Negotiating Identities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Montreal

Book excerpt: With its focus on sites where identities were forged and contested over crucial decades in Montreal's history, this collection illuminates the cultural complexity and richness of a modernizing city. Readers will discover the links between identity, place, and historical moment as they meet vagrant women, sailors in port, unemployed men of the Great Depression, elite families, shopkeepers, and reformers, among others. This fascinating study explores the intersections of state, people, and the voluntary sector to elucidate the processes that took people between homes and cemeteries, between families and shops, and onto the streets.