The Politics of Chaos: Canada in the Thirties

Richard Wilbur is author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and H.H.
Stevens, 1878–1973, and co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy
Weirmen’s Story. His latest book is Horse-Drawn Carriages and Sleighs:
Elegant Vehicles from New England and New Bruns

When it was first published in 1972, The Politics of Chaos was a most
useful addition to the meagre offerings available on the 1930s. The only
thing added to this edition is a bibliographical update that reveals the
paucity of scholarly publishing on this decade that has appeared in the
three decades since Neatby first compiled this study. His succinct
survey of the “dirty thirties” remains the definitive one from a
general political perspective, and present-day scholars toiling in the
archives to produce new books will undoubtedly make good use of this
collection.

The first article, “The Question of Identity,” will appeal most to
the general reader, with its broad sweep of the rapidly changing social
customs that characterize the 1930s and into the war years: the first
signs of women’s emancipation from the severe Victorian restrictions
of their parents, the growing sweep of American popular culture through
movies and radio. Neatby also notes the continuing existence of Canadian
conservatism, more so among French Canadians, and for anglophones a
continuing strong adherence to British customs and institutions. But as
the next articles (starting with “The Personal Impact of the
Depression” and “The Depression as a Political Catalyst”)
indicate, 10 years of economic stagnation and personal deprivation would
ensure that Canadian society would never be the same again.

The emphasis is overwhelmingly on politics, which Neatby conveys with
concise and readable accounts of the men who occupied the national and
provincial stages: prime ministers Bennett and King; CCF founding leader
J.S. Woodsworth; and the three most notable provincial figures,
Quebec’s Maurice Duplessis, Alberta’s “Bible Bill” Aberhart, and
Ontario’ Mitch Hepburn. As Neatby notes in his concluding summary,
“Trends and Portents,” the decade was “an era of transition”
when “traditional values were challenged and new concepts of society
were formulated. … Despite the chaos and confusion it marks the
beginning of our contemporary political system.”

It speaks volumes for the author’s political acumen that his 1930s
appraisal articulated three decades ago remains true today. Blair Neatby
accomplished an enviable feat: a scholarly classic that deserves to be
reprinted and studied by Canadians of all ages.