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Transcript
Farm Roots And War Trauma
- Harold Innis grew up on a farm and served in WWI, which shaped his character and scholarship through hard work and a distrust of industrial technique.
- His trench wound and wartime horror destroyed his faith and left lifelong psychological scars that influenced his thinking.
A Wide-Angle Economic Method
- Innis adopted an institutionalist, historical economics influenced by Veblen and rejected abstract British orthodoxy.
- He argued for a wide-angle, feet-on economics focused on ecology, technology, and institutions.
Fieldwork Across Canada
- Innis canoed fur trade routes, visited outports, mines and mills, and talked directly to fishermen and trappers for first-hand research.
- His fieldwork resulted in The Fur Trade in Canada, rooted in ecology, indigenous techniques, and long-distance commerce.