Taking to the Streets : Crowds, Politics, and the Urban Experience in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Montreal

The author notes that the 1840s was a period of rapid growth and social conflict in Montreal. The city's public life was marked by a series of labour conflicts and bloody sectarian riots; at the same time, the ways that elites wielded power and ordinary people engaged in the political process were changing, particularly in public space. The author examines how Montreal's urban environment became a vital and contentious political site during the tumultuous period from the end of the 1837-38 rebellions to the burning of Parliament in 1849. The author looks at a broad range of collective crowd experiences, including riots, labour demonstrations, religious processions, and parades. By examining how crowd events were used both to assert claims of political authority and to challenge their legitimacy, he charts the development of a contentious democratic political culture in British North America.

Montreal and Kingston

McGill-Queen's University Press

2020

xiii-311p.

en

978-0-228-00127-0