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This striking reinterpretation of the history of Quebec in the revolutionary era - demonstrated through a micro-historical analysis of 20,000 court records as well as official and unofficial political discourses - shows that a central aim of British Imperial rule was the assimilation and subjugation of the French Canadian majority in the colony.
List of contents
- Introduction: Reinterpreting Quebec as a Colonialist Project: Discourse, Practice, and the Politics of Cultural Assimilation
- 1: 'Thy Mangl'd Empire': Perverted Americans, Barbaric Canadians, and Extravagant Savages
- 2: The Making of Britannicus Canadensis: The Canada Act as Magna Carta
- 3: 'The World is Made for Men': Interpersonal Violence in Quebec, 1763-1830
- 4: 'In this Increasing Commercial Emporium': Buying, Selling, and the Anglicization of Quebec
- 5: 'Qu'il étoit maître chez lui' [he is the master of his house]: family Government and Political Authority in Counterrevolutionary Quebec
- 6: 'Unfrenchifying Quebec': Ethnicity and the Political Debate Between Modern Manners and Ancient Principles
- Conclusion: The Ambivalence of British Rule
- Bibliography
About the author
Nancy Christie was a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Sydney where she received her PhD in 1987. She has taught at various universities in Canada, including the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, Queen's University, McGill-University, Trent University, and the University of Western Ontario. She has written many books and has been awarded two national book awards for her scholarship which has ranged over two centuries and covered a diverse range of themes, all of which has sought to place the history of Canada in a global perspective.
Summary
This striking reinterpretation of the history of Quebec in the revolutionary era - demonstrated through a micro-historical analysis of 20,000 court records as well as official and unofficial political discourses - shows that a central aim of British Imperial rule was the assimilation and subjugation of the French Canadian majority in the colony.
Additional text
The book deserves commendation on multiple fronts, most notably for Christie's skillful excavation of primary sources that offers readers a palpable sense of what it was like for English - and French-speaking colonists, as well as officials in Quebec and Britain, to navigate the intricacies of imperial governance.
