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The article reviews the book, "Relations professionnelles, emploi et formation au Québec," published by Critique Régionale, nos. 23-24, 1994, Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Over the past seventeen years, trade union educator D'Arcy Martin has conducted hundreds of courses for Canadian workers. He has learned that there are people-"conscious romantics"-who dream of a more egalitarian world while confronting the obstacles that stand in the way of building it. This book provides a refreshing personal account of union culture and its dynamics. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Reimagining Canada: Language, Culture, Community and the Canadian Constitution," by Jeremy Webber.

Creating Economic Opportunities: The Role of Labour Standards in Industrial Restructuring, edited by Werner Sengenberger and Duncan Campbell, is reviewed.

In March 1919, more than 230 union representatives gathered in Calgary for the Western Labor Conference. There, they initiated plans for a revolutionary industrial organizatin, the One Big Union, which embodied the internationalist principles of Marxist unionism. Within its first year, the One Big Union (OBU) issued over 70,000 membership cards, and was a powerful symbol of working-class demands for the end of class exploitation. However, given its patriarchal inheritance, the OBU was always something more than just a class organization. It was an attempt by working men to organize around a specific sense of gender identity, which I have called Marxist masculinity, in order to reconstitute the social bases of male power. The first chapter outlines the events surrounding the creation of the OBU in 1919 and the wave of general strikes that swept through Canada that summer. In particular, it sketches the relationship between class politics and a masculine structure of feeling, and how this relationship influenced the OBU's ideology. The second chapter discusses three elements around which Marxist masculinity was constructed. To begin, the experiences of women in the OBU are situated in relation to the organization's policies regarding membership in individual unions and the Women's Auxilliary. As well, it examines the personal lives of OBU leaders and the naturalized assumptions about heterosexuality which governed their politics. The final chapter discusses the purge of Tom Cassidy and Catherine Rose, two dedicated activists fired because of rumours of their sexual involvement. The OBU leadership wanted to prevent a public moral panic around issues of "free love" and was thus determined to have the matter kept quiet. In taking this position, OBU leaders regulated the gender and sexual identities of union members through concepts of proper masculine and feminine socialist behaviour.

The article reviews the book, "The Centralia Tragedy of 1919: Elmer Smith and the Wobblies," by Tom Copeland.

The article reviews the book, "Copper Crucible: How the Arizona Miner's Strike Recast Labor-Management Relations in America," by Jonathan D. Rosenblum.

The article reviews the book, "In Subordination: Professional Women, 1870-1970," by Mary Kinnear.

The article reviews the book, "Le droit disciplinaire des corporations professionnelles," by Mario Goulet.

The article reviews and comments on the books "Don't Call Me Servant: Government Work and Unions in Ontario, 1911-1984," by Wayne Roberts, and "Lives in the Public Service: A History of the Manitoba Government Employees' Union," by Doug Smith, Jock Bates and Esyllt Jones.

The 1920s are seen by historians as a crucial period in the formation of the Canadian working class. In Ideal Surroundings, Suzanne Morton looks at a single working-class community as it responded to national and regional changes. Grounded in labour and feminist history, with a strong emphasis on domestic life, this analysis focuses on the relationship between gender ideals and the actual experience of different family members. The setting is Richmond Heights, a working-class suburb of Halifax that was constructed following the 1917 explosion that devastated a large section of the city. The Halifax Relief Commission, specially formed to respond to this incident, generated a unique set of historical records that provides an unusually intimate glimpse of domestic life. Drawing on these and other archives, Morton uncovers many critical challenges to working-class ideals. The male world-view in particular were seriously destabilized as economic transformation and unemployment left many men without the means to support their families, and as the daughters of Richmond Heights increasingly left their class-defined jobs for service and clerical positions. Drawing on recent theoretical and empirical work, Morton expertly combines interpretive and narrative material, creating a vivid portrayal of class dynamics in this critical postwar era. Her focus on the home and domesticity marks and innovative move towards the integration of gender in the study of Canadian history. --Publisher's description

In the 1890s, Rossland was the most important mining centre in southeastern British Columbia. In Roaring Days, Jeremy Mouat examines many different aspects of mining, from work underground to corporate strategies. He also brings to life the unique individuals who were a part of this history – the miners who toiled long hours under unimaginable working conditions, the citizens of Rossland who built a bustling town out of the wilderness, and the mine owners and entrepreneurs who became wealthy beyond all expectations. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "La Prostitution féminine à Montréal, 1945-1970," by Danielle Lacasse.

The article reviews several books including "Labor Visions and State Power: The Origins of Business Unionism in the United States," by Victoria C. Hattam, "The Experience of Workers in the United States With Democracy and the Free Market During the Nineteenth Century," by David Montgomery and "The State and Labor in Modern America," by Melvyn Dubofsky.

The article reviews the book, "My Past Is Now: Further Memoirs of a Labour Lawyer," by John Stanton.

Exploring the role of women and feminism in the early Canadian socialist movement, Janice Newton traces the growth and ultimate decline of feminist ideas within the Canadian Socialist League, the Socialist Party of Canada, and the Social Democratic Party. Newton argues that socialist women and their concerns posed a radical challenge to the male-dominated left. Early socialist women fought to be treated as equals and actively debated popular women's issues, including domestic work, women in industry, sexuality, and women's suffrage. They provided a unique and vibrant perspective on these issues and challenged the middle-class bias inherent in the women's movement. Broadening our understanding of Canadian social history, Newton analyses the intersection of two important social movements - the labour/socialist and the turn-of-the-century feminist movements - and draws conclusions that are essential for understanding the class and gender characteristics of social criticism and activism in this period. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Hoffa," by Arthur A. Sloane.

The article reviews the book, ÈLa dimension humaine des organisations, by Nicole Côté, Laurent Bélanger and Jocelyn Jacques.

The article reviews the book, "Alex in Wonderland," by Alex Macdonald.

The article briefly reviews "Canada and the United States," edited by John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall," "O'Callaghan: The Making and Unmaking of a Rebel," by Jack Verney, "'We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up': Essays in African Canadian Women's History," by Peggy Bristow et al., "Crime and Criminal Justice: Essays in the History of Canadian Law," edited by Jim Phillips, Tina Loo, and Susan Lewthwaite, "Matters of the Mind: The University in Ontario, 1791-1951," by A.B. McKillop, "R.C.M.P. Security Bulletins: The Early Years, 1919-1929," edited by Gregory S. Kealey and Reginald Whitaker, "Ethnic Cultures in the 1920s in North America," by Wolfgang Binder, "The 'Lower Sort': Philadelphia's Laboring People, 1750-1800," by Billy G. Smith, "Transforming Rural Life: Dairying Families and Agricultural Change, 1820-1885," by Sally McMurry, "Labor's Struggles, 1945-1950," by Irving Richter, "Participant Observer: An Autobiography," by William Foote Whyte, "Newcomers in the Workplace: Immigrants and the Restructuring of the U.S. Economy," edited by Louise Lampbere, Alex Stepick, and Guillermo Grenier, "Restoring the Promise of American Labor Law," edited by Sheldon Friedman, et al., "The Life and Literary Pursuits of Allen Davenport with a further selection of the author's work," edited by Malcolm Chase, "UK Labour Market: Comparative aspects and institutional Developments," edited by Ray Barrell, "Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis," edited by David M. Kotz, Terrence McDonough, and Michael Reich, "Women, Work, and Place," edited by Audrey Kobayashi, "Color, Class and Country: Experiences of Gender," edited by Gay Young and Bette J. Dickerson, "Making Labour Law in Australia: Industrial Relations, Politics, and Law," by Laura Bennett, and "Making Workers Soviet: Power, Class and Identity," edited by Lewis H. Siegelbaum and Ronald Gregor Suny.