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[This book] is a study of continuity and change in the lives of skilled workers in Hamilton, Ontario, during a period of economic trans­formation. Bryan D. Palmer shows how the disruptive influence of devel­ oping industrial capitalism was counterbalanced by the stabilizing effect of the associational life of the workingman, ranging from the fraternal order and the mechanics' institute to the baseball diamond and the "rough music" of the charivari. On the basis of this social and cultural solidarity, Hamilton's craftsmen fought for and achieved a measure of autonomy on the shop-floor through the practice of workers' control. Working-class thought proved equally adaptable, moving away from the producer ideol­ogy and its manufacturer-mechanic alliance toward a recognition of class polarization. Making ample use of contemporary evidence in newspapers, labour journals, and unpublished correspondence, the author discusses such major developments in the class conflict as the nine-hour movement of 1872, the dramatic emergence of the Knights of Labor, and the begin­nings of craft unionism after 1890. He finds that the concept of a labour aristocracy has litlle meaning in Hamilton, where skilled workers were the culling edge of the working-class movement, involved in issues which directly related to the experience of their less-skilled brethren. More remarkable than the final attainment of capitalist control of the work­ place, he concludes, are the long-continued resistance of the Hamilton workers and their success in retaining much of their power in the pre­-World War I years. --Publisher's description

In the past decade Canadian history has become a hotly contested subject. Iconic figures, notably Sir John A. Macdonald, are no longer unquestioned nation-builders. The narrative of two founding peoples has been set aside in favour of recognition of Indigenous nations whose lands were taken up by the incoming settlers. An authoritative and widely-respected Truth and Reconciliation Commission, together with an honoured Chief Justice of the Supreme Court have both described long-standing government policies and practices as "cultural genocide." Historians have researched and published a wide range of new research documenting the many complex threads comprising the Canadian experience. As a leading historian of labour and social movements, Bryan Palmer has been a major contributor to this literature. In this first volume of a major new survey history of Canada, he offers a narrative which is based on the recent and often specialized research and writing of his historian colleagues. One major theme in this book is the colonial practices of the authorities as they pushed aside the original peoples of this country. While the methods varied, the result was opening up Canada's rich resources for exploitation by the incoming European settlers. The second major theme is the role of capitalism in determining how those resources were exploited, and who would reap the enormous power and wealth that accrued. The first volume of this challenging and illuminating new survey history covers the period that concludes in the 1890s after the creation out of Britain's northern colonies of the semi-autonomous federal Canadian state. ----------------------- Capitalism and Colonialism: The Making of Modern Canada 1890–1960 continues the examination of our nation’s past through a new lens, incorporating the scholarship of Canadian historians to portray a richly endowed and wealthy but very unequal first-world country. This second volume of Bryan Palmer’s history of Canada covers 1890 to 1960. Weaving together themes that include business, labour, politics, and social history, this account brings the experiences of Indigenous peoples into the centre of the narrative. Canada experienced extraordinary growth during these decades, notably after the Second World War when many Canadians quickly became far better off Yet vast inequalities persisted, Indigenous peoples experienced ongoing and often worsening deprivation, and ordinary people saw little or no real improvement in their lives. These realities set the stage for the interplay of reform, resistance and reaction that followed after 1960. Palmer examines the continuing role of capitalism and colonialism in structuring Canada in the period between 1890 and 1960 from capital’s conflicts and fragile ententes with labour, to the struggles of Indigenous Peoples and francophone Canada, and the changing role of Canadian capital internationally. Relying on the work of scholars who have produced a vast academic literature on a wide range of topics in Canadian history, Bryan Palmer offers a new history of Canada which reflects the knowledge and values of 21st-century Canadians. -- Publisher's description

"Critical theory is no substitute for historical materialism; language is not life." With this statement, Bryan Palmer enters the debate that is now transforming and disrupting a number of academic disciplines, including political science, women’s studies, and history. Focusing on the ways in which literary or critical theory is being promoted within the field of social history, he argues forcefully that the current reliance on poststructuralism—with its reification of discourse and avoidance of the structures of oppression and struggles of resistance—obscures the origins, meanings, and consequences of historical events and processes. Palmer is concerned with the emergence of "language" as a central focus of intellectual work in the twentieth century. He locates the implosion of theory that moved structuralism in the direction of poststructuralism and deconstruction in what he calls the descent into discourse. Few historians who champion poststructuralist thought, according to Palmer, appreciate historical materialism’s capacity to address discourse meaningfully. Nor do many of the advocates of language within the field of social history have an adequate grounding in the theoretical making of the project they champion so ardently. Palmer roots his polemical challenge in an effort to "introduce historians more fully to the theoretical writing that many are alluding to and drawing from rather cavalierly." Acknowledging that critical theory can contribute to an understanding of some aspects of the past, Palmer nevertheless argues for the centrality of materialism to the project of history. In specific discussions of how critical theory is constructing histories of politics, class, and gender, he traces the development of the descent into discourse within social history, mapping the limitations of recent revisionist texts. Much of this writing, he contends, is undertheorized and represents a problematic retreat from prior histories that attempted to address such material forces as economic structures, political power, and class struggle. Descent into Discourse counters current intellectual fashion with an eloquent argument for the necessity to analyze and appreciate lived experience and the structures of subordination and power in any quest for historical meaning.--Publisher's description

As Canadian workers, the labour movement, and scholars confront a new millennium, new opportunities and new challenges loom large. This volume, which mirrors Labour/Le Travail Volume 46, commissions a number of articles addressing themes that will be of consequence as we enter the 21st century. The articles that appear in this collection are authored by some of the more prominent social scientists working in the field of labour-related studies, among them Desmond Morton, Ian McKay, Joan Sangster, Cynthia Comacchio, David Frank, and Jacques Rouillard. Their writing appears in the book, grouped in a series of thematic sections: institutions and ideas; gender, sexuality and family; Quebec and the national question; culture; and workers and the state. Topics such as Canadian socialism, pivotal events such as the 1949 Asbestos strike, and important cultural undertakings, such as working-class representations on film and video, are addressed. Historiographical controversies and debates associated with the relations of women’s and working-class histories or different generational styles associated with the presentation of labour’s past are surveyed. This is an issue all interested in Canadian society and its development will not want to miss. --Publisher's description

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.

The article briefly reviews "Canadian and Australian Labour History," edited by Gregory S. Kealey and Greg Patmore, "Brother Max: Labour Organizer and Educator," by Max Swerdlow, edited by Gregory S. Kealey, "The New Era of Global Competition: State Policy and Market Power." edited by Daniel Drache and Meric S. Gertler, "Making a Middle Class: Student Life in English Canada during the Thirties," by Paul Axelrod, "Careless at Work: Selected Canadian Historical Studies," by J.M.S. Careless, "The Political Economy of Manitoba," edited by Jim Silver and Jeremy Hull, "Debating Canada's Future: Views from the Left," edited by Simon Rosenblum and Peter Findlay, "Activists and Advocates: Toronto's Health Department, 1883-1983," by Heather MacDougall, "Perspectives on Canadian Economic Development: Class, Staples, Gender, and Elites," edited by Gordon Laxer, "The Upper Ottawa Valley to 1855," edited by Richard M. Reid, "Women and Social Change: Feminist Activism in Canada," edited by Jeri Dawn Wine and Janice L. Ristock, "Delivering Motherhood: Maternal Ideologies and Practices in the 19th and 20th Centuries," edited by Katherine Amup, Andrée Levesque, and Ruth Roach Pierson, "Radical Sociologists and the Movement: Experiences, Lessons, and Legacies," edited by Martin Oppenheimer, Martin J. Murray, and Rhonda F. Levine, "Fire in the Hearth: The Radical Politics of Place in America; The Year Left, IV," edited by Mike Davis et al., "The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot: Springfield, Illinois, in 1908," by Roberta Senechal, "American Immigrants and Their Generations: Studies and Commentaries on the Hansen Thesis after Fifty Years," edited by Peter Kivisto and Dag Blanck, "Working Time in Transition: The Political Economy of Working Hours in Industrial Nations," edited by Karl Hinrichs, William Roche, and Carmen Sirianni, "Dependent Care and the Employee Benefits Package: Human Resources Strategies for the 1990," by LouEllen Crawford, "Learning About Women: Gender, Politics, and Power," edited by Jill K. Conway, Susan C. Bourque, Joan Scott, "Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe," by David Herlihy, "Fin de Siècle Socialism; and other essays," by Martin Jay, "History and Communications: Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and the Interpretation of History," by Graeme Patterson, "Marx's Proletariat: The Making of a Myth," by David W. Lovell, and "Ideology and Class Conflict in Jamaica: The Politics of Rebellion," by Abigail B. Bakan.

The article briefly reviews "Killing Time, Losing Ground: Experiences of Unemployment." by Patrick Burman, "423 Days on the Picket Line," by Raymond Léger, "Restructuring and Resistance: Perspectives From Atlantic Canada," edited by Bryant Fairley, Colin Leys, and James Sacouman, "Privatizing a Province: The New Right in Saskatchewan," by James Pittula and Ken Rasmussen, "Up and Doing: Canadian Women and Peace," edited by Janice Williamson and Deborah Gorham, "Race, Class, Gender: Bonds and Barriers," edited by Jesse Vorst, et al., "Co-operative Organizations and Canadian Society: Popular Institutions and the Dilemmas of Change," edited by Murray E. Fulton, "Attitudes to Social Structure and Mobility in Upper Canada, 1815-1840: 'Here We Are Laird Ourselves,'" by Peter Russell, "Old Ontario: Essays in Honour of J.MS. Careless," edited by David Keane and Colin Read, "Essays in the History of Canadian Law, III: Nova Scotia," edited by Philip Girard and Jim Phillips, "Moments of Unreason: The Practice of Canadian Psychiatry and the Homewood Retreat, 1883-1923," by Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, "In Whose Interest? Quebec's Caisses Populaires, 1900-1945," by Ronald Rudin, "Perspectives on American Labor History," edited by J. Carroll Moody and Alice Kessler-Harris, "Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life," edited by Peter Oresick and Nicholas Coles, "Labor Divided; Race &. Ethnicity in United States Labor Struggles, 1835-1960," edited by Robert Asher and Charles Stephenson, "Within the Shell of the Old: Essays on Workers' Self-Organization" and "George Rawick, 1930-1990: In Memoriam," edited by Don Fitz and David Roediger, "Fitness in American Culture: Images of Health, Sport, and the Body, 1830-1940," edited by Kathryn Grover, "Visible Histories: Women and Environments in a Post-War British City," by Suzanne Mackenzie, "Death by Migration: Europe's Encounter with the Tropical World in the Nineteenth Century," by Philip D. Curtin, "Kropotkin and the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism, 1872-1886," by Caroline Cahm, "Resistance and Revolution in Mediterranean Europe, 1939-1948," edited by Tony Judt, "The Dialectic of Change," by Boris Kagarlitsky, "The New Detente: Rethinking East-West Relations," edited by Mary Kaldor et al., "The Debate on Classes," by Erik Olin Wright et al., and "An Introduction to Labor Law," by Michael Evan Gold.

The article briefly reviews "Working People and Hard Times: Canadian Perspectives," edited by Robert Argue, Charlene Gannage, and D.W. Livingstone, "Social Movements/Social Change: The Politics and Practice of Organizing," edited by Frank Cunningham, Sue Findlay, Mar-lene Kadar, Alan Lennon, and Ed Silva, "Life Spaces: Gender, Household, Employment," edited by Caroline Andrew and Beth Moore Milroy, "Changing Patterns: Women in Canada," edited by Sandra Burt, Lorraine Code, and Lindsay Dorney, "Cape Breton Lives: A Book from Cape Breton's Magazine," edited by Ronald Caplan, "Feudal Society and Colonization: The Historiography of New France," by Roberta Hamilton, "Conspicuous Production: Automobiles and Elites in Detroit, 1899-1933," by Donald Finlay Davis, "In the Shadow of the Statue of Liberty: Immigrants, Workers, and Citizens in the American Republic, 1880-1920," edited by Marianne Debouzy, "The Jungle," by Upton Sinclair, introduction by James R. Barrett, "Sealskin and Shoddy: Working Women in American Labor Press Fiction, 1870-1920," edited by Ann Schofield, "Union Maids Not Wanted: Organizing Domestic Workers, 1870-1940," by Donna L. Van Raaphorst, "Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry: Interim Report" by the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, "A Revolutionary of the Heart: Essays on the Catholic Worker," edited by Patrick G. Coy, "Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars," edited by Margaret Randolph Higonnet, Jane Jensen, Sonya Michel, and Margaret Collins Weitz, "Women in the First Capitalist Society: Experiences in Seventeenth-Century England," by Margaret George, "Sectarian Violence: The Liverpool Experience, 1819-1914," by Frank Neal, "Childhood in Nineteenth-Century France: Work, Health and Education Among the Classes Populaires," by Colin Heywood, "Stalin's Industrial Revolution: Politics and Workers, 1928-1932," by Hiroaki Kuromiya, and "House and Street: The Domestic World of Servants and Masters in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro," by Sandra Lauderdale Graham.

The article briefly reviews "The Illustrated History of Canada," edited by Craig Brown, "The Current Industrial Relations Scene in Canada, 1987," by Pradeep Kumar, et al., "Work and New Technologies: Other Perspectives," edited by Chris DeBresson, et al., "Sources in the Law Library of McGill University for a Reconstruction of the Legal Culture of Quebec, 1760-1890," by G. Blaine Baker, et al., "Saskatchewan Workers: A List of Sources," by Robin Wylie, "Essays on New France," by W.J. Eccles, "Land, Settlement, and Politics on Eighteenth-Century Prince Edward Island," by J.M. Bumsted, "Unemployment: International Perspectives," edited by Morley Gunderson, Noah Meltz, and Sylvia Ostry, "Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution, 1790-1860," by Brooke Hindle and Steven Lubar, "The Labor Movement in the United States: A History of the American Working Class from 1890 to1896," by Friedrich A. Sorge, translated by Kai Schoenhals, "The Cold War Against Labor," v. 1-2, edited by Ann Fagan Ginger and David Christiano, "Black American Politics: From the Washington Marches to Jesse Jackson," by Manning Marable, "'Slaves of the Depression': Workers' Letters About Life on the Job," edited by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, "Reasons for Pardoning the Haymarket Anarchists," by John P. Atgeld; "Memoirs of a Wobbly," by Henry E. McGuckin; and "The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America," by Upton Sinclair, "Politics and People in Revolutionary England," edited by Colin Jones et al., "The Tories and the People, 1880-1935," by Martin Pugh, "Class, Power and Social Structure in British Nineteenth-Century Towns, " edited by R.J. Morris, "The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class," edited by Janet Wolff and John Seed, "1919: Britain on the Brink of Revolution," by Chanie Rosenberg, "The People of Paris: An Essay in Popular Culture in the 18th Century," by Daniel Roche, "Money and Liberty in Modern Europe: A Critique of Historical Understanding," by William M. Reddy, " Festival of the Oppressed: Solidarity, Reform and Revolution in Poland, 1980-1981," by Colin Barker, "Latin American Labor Organizations," edited by Gerald Michael Greenfield and Sheldon L. Maram, and "Theories of the Labor Movement," edited by Simeon Larson and Bruce Nissen.

Hard Work: The Making of Labor History, by Melvyn Dubofsky, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "What Do We Need A Union For? The TWUA in the South, 1945-1955," by Timothy J. Minchin.

The article reviews the book, "Red Chicago: American Communism at Its Grassroots, 1928-1935," by Randi Storch.

The article reviews the book, "The Other Quiet Revolution: National Identities in English Canada, 1945-1971," by José E. Igartua.

The article reviews the book, "Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman," by Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich.

The article reviews the book, "Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism," by Erik S. McDuffie.

The article reviews the books "Global Capitalism in Crisis: Karl Marx and the Decay of the Profit System" by Murray E.G. Smith, "In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives" by Greg Albo, Sam Gindin, and Leo Panitch, and "The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development" by Michael A. Lebowitz.

The article reviews the book, "Workers of the World: Essays Toward a Global Labor History" by Marcel van der Linden.

The article reviews the book, "The Sweetest Dream: Love, Lies, & Assassination," by Lillian Pollak.

The article reviews the book, "Dog Days: James P. Cannon vs. Max Shachtman in the Communist League of America, 1931-1933," by Prometheus Research Library Staff.

The introduction discusses the 50th anniversary volume of Labour/Le Travail and explains the journal's ongoing efforts to cover the labour studies field.