The social history of ideas in Quebec /

This work is an English-language translation of the first volume of a two-volume set published in French in 2000. One of the earliest social and intellectual histories of Quebec, it shared one prize for distinguished Canadian academic literature and was honorably mentioned for another. Lamonde (emer., French language and literature, McGill Univ., Canada) examines francophone social and intellectual growth in Quebec from 1760 until the election of Wilfred Laurier as Prime Minister of Canada in 1896. Although his book is mainly a social and intellectual history, the author emphasizes the relationship of that history to the political history of Quebec. He also pays particular attention to the changing attitudes of Francophones toward liberalism and to the differences in English and French liberalism. Lamonde says very little about the attitudes of Anglophones in Quebec, and he ignores the influence of social and intellectual growth in upper Canada on Quebec. Nor would all agree with the exceptional influence he attributes to Laurier's speech on liberalism in 1877. Excellent bibliography, index, and notes. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries. P. T. Sherrill emeritus, University of Arkansas at Little Rock