St Andrews and the Islands

Randall White is the author of Voice of Region: On the Long Journey to
Senate Reform in Canada, Too Good to Be True: Toronto in the 1920s, and
Global Spin: Probing the Globalization Debate.

Ronald Rees taught geography at the University of Saskatchewan for many
years before moving to St. Andrews, N.B., where he has written two books
on Western Canada and another on the history of printmaking. All show
great skills in research, a scholarly approach, and a distinctive
writing style. This latest work, which focuses on southwestern New
Brunswick and neighboring Maine, is essentially a history; the first 118
pages recount the area’s colonial and imperial rivalry and its
settlement by Loyalists and Americans. The final chapter, “Aquaculture
and the Marine Environment,” describes the economic and social shift
in the last decade from the traditional wild fishery to the cage-rearing
of Atlantic salmon.

At times this is a thoroughly readable account, showing Rees’s grasp
of socioeconomic issues and his geographer’s expertise. The chapter
“The Landscape of Leisure,” describing how Sir William Van Horne and
his CPR friends turned St. Andrews into a summer playground for the
rich, is particularly informative and lively. At other times, however,
Rees reverts to an academic style and a vocabulary that this reviewer
did not find “reader-friendly”: “But perceptions of utility are
notoriously hostage to circumstance”; “The church [All Saints] is
set in glorious greensward”; “So began the synergy of mutually
reinforcing industries that brought vigor to the Maritime economy.”

Tom Moffatt’s color photos are usually clear and quite artistic, and
enhance Rees’s text. The lone historical map at the beginning will
pose a challenge to readers unfamiliar with the local geography.

This well produced and visually delightful book will be enjoyed by both
locals and visitors to the area.