Island Studies Journal 6(2), Book Reviews

In The Ivory Tower and Beyond, Doug Munro examines the work of five Pacific historians who in various ways moved beyond the expected responsibilities of a university lecturer: teaching and archival research (and administration, but that is seen by both Munro and his subjects as a chore to be endured) -and in doing so have shaped the way Pacific history as a sub-discipline has developed.Munro, citing Maxine Berg (biographer of Eileen Power), suggests that historians 'deserve to be remembered'; in part because their interests and activities outside the academy shape the history they write (p. 6).The 'participant historian' of the subtitle, as used by Munro, covers several types of outside involvement: civic involvement unrelated to professional expertise, constitutional and governmental responsibilities that draw on professional expertise, extensive use of fieldwork, and writing which moves across disciplinary boundaries.One might quibble about whether all these activities should be included, but that seems ungenerous.In practice the breadth of possible activities 'beyond the ivory tower' adds great interest to the accounts.The key chapter of the book is the one on J.W. Davidson (1915-73), the acknowledged 'father' of the sub-discipline of Pacific History.It does not cover his constitution-making in detail; rather it looks at the precursors to that involvement, showing how Davidson's PhD study at Cambridge allowed him to move beyond the Eurocentric focus on British or French policy in the Pacific to investigate informal rather than formal agents of empire: traders, settlers, the men on the spot.He was also able to work with the anthropologist Raymond Firth, even though Firth was at the London School of Economics.The focus on anthropological understanding along with close examination of events in the islands led to the development of the 'island-centred history' that the Australian National University Pacific historians were to promote under Davidson's leadership after his appointment as Professor of Pacific History in 1952.Munro also shows how Davidson's constitutional work for Samoa and the Cook Islands was prefigured in the influence of Lord Hailey and of Margery Perham, which also advocated self-government by the late 1940s.Interestingly, the University of the South Pacific Library's current copy of Hailey's African Survey is inscribed 'JW Davidson 1943'.Other chapters demonstrate other forms of activity 'beyond the Ivory tower'.Munro investigates the civic involvement of John Beaglehole , who as well as editing Cook's and Banks' Journals and writing a biography of Cook, was involved in disputes over freedom of speech at the University of New Zealand, and criticised the actions of the New Zealand government over the Waterfront Strike Emergency Regulations in 1951, and both sides of politics for bribery during the 1957 elections.His musical interests led to involvement with various arts organizations, and a somewhat unseemly row about the conductor of the National Orchestra in 1946.Munro's sad chapter on Richard Gilson, whose book Samoa, 1830-1900 was finished posthumously by his wife Muriel, and Davidson, emphasises Gilson's anthropological insights and obsession with detail.

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