 1870s to the 1920s through a distinctive pattern of health, justice, and educational reforms led by the middle-class reformers who not only created the twentieth-century consensus but also the institutions that Canadians still use today. This broad treatment coalesces into a formidable story encompassing the major developments of an increasingly industrializing Canada that was markedly different in rural areas for a generation, until the major reforms and their developments eventually caught up. Sutherland conceptualizes the history of Canadian childhood and simultaneously dismisses the myth that a golden age of childhood ever existed in Canada.

A description of the contents, impressive even in1976, explains the magnitude of Sutherland’s work and impresses upon the reader the myriad issues that have confronted Canadian childhood. Through an enormous wealth of detail and sound scholarship Sutherland informs academics, professionals, and the general public how children fared in Canada historically. The expansive scope of this book is evident with his division of the material into five parts with delightfully unique titles that provide a real sense of the children’s experience. In Part I, "Elevate the Home," Sutherland commences with the Home Children and their experiences. His aptly named Chapter 1, "‘A Good Home and Kind Treatment’: Late Nineteenth-Century English Canadian Attitudes to Children and Child-Rearing," indicates that children were viewed merely as workers in the agricultural Canada of the 1870s. The function of childhood was to provide raw material to be nurtured into productive adults with strong moral and good work habits. The haunting stories become poignant when in some cases no one knows what happened to the children who disappeared from historical sources. Sutherland shows this clearly was a time when society was not concerned about children’s emotional development. Chapter 2, "‘Multitudes Better Equipped...than Their Fathers’: A New Childhood for a New Society," discusses the agencies that evolved from the Home Child imbroglio.

Part II, "To Create a Strong and Healthy Race," recounts the Public Health Movement from 1880 to 1920. This is by far the strongest part of the book. Chapter 3, "‘Our Whole Aim is Prevention’: Public Health in the Schools, 1880-1914," proves that public health up to the 1880s was reactive rather than proactive. However, by 1909 the consensus had switched from reactive to preventive methods, initiating Canada-wide health-care legislation that resulted in a huge improvement. The programs that began in Ontario eventually became national. Sutherland ties in the public-health movement with well-baby clinics, schools, school nurses, and health textbooks. By 1914 sanitary schools and inspection were the result, although basically it was an urban program. Chapter 4, "‘Education...Carried on Principally in the Home’: The Campaign to Reduce Infant Mortality, 1895-1920," discusses infant mortality rates and the changes wrought by the consensus to improve the life chances of Canada’s babies. The creation of well-baby clinics in days when infant deaths were quite common, and the insistence on early registration, point out the helplessness of childhood. Again, urban children were the prime beneficiaries of this program. Chapter 5, "‘Invariably the Race Levels Down’: Mental Hygiene and Canadian Children," is controversial in that Sutherland depicts the attitudes of the Canadian establishment society toward the "feeble-minded" and contemporary attempts at excluding these children from Canadian society. Sutherland uses jargon-free language to explain the background to the eugenics movement and allows the reader to make his or her own conclusions. Chapter 6, "‘How Can We Reach Them?’: Making Child Health a Nation Wide Enterprise," analyzes the expansion of child health care throughout Canada.

In Part III, "‘Remove the Young from Schools of Crime’: Transforming the Treatment of Juvenile Delinquents, 1885-1925," Sutherland focuses on justice and youth. Chapter 7, "‘From Reformatory to Family Home’: Late-Nineteenth-Century Young Offenders in the Context of Changing Theory and Prevailing Practice," details how Canadian society would be defended against the threat of juvenile delinquents. Sutherland notes the description of a neglected child in the 1893 Ontario Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to and Better Protection of Children. A juvenile needed a rehabilitated natural family or a good foster home. Corporal punishment was thought to cure delinquency and was considered the only alternative to capital punishment. The need for a Juvenile Delinquent Act was obvious when a 12-year-old boy served five years for Break and Enter and a 14-year-old boy was restricted to bread and water for 30 days. These problems led to the creation of industrial schools that, in effect, failed to alleviate the problem. Chapter 8, "‘Towards ‘Intelligent and Progressive Legislation for the Prevention of Crime’: Preparing the Way for the Juvenile Delinquents Act, 1886-1908," discusses the Act’s evolution and the influential Gibson Act of 27 May 1893. Chapter 9, "Trying to Make a ‘Child into What a Child Should Be’: Implementing the Juvenile Delinquents Act, 1908-1925," is self-explanatory. Sutherland’s tables in this chapter provide interesting information. This chapter also reveals the inadequacy of the industrial school where pupils were treated like prisoners and merely considered society’s rejects.

Part IV, "The School Must be the Agent," focuses on the enormous reforms and subsequent changes in education. In Chapter 10, "Changing Albert School: The Institutional Context for Education Reform in Canada, 1890-1920," Sutherland uses Albert School as an example of the Canadian education system at that time. He acknowledges the variations but sees many commonalities throughout Canada in texts, teacher qualifications, curriculum teaching evaluation, class size,and inspections. He argues that education greatly improved by 1921. However, in Chapter 11, "‘A Very Strong Undercurrent of Dissatisfaction’: Setting the Stage for the ‘New’ Education, 1885-1900," he indicates the perceived need for reform. Chapter 12, "‘The Common Centre from which Radiated Plans and Labours’: The Macdonald-Robertson Movement Demonstrates the New Education to Canadians, 1900-1913," describes how the New Education (progressive education) entered the mainstream. Sutherland also discusses the language issues that confront second-generation children of immigrants. He concludes Part IV with Chapter13, "From Proposal to Policy: The ‘New’ Education Enters the Main Stream, 1910-1920."

Part V: "Children in English-Canadian Society in the Twentieth-Century," consists solely of Chapter 14, entitled "‘Launch a New Generation’: Organizing to Implement the New Consensus." This chapter explains the status of children and youth after the reforms. Sutherland concludes that by 1921 children were treated far better and more tenderly than the previous generation.

It is refreshing to read Sutherland’s major opus again. Children in English-Canadian Society: Framing the Twentieth-Century Consensus is topical, even twenty-five years after it was published, for its lucid discussion of issues germane to childhood. This is the first book to consult when researching Canadian childhood. However, this volume ends at the late 1920s and leaves the story incomplete;for example, native experiences are hardly mentioned. One therefore should augment this book with Sutherland’s Growing Up: Childhood in English Canada From the Great War to the Age of Television. One also needs to consult French-language sources to obtain an overview of the experience in French-speaking Canada. However, Sutherland successfully makes the point that childhood and children’s experiences warrant greater scrutiny in the academic world. He provides the basis for understanding Canadian childhood history. Sutherland is the pioneer—his seminal work showed us the way.

Annette Richardson
University of Alberta