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Patterns of Prejudice: A History of Nativism in Alberta by Howard Palmer (review)

When national attention was focused recently on the denial of the holocaust and related doctrines purveyed by Jim Keegstra, school-teacher and mayor of Eckville, one could frequently sense the knowing assumption of many commentators that here again was a predictable recrudescence of the characteristic anti-Semitism and nativism still lurking among red-neck Albertans. Palmer's book should help to put such notions in perspective, and at least some of them to rest. 'The development of nativism and prejudice in Alberta was not unique,' he writes; 'rather, it was part of the story of the rise and decline of nativism and prejudice throughout the English-speaking world in the twentieth century' (182). Generally speaking, the author's sensitivity and balance in handling a notoriously complex subject should be commended. Where others might yield to the temptation to become indignantly judgmental, Palmer makes his points rationally and dispassionately. He contends that nativism cannot always be linked clearly to economic adversity, nor always to predictable sociological factors. He does find prejudice emerging more strongly in mining camps and cities than in rural areas and small towns; and argues that 'visibility' (physical, cultural, etc.) of particular groups has been more important than size in provoking ethnic conflict thus the hostility directed at various times toward the Japanese and Hutterites. Many readers will be surprised at the strong case made that, despite some qualifications, the general effect of the Social Credit phenomenon 'was to lessen ethnic tensions' (•43). That anti-Semitism, for example, was less virulent in Alberta than elsewhere and it was owed much to Aberhart.