Radical Atlantic: Joseph Howe and the Culture of Reform

Abstract

This essay engages with critical reappraisals of Loyalist culture by exploring the ways that Joseph Howe’s enthusiastic identification with Britain served as a basis for his struggle to achieve political reform in Nova Scotia. It suggests that the rhetorical extravagance of Howe’s praise for Britain as an unrivaled site of political justice, both in its parliamentary structure and its broader culture, amounted to a form of strategic idealism designed to provide Howe with an important form of critical leverage in his political struggles at home. Focussing primarily on Howe’s work in the Novascotian during his years as its editor (1828-41) and other key texts such as his defence speech in his 1835 libel trial, this essay traces the ways that Howe’s Loyalist heritage could be mobilized on behalf of the struggle for reform.