State and society in transition : the politics of institutional reform in the Eastern Townships, 1838-1852 / J.I. Little.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Little, J. I. (John Irvine), 1947-

Series:

Studies on the history of Quebec.

Studies on the history of Quebec = Etudes d'histoire du Quebec

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Eastern Townships (Québec)--History.

Eastern Townships (Québec).

Eastern Townships (Québec)--Politics and government.

Eastern Townships (Québec)--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xi, 320 p., [14] p. of plates : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Buffalo : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Using a variety of documentary sources, including hundreds of petitions, letters, and reports to the government, Little traces the complex relationship between community life and government regulation. He reveals that at the same time development of responsible government was leading to increasingly centralized authority at the provincial level, a persistent sense of localism was forcing the state to decentralize its new institutions at the community level. The local population of this largely American-settled corner of Quebec, Little shows, clearly exerted an important influence on the evolution of the education, legal, social welfare, and municipal systems. State and Society in Transition makes a major contribution to the study of state formation in the recently unified province of Canada by taking into account not only the dialectical process between the centre and periphery but also the impact of institutional reform on social and economic development in general.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Politics of Patronage and Economic Development

The Legal System

Community Regulation

Origins of Local Government

Municipal Reform, 1845-51

The Demise of Voluntarism: School Reform to 1846

Peripheral Settlements and Later Developments

Conclusion

Appendix: Data on Government-Funded Schools in the Eastern Townships, 1831-51

Abbreviations

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85437-2

9786612854378

0-7735-6646-5

OCLC:

732600848