Hornsby, Stephen J. 1956–

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Hornsby, Stephen J. 1956–

(Stephen Hornsby, Stephen John Hornsby)

PERSONAL:

Born 1956. Education: University of St. Andrews, M.A. (with honors), 1979; University of British Columbia, Ph.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Canadian-American Center, 154 College Ave., Orono, ME 04473. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Maine, Orono, director of Canadian-American Center and professor of geography and Canadian studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Commonwealth Scholarship, 1979-84; Regional History Certificate of Merit (Atlantic Canada), Canadian Historical Association for Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, 1993.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor, with Victor A. Konrad and James J. Herlan) The Northeastern Borderlands: Four Centuries of Interaction, Canadian-American Center (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1989.

Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: A Historical Geography, McGill-Queen's University Press (Buffalo, NY), 1992.

(Editor, with John G. Reid) New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons, McGill-Queen's University Press (Ithaca, NY), 2005.

(Under name Stephen Hornsby) British Atlantic, American Frontier: Spaces of Power in Early Modern British America, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Stephen J. Hornsby is a professor of geography and Canadian studies, and the director of the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine. His areas of expertise include historical geography, the European expansion overseas, and the history and geography of Eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. In 1993, Hornsby published Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: A Historical Geography. In it, he uses the island of Cape Breton, "an island of marginal significance in the North Atlantic world," according to Thomas F. McIlwraith in the Geographical Review, and uses it as a case study to illustrate his points about human migration and the exploitation of resources. During the nineteenth century, Cape Breton was home primarily to those who had nowhere else to go. A religious purge in Scotland, along with economic problems in that country caused an influx of some Scots. The Irish fleeing the potato blight also came to the island, where a meager living could be made by doing the hard work of coal mining, fishing, shipbuilding, or farming the island's poor soil. Hornsby provides maps showing the ways the land was used as new islanders immigrated, worked, and then emigrated in search of a better life than the one they found on Cape Breton. Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton is "an elegant little book," added McIlwraith, one that "deserves wide recognition on both sides of the Atlantic."

Hornsby's next book, which he edited with John G. Reid, examines the history of the relationship between the New England region of the United States and the Maritime provinces of Canada. New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons had its origins at a conference that took place in 2000 and was cosponsored by the University of Maine and the Gorsebrook Research Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Eighteen of the papers presented at the gathering are included in the book, and they cover a variety of topics, including the aboriginal people who lived in the region before European contact; treaty negotiations that affected the area; the British perceptions of the French-speaking communities in the region; smuggling; fish and game management policies; and comparative studies of the economies and other aspects of the two regions. Reviewing the book for the American Review of Canadian Studies, Randy William Widdis noted that the contributors come from a broad range of backgrounds, and that their writings "disclose much" about the factors that have influenced the region. Widdis added: "As in most anthologies, essays that vary in terms of quality characterize the book, but the contributions taken as a whole capably interweave insights of borderland connections with Canadian and American history in order to generate new insights about transnational relationships."

Hornsby's next publication, British Atlantic, American Frontier: Spaces of Power in Early Modern British America, is an "innovative and broad interpretation of British activity in North America and the Caribbean," reported Alison Games in her review of the book for the Journal of American History. In it, Hornsby takes exception to the historical notion of the Atlantic region as one place or system. Instead, he believes, the Atlantic is better understood as several regions, which he defines by their land use and settlement patterns rather than their geographic locations. According to Hornsby, the British Atlantic includes Newfoundland, Hudson Bay, and the West Indies, and it can best be understood as a place where a few valuable export items provided tremendous benefits to the British. The American Frontier, states Hornsby, includes the agricultural areas of New England and the mid-Atlantic, along with much of the so-called backcountry of North America, where there was plentiful land, not much labor, and an egalitarian atmosphere. The author also identifies two other zones, one made up of the areas where colonial elites held considerable power, such as the fisheries areas of New England, and the areas of the Carolinas and the Chesapeake region where rice and tobacco were grown; the other was the British western Atlantic, where cities remained underdeveloped but Britons remained in control. The book was recommended by Carla Gardina Pestana in the American Historical Review, where she called it a "masterful synthesis" that is "compelling and thought provoking, a welcomed addition to the literature." David Hancock, a reviewer for the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, commented on the "impressive array of historical sources" drawn upon for the book, and he also noted that "unlike most scholars writing today, Hornsby gives more than a nod to Canada and the West Indies." Hancock concluded that at the end of the book, "obvious questions may not have been answered, but few will be unhappy with the attention that he has lavished on geography, agriculture, immigration, and architecture, and with his ability to weave the familiar with the not so familiar." Another endorsement came from Barry Moody in the Canadian Historical Review, where he called British Atlantic, American Frontier "an ambitious, sweeping assessment of the development—spatial, economic, cultural, and political—of the British Empire in the Atlantic world till the end of the American Revolution."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December 1, 1993, J.M. Bumsted, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: A Historical Geography, p. 1707; June 1, 2006, Carla Gardina Pestana, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier: Spaces of Power in Early Modern British America, p. 790.

American Review of Canadian Studies, September 22, 2007, Randy William Widdis, review of New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons, p. 406.

Canadian Book Review Annual, January 1, 2006, Olaf Uwe Janzen, review of New England and the Maritime Provinces, p. 339.

Canadian Geographer, September 22, 2006, Graeme Wynn, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 414.

Canadian Historical Review, March 1, 1994, L.D. McCann, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 121; December 1, 2006, Barry Moody, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 697.

Canadian Journal of History, September 22, 2006, Michael P. Gabriel, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 433.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, November 1, 1992, B. Osborne, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 533; October 1, 2005, B. Osborne, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 354.

Dalhousie Review, June 22, 1994, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 253.

Geographical Review, July 1, 1993, Thomas F. McIlwraith, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 347.

Journal of American History, December 1, 2005, Alison Games, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 952.

Journal of British Studies, January 1, 2006, Isaac Land, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 166.

Journal of Canadian Studies, January 1, 1994, W.G. Godfrey, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 160.

Journal of Historical Geography, July 1, 1993, Chesley W. Sanger, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 365; July 1, 1999, "Time and Tide: The Transformation of Bear River, Nova Scotia," p. 424; July 1, 2006, Daniel Clayton, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 684.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, September 22, 2006, David Hancock, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 295.

Journal of the Early Republic, December 22, 2005, Robert S. Cox, review of British Atlantic, American Frontier, p. 681.

Labour/Le Travail, March 22, 1994, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 315.

New Maritimes, November 1, 1993, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton.

Nova Scotia Historical Review, December 1, 1992, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 155.

Professional Geographer, February 1, 1993, Alan G. Macpherson, review of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton, p. 113.