Slaves of the Lamp: A History of the Federal Civil Service Organizations 1865-1924

J.L. Granatstein is a history professor at York University and author of
War and Peacekeeping and For Better or For Worse.

Amateur historians have usually had a bad reputation with professionals.
The widespread feeling is that they take up space, spoil good topics
with bad research, and write dreadfully. Sometimes this may be so, but
happily not in Doherty’s case. His long, detailed, and well-researched
history of early efforts to create federal civil-service organizations
is a splendid example of just how a devoted amateur researcher can
rescue important events and people from the oblivion of the past. Today
we take public-service unions for granted, tolerating strikes and
interruptions with as much grace as we can muster. It is too easy to
assume that these unions were always there. As Doherty demonstrates, the
civil service, small though it was at first, had its activists almost
from its formation. Most efforts began in recreational associations or
in militia regiments, but gradually the interest in working conditions
and in the baneful effects of patronage grew. Some of the founders are
widely remembered; others—and Doherty singles out especially Frank
Grierson, who played a critical role beginning at the turn of the
century—are not. This useful book remedies that sad state of affairs,
and makes a good addition to Canadian labor history.