PROMOTERS, PATRIOTS, AND PARTISANS: HISTORIOGRAPHY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH CANADA M. Brook Taylor Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1989. 294pp, paper, ISBN 0-8020-2683-4 (cloth) $40.00, 0-8020-6716-6 (paper) $17.95. CIP Post-secondary Reviewed by John D. Crawford. Volume 18 Number 3 1990 May This is an impressive and well-organized collection of information about Canada's early historians and their works. The title provides the basic divisions in the subject as the attitude of historians changed through time. The chapters are mostly regional in content and are naturally limited to the eastern half of Canada. The glimpses we are given suggest that many of those who were interested in writing on Canadian history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries wrote from particular viewpoints, each writer having either axes to grind or opinions to espouse. Objectivity creeps in with the passage of time. One of Taylor's achievements is in making this work readable. This is accomplished through an easy, flowing style enlivened by occasional anecdotes and owes a great deal to the entertaining characteristics of many of the writers who inhabit its pages; indeed, the writers seem quite as interesting as their works. It is also a comfort to realize that most of these works are accessible to present-day scholars. The text is well supported by many footnotes and an excellent index. Written in a style that avoids turgidity, this book is both erudite and readable. It will encourage readers to look again at the material described, with an interest whetted by a fresh look at the period and its writers. Written by a scholar for scholars, this book should prove invaluable for serious students of Canadian history. John D. Crawford, Marigold School, Victoria, B.C.