Anchored in “the new British history” Transatlantic Subjects is, according to editor Nancy Christie, the first Canadian response to the call made to broaden the meaning of British history. More than a quarter of a century after that call was made in an article titled “The Limits and Divisions of British History: In Search of the Unknown Subject,” it is appropriate that its author, J. G. A. Pocock, was given the opportunity to write the foreword for this volume. In it he states, “The history of Quebec and the Anglophone provinces can of course be narrated as that of a contested identity known as ‘Canada’ but the present volume focuses on the history of ‘British North America’ and explores the meanings and usabilities of the first adjective” (viii).
Developing this theme in her introduction, Christie gives a theoretical overview of why Canada, in the period between the end of the American Revolution and the closing of the settlement frontier in eastern British North America prior to the 1850s, should be treated as a society of British settlement. While her introduction may initially come across as overtly theoretical, it does provide the necessary context for what may otherwise be seen as a somewhat eclectic collection of essays. Indeed, what follows in the eleven chapters deals with a broad and complex range of institutional and social practices that were adapted and changed through the process of migration from Britain.
Divided into three sections, the first part contains chapters by Donald Fyson, Nancy Christie, and Brian Young, under the title of “Agrarian Patriots,” in which they examine the degree to which the authoritarian, centralized system of colonial governance whose aim was to control marginal groups—in this case the French-Canadian populace of Lower Canada—functioned in practice. In his examination of civil courts in Lower Canada, for example, Donald Fyson demonstrates that, while colonial officials hoped to use the law to create cultural uniformity, rather than simply resisting British legal rule (as the traditional interpretation would suggest) ordinary French Canadians actually adapted and used British law to serve their own needs. Furthermore, he suggests that French Canadians were receptive to viewing themselves as British subjects in a constitutional sense while preserving through cultural institutions—namely, the Roman Catholic Church—a continual sense of otherness.
It is the theme of religion that dominates part 2, titled “Provincial Britons,” which investigates the ways in which particular ethnic, religious, and institutional ideas were consciously transplanted in the British North American colonies. The chapters by both Todd Webb and Michael Gauvreau look specifically at the issue of religion and identity, while Bruce Curtis examines the failed attempts in Lower Canada at establishing an Anglican-inspired Lancastrian monitorial school system. Addressing an issue that is pertinent to the subject area as a whole, Michael Gauvreau highlights the complexities of how mixed identities within Britain hampered efforts to impose a fixed and uniform identity on its transatlantic subjects. Gauvreau argues that the cultural diversity that had manifested itself by the end of the American Revolution in 1783 accentuated the importance of church institutions and that “the whole basis of British control in the Canadas and the Maritimes rested less on political structures, economic ties, or military power, than on the promotion of a cultural uniform British identity expressed first and foremost by the provision of the full apparatus of Church of England religious institutions” (203). Yet as he explains, Scottish allegiance to rival national religious institutions frequently hampered the efforts of the Anglican Church.
The final section, titled “A Laboratory of Modernity,” considers Canada as a laboratory for British intellectual debate. Michael Eamon considers the extent to which Scottish Enlightenment ideas penetrated the New World by examining how enlightened ideas regarding medicine permeated themselves in Canada, while Jeffrey McNairn examines how books on travel and immigration became vehicles for the popularization of emerging ideas of economic liberalism. Addressing issues relating to class and culture, the other authors for this section are Michelle Vosburgh, Bryan Palmer, and Darren Ferry.
That several prominent Canadian historians have contributed to this volume would suggest that while “the new British history” has largely been neglected in connection with British North America, this is beginning to change. However just as this volume can be seen as an attempt to broaden the scope of British history by stepping away from the more traditional nationalist narrative that tends to dominate Canadian history, this volume also has a wider purpose. Perhaps Pocock summarizes it best when he states, “This volume has something to teach the reader about Canadian history, British history and history as experience” (x).
Transatlantic Subjects aims to demonstrate how multiple ethnic, religious, class, and provincial social codes were transplanted to British North America following the American Revolution. Where its major strength lies is that rather than conceive of Britain as a single system, the authors take a broad perspective in analyzing the transference of the various British cultures to the new and equally complex social configurations of the New World. These complexities open many further avenues of research, which historians on both sides of the Atlantic must now seek to address.
