\s mYevtew ELECTRONIC ADDITION - University of British Columbia

OPINIONS AND NOTES** BERNARD GUNN, The Timetables of History.General, $25.95. This book is an extendedversion of those "time-lines" that alwaysappear in a survey-of-English-literaturetext. Under a set of columns (labelled Literatureand Theatre, History and Politics, Religionand Philosophy, Science and Technology,Visual Arts and Music, and Daily Life), itlists events and publications, setting out, over700 pages, who did what concurrently — from5000 B.C. to A.D. 1978. It's a wonderful idea,and it's a handy resource book for anyonewho can't remember offhand the names ofBach's contemporaries in science and literature,or who wants to trace changes in humanattitude and experience. The volume is international— by which I mean it does refer toAsian history, but the focus is European andculture does come off as something of a Westerninvention. When you probe a bit more,other unstated biases appear. "Science" in thetwentieth century, for example, is constitutedprimarily of people who won Nobel prizes —prizes frequently awarded for a lifetime's research— which means that for recent decadesthe new "discoveries" of any particular yearare not noted at all. Similarly, History andLiterature in the twentieth century are primarilyAmerican; we find out the date andtitle of a book by Dwight Eisenhower, forexample, and there's lots of data on ChrisEvert, the Dallas Cowboys, and other worthiesof contemporary culture. But while literaturecrosses the Atlantic, it has difficulty withother borders. Patrick White appears twice,yet only after he won the Nobel Committee'sendorsement. And nowhere is there any mentionof a Canadian writer — no Lowry, noFrye, no McLuhan, let alone Atwood andHébert. The bias is even more deep-seated.To look up the entries covering the War of1812 is to find that the Americans won thebattles at York and New Orleans. No mentionof the fact that Canadians defeated theAmericans at the battles of Queenston Heightsand Châteauguay. "Chrysler's Farm" appears,but not "Crysler's," as it should be. This isnot revisionist history; it's just history blind tothe fact that the use of the word "world" in aphrase like "World Series" is an Americanusage, and that it only means "world" to anAmerican mind. For everyone else, there aredifferent perspectives.** CLAIRE HOY, Bill Davis: A Biography.Methuen. It may be that as people politiciansare not radically different from others,but their biographies are certainly in a classof their own. With writers and artists, forinstance, where the process of creation is oftenongoing until death, it is debatable whetheran effective biography is possible until the lifeis ended and enough time had passed for thesubject's repute to settle like an old house intoits final shape. Books like Elspeth Cameron'slife of Hugh MacLennan inevitably have atentative feeling, since there is no knowingwhat the subject will do to change or expandour final view of him. With politicians it isdifferent, since their lives are dependent onthe tides of political fortune; they are interestingwhen they are in power. But who thinksof them again when they retire into privatelife? How often, for example, does one give athought now to Pierre Trudeau? And for thisreason a biography of a politician before hisdeath is entirely appropriate, and it is best ofall either when he is at the height of hispower (as was the case with Trudeau whenRichard Gwyn wrote The Northern Magus)or when he is just on the point of departure,which prompted Claire Hoy to write his biographyof Bill Davis. Bill Davis conveysadmirably the kind of inspired ordinarinesswhich often makes the most successful politician.Intellectually, Bill Davis is no greatshakes, but he is shrewd, pragmatic, and hehas never let principles get in the way ofgathering votes. His long rule proved thatone does not have to be a philosopher — kingor not — to hold on to power, and holding onto power, despite all pretences to the contrary,is the politician's main objective. As a pictureof a man, Bill Davis is not very interesting,because successful politicians automaticallysubmerge whatever real selves they have behindtheir public masks, but as a study ofpolitical manipulation, which is what reallyinterests one in the former master of the BigBlue Machine, it is a knowing and interestingbook.LAST PAGEENTERTAINMENTS : I like the Fraggle RockCalendar (CBC Enterprises, $7.95) for BruceMcNally's splendid illustrations, but the textsof Fraggle readers (The Radish Day Jubileeand others) pale beside the speed of the programmesthemselves : the stories need the visualaccompaniment, and sound, to be of anymore than passing interest.203