The Northern Vision of Harold Innis

Abstract

Harold Innis, Canada's pre-eminent social scientist in the inter-war period, developed a northern vision for Canada in the 1920s. Through field research and study of communications, the fur trade and mineral production, he developed an understanding of the North as an industrial frontier and as a binding agent for national unity. This paper examines Innis's engagement with an imagined North by assessing the various cultural and intellectual impulses that focussed his attention on the region. It re-reads his field notes as cultural texts inscribing a gendered and racialized North, and considers his portrayal of the region to southern audiences.