Changing Places: History, Community, and Identity in Northeastern Ontario

J.R. (Jim) Miller is Canada Research Chair of History at the University
of Saskatchewan and the author of Reflections on Native-Newcomer
Relations: Selected Essays and Lethal Legacy: Current Native
Controversies in Canada.

Changing Places studies the emergence of a sense of community in the
Timmins-Iroquois Falls-Matheson region of northeastern Ontario over a
period of 350 years. Historian Kerry Abel takes the story back to the
early days of post-contact fur-trade relations and carries it forward by
examining the influx of a succession of non-Natives seeking to make
their fortunes by exploiting the area’s rich resources. The commerce
in fur was succeeded by the exploitation of base and precious metals,
pulp and paper, and hydroelectric power, most of it carried out by
capital, individuals, and agencies from outside the region.

Abel’s narrative is overlaid by an analytical grid that focuses on
ethnicity/race, religion, self-perception, and class. She handles this
potentially awkward tool with great skill, taking the reader through a
breathtaking array of data in remarkably clear and readable prose. Her
research is wide-ranging and in-depth. Throughout, Abel shows impressive
familiarity with theoretical approaches, as well as abundant good
judgment and common sense.

Changing Places finds that by the middle of the 20th century a definite
sense of community—composed of regional self-awareness and resentment
of the exploitive and condescending South—emerged. It was shaped by
economic, political, cultural, and historical forces. Abel concludes
that social science theories about community that focus on structure
fall short; they don’t fit this regional case study at all. She also
concludes that those seeking to understand how community is fashioned
must take historical forces into account.

All in all, Changing Places is a tour de force by a highly accomplished
historian. Anyone interested in regional and community studies, Canadian
history, Native–newcomer relations, or the emergence of regionalism as
an intellectual and political reality should read it.