This book, an examination of the arguments of progressive critics of multiculturalism, is the companion volume to Ryan’s earlier, well-regarded and much-needed work, Multicultiphobia (2010), an “intentionally one-sided” examination of conservative critics. However, On the Other Hand takes a while to get to those progressive critics. After an introduction and a chapter on Canada’s current injustices comes a long chapter discussing four concepts that factor in debates about multiculturalism (the state, policy, culture and multiculturalism itself). Although its theorization of the state perhaps overemphasizes its capitalist nature, this chapter ought to be required reading for any would-be commentator on multiculturalism, particularly due to its insights into the difficulties in determining the formation, intentions, effects and limitations of government policies most generally.

Part II finally turns to the titular matter. In both this book and its prequel, Ryan’s approach is one of “critical listening” to critics in order to ascertain the policy’s “real limits” (8). In Multicultiphobia, he laments that critics dismiss their opponents as “corrupt or slightly mad,” which, he adds, is “hardly a promising start to a dialogue” (2010: 64), But if Multicultiphobia is often sarcastic in tone, On the Other Hand is more respectful to the critical works it examines. To this end, it singles out Sunera Thobani’s book Exalted Subjects as “important and worthy of careful attention” and notes that it has been “particularly influential” (79-80). Additionally, while right-wing critics of multiculturalism were excoriated in Multicultiphobia for failing to get the most basic facts correct (for example, when the policy was announced versus when it was legislated—1971 and 1988, respectively), Ryan hardly comments on the same tendency in left-wing critics—the only such instance is buried in a footnote (257 n11).

Still, the book clearly demonstrates that the works of progressive critics suffer from many weaknesses: obscure writing; “undialectical analysis,” or an inability to see multiculturalism as changing over time and “existing in a complex space made up of other policies and a variety of actors” (98); and either a failure to present alternatives to the policy or a tendency to present alternatives that are vague, unrealistic or both. It also points out some shared flaws in left- and right-wing critical works on multiculturalism. These include anthropomorphizing and attributing to the state a “mysterious power” that diminishes and even eliminates the agency of citizens, as well as blaming the policy of multiculturalism for things that existed long before it.

Part III of the book examines the history of the policy, slowly building up to a rejection of the notion of a “white supremacist state” and any suggestion that such a construct had a role in shaping multiculturalism (134-50). However, Ryan’s apparent unfamiliarity with the literature on race and whiteness inspires skepticism. For instance, citing a single critic of the concept, he completely dismisses whiteness as “abstract and ahistorical” (235 and 268 n3). But not only do scholars of whiteness acknowledge it is “a historical and social construct,” as Linda Martín Alcoff puts it, they have been the very ones to rigorously trace its history. Familiarity with this literature would have solved the author’s puzzlement at encountering historical figures who referred to multiple European “races” (169-70).

After this rejection, Ryan puts forward his own interpretation of the policy’s history, which for him is solely attributable to the capitalist nature of the state (151-60). Unfortunately, this strictly Marxist account is entirely unconvincing, arguing as it does that multiculturalism was designed to address the effects of changing immigration policy, which itself was about securing labour. This argument, in turn, is rooted exclusively in the literature on changing immigration policy in Canada (though it ignores some important works like FitzGerald and Cook-Martín [2014]). As such, it is entirely divorced from any serious examination of the historical record on how and why the policy of multiculturalism was formulated and announced.

In sum, the first half of this book is brimming with much-needed reminders about the state (its complex nature, the individuals that comprise it and their complex motivations) and policy (the various “objectives” of a policy, the way it changes over time, the way it imperfectly permeates society and the inability to infer its “true intentions” from subsequent social phenomena). Scholars seeking to analyze policies and their origins will benefit from them. There are also some persuasive arguments in the final chapters about the benefits of tolerance and “song and dance” multiculturalism as stepping stones to deeper acceptance. However, a convincing history of the policy of multiculturalism remains to be written.