Harold Innis Reflects

Offering fresh insight into the early life of Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952), this volume makes available a number of previously unpublished writings from the renowned Canadian economic historian and media scholar.Part I, Innis’s autobiographical memoir, chronicles his farm-based family background, early education, military service during World War I, and the beginnings of what would become a distinguished academic career. Part II features a selection of correspondence during his military service, revealing both the pain and perceptions derived from that experience, and other war-related writings. It also includes “The Returned Soldier,” a detailed piece of research and a compassionate plea to recognize how the aftermath of the Great War would affect those who served as well as the individuals and institutions on the home front. Years before the term “post-traumatic stress disorder” was coined, Innis was acutely aware of the condition and suggested ways in which it might be treated. Other war-related items included are Innis’s first published article (dealing with the economics of the solider) and a draft speech composed in the fall of 1918. All original materials have been extensively annotated to provide context for the contemporary reader and researcher.

The editors of this volume have brought together a variety of writings from the early life of Canadian economic historian and media scholar Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952). Included are a memoir, written in the last year of Innis’s life, covering the first 26 years of his life, 44 letters written in 1916 and 1917 (many from France), and miscellaneous documents, including his 1918 master’s thesis at McMaster University, which examined the condition of Canadian soldiers returning from World War I and what could be done to help them. This topic of course remains important today. While not exploring the fields of expertise for which Innis became known and respected, these items present the youth of an important Canadian scholar. Clearly a specialized collection of documents, this book will be of interest to Canadian readers and people interested in a personal view of World War I., Recent developments in media theory and communication studies have renewed interest in the foundational role Harold Innis played in these fields. This carefully-curated set of primary materials—available here for the first time—is  a treasure trove for scholars of Innis, political economy, communication, and Canadian history. The material is thrilling in its intimacy and full of fresh insights into Innis’s life and thought. It is an indispensable and generative resource for readers across the many fields that Innis’s work continues to shape., Writing to his mother from France in March 1917, Harold Innis reported that "the only way this country could be muddier would be to be bigger." A few months later a piece of German shell casing slammed into his thigh, ending his war. Of course, his war never really ended, and he would spend his career wondering what happened not only to him but to an entire generation. In this carefully edited collection, we see the origins of that intellectual journey in what Innis called "the furnace of war." No one is better suited to bring this volume together than William Buxton, Michael Cheney, and Paul Heyer, all accomplished Innis scholars., This book provides insights into the formative years of one of Canada’s most important intellectuals, economic historian and communications theorist Harold Adams Innis. A strikingly original thinker, Innis continues to be relevant, but few people read the full range of his work. Harold Innis Reflects brings to readers Innis’ previously-unpublished reflections upon his early life, including his earliest scholarly writings and thoughts about the effects of the First World War upon soldiers such as himself. The collection is a valuable contribution to Innis scholarship., Harold Innis—renowned among scholars of history and communications alike for his rigorous academic research and far-ranging theories—here reveals different sides of himself: as a warm-hearted, perceptive, and sometimes darkly comic observer of the horrors of the First World War and as a wry memoirist of his own life. This well-edited and accessible collection offers us invaluable new insights into the life and thought of one of the twentieth century’s most probing and original minds.

William J. Buxton is professor of communication studies at Concordia University in Montreal; his numerous publications include Talcott Parsons and the Capitalist Nation-State, Harold Innis in the New Century, and Harold Innis and the North. Michael R. Cheney is professor of communication and associate professor of economics at the University of Illinois Springfield. He served as inaugural editor for the Journal of Media Sociology and publishes on politics, culture, and technology. Paul Heyer is professor of communication studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His publications include Communication and History, Titanic Century, and Harold Innis.