Monday, October 03, 2022

Cole Harris 1936-2022 RIP: historical geographer-philosopher

Cole Harris (Richard Colebrook Harris in his early publications) must be the greatest of the historical geographers of Canada. (Well, who else? Maybe Andrew Hill Clark, who crossed the American-Canadian border long before it's was fashionable, might be noted. And some francophone historical geographers of 19th century Quebec. And Arthur Ray.)  But Cole Harris's determination to root historical data in geographical frameworks, while remaining all the time humane and philosophical about his subjects, seems to me unmatched.  

His work starts with the seigneurial regime of New France, gradually becomes more or less pan-Canadian, and then, as it starts to focus in on his home territory of British Columbia, becomes at once increasingly personal and also increasingly committed to understanding indigenous geographies obliterated by colonial settlement and by colonial historico-geographical thinking, well before that perception was common in academia.

There's quite an eloquent death notice available, not yet a lot of broader appreciations of his contributions.  But even the titles are impressive.  The Seigneurial System in Early CanadaThe Reluctant Land: Society Space and Environment in Canada Before Confederation. The Resettlement of British ColumbiaMaking Native Space: Colonial, Resistance and Reserves in British Columbia.  Who else wrote scholarly articles with titles like "Of Poverty and Helplessness in Petite-Nation" -- without looking silly at all?  And The Historical Atlas of Canada (of which I am proud to have contributed to part of one page in the three-volume set).  Now there's a body of work.

 
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