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The barriers to re-employment identified by Canadian respondents in a study in part represent accurate reflections of the problems facing the mature unemployed, however, many of the beliefs and attitudes of employers represent inaccurate or unfounded perceptions. The most frequently cited barrier to the re-employment of older job-hunters was that older workers are less qualified for contemporary employment than younger workers. Socio-cultural orientations of stereotyping assume that the media and other socializing agents directly and effectively teach prevailing cultural stereotypes. This suggests that there are a number of things which can be done within organizations to focus attention on the inappropriate role that stereotypes play in the evaluation of older workers.

The article reviews the book, "Economic Restructuring and Industrial Relations in Australia and New Zealand: A Comparative Analysis," edited by Mark Bray and Nigel Haworth.

The article reviews the book, "The State of the Unions," edited by George Strauss, Daniel Gallagher, and Jack Fiorito.

The article reviews the book, "The Invention of Free Labor: The Employment, Relation in English and American Law and Culture, 1350-1870," by Robert J. Steinfeld.

The article reviews the book, "L'État de santé des Montréalais 1880-1914," by Martin Tétreault.

The Lower Canadian Rebellion of 1837 has been called the most important event in pre-Confederation history. Previously, it has been explained as a response to economic distress or as the result of manipulation by middle-class politicians. Lord Durham believed it was an expression of racial conflict. The Patriots and the People is a fundamental reinterpretation of the Rebellion. Allan Greer argues that far being passive victims of events, the habitants were actively responding to democratic appeals because the language of popular sovereignty was in harmony with their experience and outlook. He finds that a certain form of popular republicanism, with roots deep in the French-Canadian past, drove the anti-government campaign. Institutions such as the militia and the parish played an important part in giving shape to the movement, and the customs of the maypole and charivari provided models for the collective actions against local representatives of the colonial regime. In looking closely into the actions, motives, and mentality of the rural plebeians who formed a majority of those involved in the insurrection, Allan Greer brings to light new causes for the revolutionary role of the normally peaceful French-Canadian peasant. By doing so he provides a social history with new dimensions. --Publisher's description

During most of the 1960s, the CSN was both an advocate of provincial autonomy and a defender of federalism. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, a majority of its militants came to favour separatism. In 1980, the CSN gave its critical approval to a yes vote in the referendum. Yet the labour union central did not officially endorse independence, mostly because its leadership feared internal divisions and disaffiliations. In addition, the CSN expressed its disappointment with the governmental record of the Parts québécois which had come to power in 1976.

Sets out the parameters of a jointly authored study to be published on the complexities and implications of the law of master and servant in England and the British Empire. Argues that the concept and provision of employment legislation can be determined through individual contract and through penal sanctions that continue to affect employment law. Analysis of the law from the 17th century to the 20th centuries shows the varying legislation developed into a distinctive jurisdiction that was enforced by magistrates, both formally and informally. Discusses the methodology and process involved in the study, including the building of a database of all relevant statutes. Note: The book was subsequently published as "Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and the Empire, 1562-1955." edited by Douglas Hay and Paul Craven, North Carolina Press, 2005.

The article reviews the book, "Rethinking Labour-Management Relations: The Case for Arbitration," by Howard F. Gospel.

"What ever happened to the great Canadian labour-history debates of the early 1980s?" a well-informed Argentinian labour historian asked me recently. The gist of my rambling, uncertain response was "Things have become a lot more complex." Bryan Palmer must have had similar thoughts when he sat down to revise and update his nearly ten-year-old history of the Canadian working-class.' The publication of his self-styled "rethinking" of the field gives us all an opportunity to reflect on how the writing of working-class history has evolved and changed since those heady days and what a synthesis of the huge volume of new work ought to look like. It seems appropriate to place Palmer at the centre of such a historiographical review since the 1983 version of his Working-Class Experience was widely seen as the first synthesis of the new working-class history and, indeed, in his long series of books and articles, and through his penchant for confrontation and debate, Palmer has played a major role in defining what the rest of the historical profession (and many others) thought Canadian labour historians were up to. With this new book, he has returned to centre stage. --Author's introduction

Using the theoretical framework of the feminist debates about equality and difference, this article deconstructs the arguments used by feminists and others to defend women's status as workers in the Great Depression, a period notorious for its anti-working woman sentiment. The findings suggest the false polarity of the equal rights and maternalist traditions, tracing the articulation of both in the 1930s, showing their points of intersection, and ultimately questioning their existence in any pure form.

The article reviews the book, "Canadian Socialism: Essays on the CCF-NDP," by Alan Whitehorn.

The article reviews the book, "The Nature of Their Bodies: Women and Their Doctors in Victorian Canada," by Wendy Mitchinson.

A study compared men and women clerical-secretarial workers in one public-sector institution (University of Toronto). Just 7% of the workforce was male, and they were concentrated mainly in the clerical job classifications. Men were found to be less committed to the occupation than women and reported a greater sense of occupational choice. Women tended to find the work more personally meaningful than men, and men were somewhat more likely to find the work trivial and tedious. Both sexes were extremely discontent with their developmental and promotional opportunities. This suggests an occupation with inadequate developmental opportunities and inadequate succession planning, rather than one in which there is a systematic gender bias influencing who gets ahead. Younger workers felt this gap in opportunity even more strongly than older workers. Younger workers as a group may be less willing to accept the sorts of conditions and restraints that have for too long been part and parcel of pink-collar occupations.

The article reviews the book, "Paradigm Shift. The New Promise of Information Technology," by Don Tapscott and Art Caston.

During the last century, 26 million Italian women, men, and children have traded an uncertain future in Italy for the prospect of a better life elsewhere. Canada has long been home to Italian immigrants, but in the years just after the Second World War they began to arrive in multitudes. Toronto emerged as the most popular Canadian destination and now, with more than 400,000 residents of Italian heritage, has one of the largest Italian populations outside Italy. Franca Iacovetta describes the working-class experiences of those who came to Toronto from southern Italy between 1946 and 1965, focusing on the relations between newly arrived immigrant workers and their families." "The Italians who came to Toronto before 1965 were predominantly young, healthy women and men eager to secure jobs and prepared to make sacrifices in order to secure a more comfortable life for themselves and their children. Franca Iacovetta examines the changes many of them had to face during the transition from peasant worker in an under-developed, rural economy to wage-earner in an urban, industrial society." "Although both women and men had to struggle and were exploited, Iacovetta shows that they found innovative ways to recreate cherished rituals and customs from their homeland and to derive a sense of dignity and honour from the labours they performed." "Such Hardworking People is informed by a feminist analysis. Iacovetta shows that for both sexes work patterns and experiences, as well as self-perceptions, were influenced by domestic responsibilities and gender relations within the household and by the labour market, employer strategies, and kin-linked networks of support. In addition to conducting numerous interviews with some of the immigrants, she has drawn on recent scholarship in immigration, family, labour studies, oral history, and women's history. --Publisher's description