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The article reviews the book "Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America: Issues of Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender," by Hans A. Baer.

The article briefly reviews Bridget Anderson's "Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Realities of Domestic Labour;" Barbara Paleczny's "Clothed in Integrity: Weaving Just Cultural Relations and the Garment Industry;" Walter Johnson's "Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market;" Anna Heilman's "Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman;" Lesley Gill's "Teetering on the Rim: Global Restructuring, Daily Life, and the Armed Retreat of the Bolivian State;" "Public Sector Pay Determination in the European Union" edited by Robert Elliott, Claudio Lucifora, and Dominique Meurs; Philip Resnick's "The Politics of Resentment: British Columbia Regionalism and Canadian Unity;" "Against the Grain: Foresters and Politics in Nova Scotia" by L. Anders Sandberg and Peter Clancy; and "The Nonprofit Sector in Canada: Roles and Relationships," edited by Keith G. Banting.

The article briefly reviews Howard Margolian's "Unauthorized Entry: The Truth About Nazi War Criminals in Canada, 1946-1956;" Raka Ray's "Fields of Protest: Women's Movements in India;" Naila Kabeer's "The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi Women and Labour Market Decisions in London and Dhaka;" Daniel James's "Doña María's Story : Life, History, Memory, and Political History;" "Women's Work in Britain and France" by Abigail Gregory and Jan Windebank; Elliott D. Sclar's "You Don 'I Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization;" Mary H. Blewett's "Constant Turmoil: The Politics of Industrial Life in Nineteenth- Century New England;" Keith Wrightson's "Earthly Necessity: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain;" Stephen Heathorn's "For Home, Country and Race: Constructing Gender, Class, and Englishness in the Elementary School, 1880-1914;" and Mêlante Nolan's "Bread Winning: New Zealand Women and the State."

This article reports the results of an empirical analysis of self-employment among recent college and university graduates using the National Graduates Survey databases. It finds that self-employment rates 2 years after graduation, calculated by year of graduation and level of education, ranged from 6.5% to 7.8% for men, and from 3.2% to 5.2% for women. Five years after graduation, the rates had increased, ranging from 9.9% to 11.1% of men, and from 5.3% to 6.7% for women. The evidence regarding employment rates, job satisfaction, the job-education skill match and earnings (the latter including the estimation of both cross-sectional and fixed effects models) suggests that self-employment is generally associated with enhanced labor market outcomes - that is, the results of "pull" factors. Policy implications are discussed.

The Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) offered a generous but time-limited earnings supplement to a randomly assigned group of lone parents—who were also long-term social assistance recipients—if they found full-time work and left social assistance. Employment data was collected for this group over a three-year period following the offer, and for a randomly-assigned control group. This article analyzes the characteristics of the first job that SSP participants found after they left social assistance. The occupations and industries of the first job held are analyzed as is SSP's impact on hourly wages, weekly hours and job stability. The article finds that SSP increased employment in jobs that were no worse (and no better) than the jobs that participants might have taken in the absence of the program.

The article reviews and comments on the book, "Progressive Heritage: The Evolution of a Politically Radical Literary Tradition in Canada," by James Doyle.

The article reviews the book, "In the Company of Diamonds: De Beers, Kelinzee and the Control of a Town," by Peter Carstens.

The paper is framed by the author's reminiscence of his attendance at a public tour of the Springhill underground mine in Nova Scotia. The tour guide, in response to a question, suddenly spoke compellingly of the disaster that had taken place there. The paper then analyzes the place of oral and public working-class history in an era of deindustrialization. There is a tendency for oral history to be used simply to provide an emotional gloss, but the author argues that particular incidents can also become a turning point in terms of the bigger picture. The author emphasizes the usefulness of dialogue and mutual interrogation in the cultural re-situation and re-imagination of narratives of workers' experience, struggles, and perspectives on change.

Self-employed workers have an legal ambiguous status. Traditionally self-employment is equated with entrepreneurship and legally it is considered to be a form of independent contracting and thus outside the ambit of labour protection and collective bargaining laws. But the evidence suggests that most of the self-employed, especially those who do not employ other workers, are much more like employees than they are like entrepreneurs. Instead of attempting to draw a new line between employment and independent contracting for the purpose of determining the scope of labour protection, collective bargaining, and social insurance laws, all workers, including the self-employed, who depend on the sale of their capacity to work should be covered by these laws, unless there are compelling public policy reasons for a narrower definition.

Two books are reviewed: "Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Economy," by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, and "Disposable Domestics: Immigrant Women Workers in the Global Economy," by Grace Chang.

Reviews the book 'Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950,' by Peter McInnis.

The article reviews the book, "The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics and Culture," by John D'Emilio.

The importance of volunteer activity for employees, employers and governmental and non-governmental organizations that are increasingly relying on volunteers is discussed, followed by an econometric analysis relating volunteer activity to a variety of characteristics of work and family as well as to personal and demographic characteristics of the volunteers. The analysis is based on Cycle 9 of the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS) of 1994—an ideal data set since it links volunteer activity to a wide range of characteristics of work and family. The results are interpreted through the lens of a household production function framework, highlighting the importance of time cost and income, but also characteristics of work and family. (English)

The article reviews the book, "Scènes de la vie en rouge: L'époque de Jeanne Corbin 1906-1944," by Andrée Lévesque.

The article reviews the book, "De Français à Paysans: Modernité et tradition dans le peuplement du Canada français," by Leslie P. Choquette.

This classic, first-of-its-kind study of merchant shipping illuminates the manner in which the rapid development of shipbuilding in Prince Edward Island played a significant role in Canada's early history. James Yeo, Sr., once a village labourer in his native Cornwall, came to the colony and quickly amassed a fortune from both shipbuilding and trade. His rough-and-ready business deals spawned his mercurial rise to prominence in the colony. First published in 1967, this book originated from an idea by Ann Giffard and was jointly executed with her husband, Basil Greenhill. It connects the burgeoning expansion of shipbuilding in the colonies with the settlers' hometown in Devon, and explains why, when Britain was cut off from supplies of wood in Europe, shipbuilding suddenly took hold in Canada. It is an unique study that shows that local history is an important window into the interconnected world of economic development. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940-1970," by Ronald D. Cohen.

Dans le contexte actuel de pénuries de compétences, la fonction ressources humaines — après avoir encouragé les départs anticipés — se voit confrontée au défi de maintenir en emploi les employés vieillissants. Après avoir passé en revue les principales pratiques de gestion associées à la rétention des employés de 50 ans et plus, les auteurs mesurent leur effet sur l’extension de la vie professionnelle de 402 cadres des services sociaux et de santé de Montréal. Les résultats, une fois validés à partir de ceux de deux autres sources de données (tirés de la même enquête), permettent d’élaborer une stratégie de maintien en emploi axée sur les quatre dimensions suivantes : 1) élaboration d’un projet de fin de carrière, 2) aménagement du temps de travail, 3) amélioration de la qualité de vie au travail, 4) stimulants financiers. // In many industries in Quebec and Canada, as well as in other Western countries, labour shortages have now replaced labour surpluses in a context where succession is growing scarce and a real culture of rapid departure has developed as a result of the recent waves of early retirement and the work overload that this has created for the “survivors.” After years of encouraging departures and of managing early retirement programs, the human resources (HR) function now faces the new challenge of attempting to retain aging employees in today’s context of multiple restructuring, infrastructure sharing, growing competition and—for the Public Service—tighter management of the financial resources that the state makes available to institutions. This raises the question of whether it is possible today to have end-of-career employees extend their working lives. In the 1980s and 1990s, numerous studies (Rosen and Jerdee 1985a; Nusberg 1986, 1989; Meier 1988; Dennis 1988; Hale 1990; Shea 1991) presented—based on the specific needs and expectations of this category of workers—management practices which were supposed to satisfy end-of-career employees and encourage them to stay in their jobs longer. However, the issue of the effectiveness of these practices has rarely been addressed. What is the value of this model of managing aging? Can it be useful for HR managers? According to the domain-specific literature, a retention strategy may be based on a number of practices aimed at extending the working life of older employees. These practices will be presented according to seven main categories: career planning, career development, career moves, job content design, time management, pay and benefits, and employment relationship. The effectiveness of these practices will then be assessed on the basis of a sample of managers who, in March 2001, answered a more general questionnaire on job dissatisfaction, mobilization and retention in the Montreal health and social services sector. Out of a total of 3525 managers, 1054 managers answered the questionnaire. Of this number, 402 managers were aged 50 years or over and formed the sample used in this study. Extension of working life (EWL), the dependent variable used in this study, was assessed through four indicators: expectations of early retirement, expectations of extending working life, planned retirement age and desired age (regardless of any financial consideration). Thirty-seven practices which are supposed to be linked with retirement departure were drawn from the literature and retained as independent variables. Other variables—socio-demographic, professional, psychological and organizational—act as control variables in certain analyses. The results show that the percentage of explanation of EWL through end-of-career management practices is only 13%. As amply repeated in the literature, end-of-career managers are particularly partial to individualized arrangements. These managers stay on because their employer has organized a stimulating end-of-career project for them that is either challenging or offers particularly attractive working conditions. Without these accommodations, there is no hope of retaining these managers, short of offering substantial financial incentives. From this analysis of management practices emerged a strategy for retaining older managers based on: (1) a stimulating end-of-career project; (2) individualized arrangements of work time (and place) or advantages which allow for this flexibility and (3) in addition to—or in the absence of—these elements, financial incentives can always be used to “purchase” the retention of older employees. To validate the retention strategy which emerged from the preceding results, two additional analyses were conducted. The first analysis used other independent variables, i.e. the opportunities offered by the workplace to satisfy a number of professional expectations. These variables could be considered as intervening variables between management practices and the decision to stay employed. The second analysis was based on the results of an open-ended question which asked the respondent, “Under what conditions would you agree to extend your career beyond the planned retirement age?” The results allow us to complete and specify the retention strategy described above. Thus, four tools are available to retain end-of-career managers in the Montreal health and social services sector: End-of-career individual project. Time management. Improvement of quality of working life. Financial incentives. Although the impact of these practices on the extension of working life is less significant than the impact of individual factors (seniority, health status, expected financial situation at retirement, importance of work in life, etc.), the impact of these practices is far from insignificant. Thus, this demonstrates that the HR function has a role to play in the development and implementation of a management strategy to retain managers aged 50 or over.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser, is reviewed.