Editing Harold Innis (section)

===Late career and death===
In the 1940s, Harold Innis reached the height of his influence in both academic circles and Canadian society. In 1941, he helped establish the American-based [[Economic History Association]] and its ''[[Journal of Economic History]]''. He later became the association's second president. Innis played a central role in founding two important sources for the funding of academic research: the Canadian Social Science Research Council (1940) and the Humanities Research Council of Canada (1944).<ref>Watson, p. 223.</ref>

In 1944, the [[University of New Brunswick]] awarded Innis an honorary degree, as did his alma mater, [[McMaster University]]. [[Université Laval]], the [[University of Manitoba]] and the [[University of Glasgow]] would also confer honorary degrees in 1947–48.<ref>Watson, pp. 223–24.</ref> He received the [[Royal Society of Canada]]'s [[J. B. Tyrrell Historical Medal]] in 1944.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Past Award Winners |date=21 October 2018 |url=https://rsc-src.ca/en/awards-excellence/past-award-winners#TyrrellMedal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240629010729/https://rsc-src.ca/en/awards-excellence/past-award-winners#TyrrellMedal |archive-date=June 29, 2024 |publisher=The Royal Society of Canada}}</ref>

In 1945, Innis spent nearly a month in the [[Soviet Union]] where he had been invited to attend the 220th anniversary celebrations marking the founding of the country's [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]].<ref>Watson, pp. 223–224.</ref> Later, in his essay ''Reflections on Russia'', he mused about the differences between the Soviet "producer" economy and the West's "consumer" ethos:
{{blockquote|
[A]n economy which emphasizes consumer's goods is characterized by communication industries largely dependent on advertising and by constant efforts to reach the largest number of readers or listeners; an economy emphasizing producer's goods is characterized by communications industries largely dependent on government support. As a result of this contrast, a common public opinion in Russia and the West is hard to achieve.<ref>Quoted in Heyer, p. 33.</ref>
}}

Innis's trip to Moscow and Leningrad came shortly before US–Soviet rivalry led to the hostility of the [[Cold War]]. Innis lamented the rise in international tensions.<ref>Creighton, p. 122.</ref> He saw the Soviet Union as a stabilizing counterbalance to the American emphasis on commercialism, the individual and constant change. For Innis, Russia was a society within the Western tradition, not an alien civilization. He abhorred the [[nuclear arms race]] and saw it as the triumph of force over knowledge, a modern form of the medieval [[Inquisition]]. "The Middle Ages burned its heretics," he wrote, "and the modern age threatens them with atom bombs."<ref>Innis, (Bias) p. 139.</ref>

In 1946, Innis was elected president of the [[Royal Society of Canada]], the country's senior body of scientists and scholars. The same year, he served on the Manitoba Royal Commission on Adult Education and published ''Political Economy in the Modern State'', a collection of his speeches and essays that reflected both his staples research and his new work in communications. In 1947, Innis was appointed the University of Toronto's dean of graduate studies. In 1948, he delivered lectures at the [[University of London]] and [[University of Nottingham|Nottingham University]]. He was elected an International Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] that same year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Harold+Innis&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-03-07 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> He also gave the prestigious Beit lectures at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], later published in his book ''[[Empire and Communications]]''. In 1949, Innis was appointed as a commissioner on the federal government's [[List of Canadian Royal Commissions|Royal Commission]] on Transportation, a position that involved extensive travel at a time when his health was starting to fail.<ref>Watson, pp. 224–25. See also Creighton, pp. 136–40.</ref> The last decade of his career, during which he worked on his communications studies, was an unhappy time for Innis. He was academically isolated because his colleagues in economics could not fathom how the new work related to his pioneering research in staples theory. Biographer John Watson writes that "the almost complete lack of positive response to the communications works, contributed to his sense of overwork and depression."<ref>Watson, pp. 250–55.</ref>

Innis died of [[prostate cancer]] on November 8, 1952, a few days after his 58th birthday. In commemoration, [[Innis College]] at the University of Toronto and Innis Library at [[McMaster University]] were named in his honour.

Following his premature death, Innis' significance increasingly deepened as scholars in several academic disciplines continued to build upon his writings. [[Marshall Poe]]'s general media theory that proposes two sub-theories were inspired by Innis. [[Douglas C. North]] expanded on Innis' "[[vent for surplus]]" theory of economic development by applying it to regional development in the United States and underdeveloped countries.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://eh.net/encyclopedia/harold-adams-innis/|title=Harold Adams Innis|encyclopedia=EH.Net Encyclopedia|access-date=23 April 2014}}</ref> In addition, [[James W. Carey]] adopted Innis as a "reference point in his conception of two models of communication."