Letter from the CBHA/ACHA Book Review Editor

Stephen Salmon writes:

In the current issue of The Prospectus, we are able for the first time to present two book reviews. The  reviews below discuss works which might be considered legal-business history. Long ago in graduate school I learned the obvious historical truth that nothing beats a complicated lawsuit for producing the precious raw material we all require, reams of documents. However, as both reviewers note, the legal profession is significant for more than merely churning out piles of paper for historians. The activities of courts and the forms of legal practice shape much of how business has always been conducted. We have much to glean from James Muir’s study of eighteenth century Halifax courts and Norman Bacal’s dissection of the collapse of Heenan Blaikie in 2015.

Current plans call for more multiple sets of reviews in The Prospectus. For that to happen our review pipeline needs to expand. As of this week your review editor has seven books out for review and three reviews in hand. This is not enough to publish two reviews an issue on an ongoing basis. I also have nine books available for review. These range from a study of the IMF and the Greek bailout to a history of fin-de-siècle Parisian property developers. The list is appended below. The books are available to creditable reviewers on a first come first serve basis. If you are interested please contact me directly at: reviews.cbha@gmail.com.

Books Available for Review

 

  • Paul Blustein, Laid Low: Inside the Crisis That Overwhelmed Europe and the IMF (MQUP, 2016).
  • Alexia M.Yates, Selling Paris: Property and Commercial Culture in the Fin-de-siecle Capital (HUP, 2015).
  • Alvin Cramer Segal, My Peerless Story: It Starts with the Collar (MQUP, 2017).
  • Anne Reinhardt, Navigating Semi-Colonialism: Shipping, Sovereignty, and Nation-Building in China, 1860-1937 (HUP, 2018).
  • Beth Parker, Unstoppable: The Story of Asset-Based Finance and Leasing in Canada (Barlow, 2014).
  • Tirthankar Roy, A Business History of India: Enterprise and the Emergence of Capitalism from 1600 (CUP, 2016).
  • Janis Thiessen, Snacks: A Canadian Food History (UMP, 2017).
  • Richard J. Grace, Opium and Empire (MQUP, 2016).
  • David Tough, The Terrific Engine: Income Taxation and the Modernization of the Canadian Political Imaginary (UBCP, 2018).
Letter from the CBHA/ACHA Book Review Editor

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