Catherine Gidney. Tending the Student Body: Youth, Health, and the Modern University. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. 304 pp. Photographs

In Canada, there is a relatively large body of scholarly work on the history of universities and higher education. This literature covers a variety of topics – institutional evolution, internal governance, student movements, relations with governments and external forces, etc. – and approaches these from a range of perspectives – faculty members, students, administrators, and staff. Catherine Gidney’s well-written and interesting monograph makes a significant contribution to this literature, as well as making important connections with the scholarship in a number of different fields. One of the great strengths of this book is Gidney’s in-depth and nuanced examination of gender and its relationship to health services and physical education provisions. Firstly, she explores the role that evolving conceptions of masculinity and femininity had on the various programs developed at Canadian universities and how these differed for men and women. In attempting to build the character of their students, which was defined in unique ways for men and women, administrators implemented vastly different services for their students based on gender. Secondly, Gidney examines the opportunities these programs created for female administrators. She includes an entire chapter on female health services and the occupational opportunities this created for women employed by the university; female administrators were charged with overseeing the unique programs created for their female students and thus found new opportunities and a separate space for themselves and their students. This is an enormous contribution to the literature, as most histories of Canadian universities overlook the existence of female administrators and fail to acknowledge the unique spaces they could create within their institutions. However, Gidney largely fails to explore the differences that existed between universities throughout Canada and tells a story that appears universal. While she provides evidence from a number of different universities, her focus is largely on Victoria College at the University of Toronto. This is apparently because of the availability of archival sources, which limits the work of all historians. However, this overlooks the importance of region, institutional culture, religion, etc. to the emergence of programs designed to develop the moral character of students. She states that, “Central Canadian and denominational universities were more likely to have developed compulsory physical training and medical examinations in tandem” (34); however, this is only briefly mentioned in the conclusion of Chapter 1 and only serves to highlight an important gap in the analysis that would add greater complexity to the narrative being presented. That said, Gidney does an excellent job connecting her discussion of specific health services and physical education programs to the larger societal developments occurring throughout the first half of the twentieth century. She examines, for instance, changing conceptions of the purpose of the university, which was once focused on developing the moral character of its students but became engaged in the training of professionals for participation in the labour market. This had a tremendous effect, she argues, on the provision of services that were largely aimed at the former purpose. Moreover, she locates her narrative within the changing ideas, morals, and values that shaped the wider Canadian society. This is particularly evident in her discussion of gender and the evolving conceptions of masculinity and femininity that influenced programs and services within universities. It is also evident, though, in her discussion of “character” and the ways this changed over the decades. Finally, she also makes a significant contribution to scholarly work related to the history of medicine by exploring the ways that administrators were influenced by shifting notions of health, the rise of psychology as a field of study, and the emergence of “experts” who eventually dictated the direction …