Negotiating Identities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Montreal

Edited by Bettina Bradbury and Tamara Myers

UBC Press

Negotiating Identities in 19th- and 20th-Century Montrealilluminates the cultural complexity and richness of a modernizing cityand its people. The chapters focus on sites where identities wereforged and contested over crucial decades in Montreal’s history.Readers will discover the links between identity, place, and historicalmoment as they meet vagrant women, sailors in port, unemployed men ofthe Great Depression, elite families, shopkeepers, reformers, notaries,and social workers, among others. This is a fascinating study thatexplores the intersections of state, people, and the voluntary sectorto elucidate the processes that took people between homes andcemeteries, between families and shops, and onto the streets. This bookwill be of interest to a wide range of social and cultural historians,critical geographers, students of gender studies, and those wanting toknow more about the fascinating past of one of Canada’s mostlively cities.

This book will be of interest to a wide range of social and culturalhistorians, critical geographers, students of gender studies, and thosewanting to know more about the fascinating past of one ofCanada’s most lively cities.

This book combines a number of key topics that greatly enhance historians’ understanding of Montreal’s cultural diversity. Scholars with a wide range of interests – those studying identity formation, the public/private divide, agency and regulation, consumer behavior, and collective memory – will find this an illuminating and valuable volume. Alan Gordon, author of Making Public Pasts: The Contested Terrain of Montréal’s Public Memories

Bettina Bradbury is a member of the History andWomen’s Studies Departments at York University. TamaraMyers is a member of the Department of History at theUniversity of Winnipeg. Contributors: BettinaBradbury, Marie-Eve Harbec, Karine Hébert, TamaraMyers, Mary Anne Poutanen, Darcy Ingram, Jarrett Rudy, AnnaShea and Suzanne Morton, Sylvie Taschereau, and Brian Young

1. Introduction: Negotiating Identities in Nineteenth- andTwentieth-Century Montreal / Bettina Bradbury and TamaraMyers

Part 1: Homes and Homelessness

2. Bonds of Friendship, Kinship, and Community: Gender,Homelessness, and Mutual Aid in Early-Nineteenth-Century Montreal /Mary Anne Poutanen

3. Saving the Union's Jack: The Montreal Sailors' Instituteand the Homeless Sailor, 1862-98 / Darcy Ingram

4. Keeping Men Out of "Public or Semi-Public" Places: TheMontreal Day Shelter for Homeless Men, 1931-34 / Anna Shea andSuzanne Morton

Part 2: Death, Burial, and Widowhood

5. Death, Burial, and Protestant Identity in an Elite Family: TheMontreal McCords / Brian Young

6. Widows Negotiate the Law: The First Year of Widowhood inEarly-Nineteenth-Century Montreal / Bettina Bradbury

Part 3: Youth, Institutions, and Identities

7. The Ideal Education to Construct an Ideal World: The DunhamLadies' College and the Anglican Elite of the Montreal Diocese,1860-1913 / Marie-Eve Harbec, translated by Yvonne Klein

8. On Probation: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Women'sAnti-Delinquency Work in Interwar Montreal / Tamara Myers

9. From Tomorrow’s Elite to Young Intellectual Workers: TheSearch for Identity among Montreal University Students, 1900-58 /Karine Hébert, translated by Steven Watt

Part 4: Selling and Consumption

10. "Behind the Store": Montreal Shopkeeping FamiliesBetween the Wars / Sylvie Taschereau, translated by YvonneKlein

11. A Ritual Transformed: Women Smokers in Montreal, 1888-1950 /Jarrett Rudy

Index

Related Titles