1 Innis, Harold, Essays in Canadian Economic History, ed. by Innis, M. Q. (Toronto, 1956), 16.Google Scholar

2 Innis, Harold, Empire and Communications (Toronto, 1950, 1972), 5, 3.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., 3.

4 Innis, Harold, The Bias of Communication (Toronto, 1951), xvii.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., 190. See also ibid, 4; and Innis, Empire, 6. Innis undoubtedly paints an idealized picture of Greece, though he is not unaware of the human cost involved in cultural creativity. “The outburst of rich artistic activity in Greece coincided with a decline in the status of women.” Bias, 140. I owe this point and many others to one of the anonymous referees to whom I am most grateful.

6 Innis, Bias, 85.

7 Marshall McLuhan, “The Later Innis,” Queen's Quarterly 60, 392.

8 Most of the references in Innis's A History of Communications and in his other writings to philosophers or political philosophers come from Sabine's standard history; and when Innis quotes passages from, say, Plato, he usually produces one of the standard “famous” passages that he most likely gleaned from the many secondary sources he mined so profitably.

9 Harold Innis, “Charles Norris Cochrane, 1889–1946,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 12, 96, 97.

10 See Cochrane's, discussion of Julian the Apostate in Christianity and Classical Culture (London, 1944)Google Scholar, Ch. 7.

11 Harold Innis, “The Role of Intelligence: Some Further Notes,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 1, 281.

12 Innis, Empire, 92. I have adopted the charming terms “the scholar as hireling” and “the scholar as eunuch” on the suggestion of an anonymous referee.

13 This raises a major theme in Innis's writings to which I shall return later in the paper.

14 Harold Innis, A History of Communications, typescript published on microfilm, Ch. 5, 40. This work and Innis's The Idea File were edited by Innis's friends after his death. The originals can be found in the University of Toronto Archives, to whose friendly and learned archivists I am indebted.

15 Innis, Bias, 30.

16 Innis, A History, Ch. 7, 59.

17 Ibid., Ch. 6, 53.

18 Ibid., Ch. 6, 99.

19 Ibid., Ch. 8, 197.

20 Harold Innis, “Review of ‘From Economic Theory to Policy’ by E. R. Walker,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 10, 107.

21 Innis, A History, Ch. 8, 305.

22 Innis, Harold, Political Economy in the Modern State (Toronto, 1946), xvi.Google Scholar

23 Harold Innis, “Geography and Nationalism: A Discussion,” Geographical Review, 35, 302.

24 Harold Innis, “On the Economic Significance of Culture,” Journal of Economic History 4, 94–95.

25 Innis, “Geography and Nationalism,” 303.

26 Harold Innis, “Review of Economic History of the United States: C. W. Wright,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 8, 306.

27 Innis, Political Economy, viii.

28 Ibid., x.

29 Innis, Harold, Changing Concepts of Time (Toronto, 1950), v.Google Scholar

30 Harold Innis, “The Concept of Monopoly and Civilization,” Explorations 3, 91. Heavy overhead costs (such as the French suffered in their struggle with the English in the eighteenth century attempt to control the Canadian fur trade), the diversion of intellectual resources from culture to military activities, and a preoccupation with short term diplomatic or military moves at the expense of preparing for the domestic future were all involved in the burden.

31 Harold Innis, “In the Tradition of Dissent,” University of Toronto Quarterly 13, 131.

32 Innis, “Great Britain, the United States and Canada,” in Essays in Canadian Economic History, 405.

33 Innis, “The Military Implications of the American Constitution,” in Changing Concepts of Time, 21–45.

34 Innis, “The Strategy of Culture,” in Changing Concepts of Time, 19.

35 Innis, “Great Britain, the United States and Canada” in Essays in Canadian Economic History, 412.

36 Innis, “The Strategy of Culture” in Changing Concepts of Time, 2.

37 Ibid., 14.

38 Ibid., 19.

39 Marshall McLuhan, “Introduction” to Bias: “Forward” to Empire.

40 Professor Hugh Thorburn kindly lent me the lecture notes he took in Harold Innis's senior undergraduate course in Economic History in 1948–1949. The course as taught then reflected the material that appeared in Empire and Communications. These notes are consecutively paginated, and I will refer to them as, in this case, Thorburn, 162.

41 Innis, “Role of Intelligence,” 283.

42 Innis, Bias, 41.

43 Innis, Bias, 132.

44 Harold Innis, “Communications and Archeology,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 17, 240.

45 Innis, Empire, 55. The force of “steeped” here is difficult to reckon, but Innis at other places makes it clear that it is extremely difficult for contemporary man to come to terms with the oral culture he attributed to classical Greece. More generally, Innis observed: “We must all be aware of the extraordinary, perhaps insuperable, difficulty of assessing the quality of a culture of which we are a part or of assessing the quality of a culture of which we are not a part.” Bias, 132.

46 Innis, “The Church in Canada,” in Essays in Canadian Economic History, 387.

47 “Nor shall I confine my interest to the British empire as a unique phenomenon…. I shall attempt rather to focus attention on other empires in the history of the West, with reference to empires of the East, in order to isolate factors which seem important for purposes of comparison…. It has seemed to me that the subject of communication offers possibilities in that it occupies a crucial position in the organization and administration of government and in turn of empires and of Western civilization.” Innis, Empire and Communications, 4–5 (my emphasis). Note the relegation of communications to the role of “a factor” albeit a “crucial” one, in understanding the main subject of investigation, namely empires.

48 Thorburn, 98.

49 See Oakeshott, Michael, On Human Conduct (Oxford, 1975), esp.Google Scholar “On the Civil Condition.”

50 Innis, Bias, 141.

51 Harold Innis, “The Newspaper in Economic Development,” Journal of Economic History 2, supplement, 31.

52 Innis, Bias, 34.

53 Ibid., 75.

54 Harold Innis, “The Press, A Neglected Factor in the Economic History of the Twentieth Century,” in Changing Concepts of Time, 78.

55 Innis, Bias, xvii.

56 Ibid., 81; Innis, Empire, 41.

57 Innis, Bias, 32.

58 Innis, Empire, 117.

59 Innis, Bias, 4.

60 Innis, Empire, 54.

61 Ibid., 41.

62 Innis, “The Concept of Monopoly and Civilization,” 91.

63 Innis, Bias, 133.

64 Thorburn, 168.

65 Innis, Empire, 148.

66 Innis, A History, Ch. 4, 60; also Ch. 6, 93.

67 Innis, Bias, 128.

68 Innis, Empire, 153–154.

69 Ibid., 76.

70 See Innis, “The Newspaper in Economic Development”; Innis, “The Military Implications of the American Constitution”; and Innis, Bias, 60.

71 Innis, “The Concept of Monopoly and Civilization,” 94.

72 Innis, Bias, 140.

73 Harold Innis, “Roman Law and the British Empire,” in Changing Concepts of Time, 57. The newspapers made and unmade politicians and policies; but they lent general support to the legitimacy of the post-civil war settlement and the constitution generally.

74 Innis, “Great Britain, The United States and Canada,” in Essays in Canadian Economic History, 412.

75 Innis, Bias, 189.

76 Ibid., 90.

77 Ibid., 133.

78 Innis, Empire, 170.

79 Innis, “The Oral Tradition and Greek Civilization.”

80 Innis, Bias, 10.

81 Ibid., 138.

82 Innis, Empire, 137.

83 Innis, Bias, 124.

84 Thorburn, 74.

85 Innis, Empire, 115.

86 Innis, Bias, 85.

87 Thorburn, 81.

88 Innis, Bias, 90.

89 Ibid., 76.

90 Ibid., 121.

91 “The form of mind from Plato to Kant which hallowed existence beyond change is proclaimed decadent. This contemporary attitude leads to the discouragement of all exercise of the will or the belief in individual power.” Innis, Bias, 90. See also, Innis, Political Economy, 79.

92 Innis, Bias, 89.

93 Innis, “The Role of the Newspaper in Economic Development,” 33.

94 See D. Q. Innis, “A Note on Communication and Electromagnetic Resources in North America,” Appendix I, in Innis, Bias, 199–202.

95 D. Q. Innis, “A Note,” 202.

96 Innis, “The Role of Intelligence,” 282.

97 Innis, Bias, 82.

98 See, among many, Innis, Political Economy, x; Innis, “Geography and Nationalism,” 302; Innis, “Great Britain the United States and Canada,” 405; Innis, “The Penetrative Powers of the Price System” in Essays in Canadian Economic History, 271.

99 Innis, “The Strategy of Culture,” 19.

100 I owe this specific point, as well as many insights gained in a long discussion, to Dr. George Grant, to whom I am much indebted.

101 Harold Innis, “Social Sciences in the Post-War World,” Canadian Historical Review 22, 119.

102 Innis, Political Economy, viii.

103 Innis, Empire, 163.

104 Innis, Bias, 84–85.

105 Innis, Political Economy, 73.

106 Harold Innis, “A Plea for the University Tradition,” Dalhousie Review 24, 299.

107 Innis, A History, Ch. 6, 103.

108 Innis, Bias, 203. See also Innis, Essays in Canadian Economic History, 385.

109 Ibid., 209.

110 Ibid., 208.

111 Ibid., 208.

112 Thorburn, 180.