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About the Book
In this richly documented work, Serge Courville tells the geographical history of Quebec, from the appearance of the first human groups through to the present day. This detailed and erudite book maps the major stages of Quebec’s collective development, providing a geographical record of the many social relationships that over time created a sense of place. Landscape, Courville shows, is the keeper of memory, the record of successive changes, and a witness to the genesis of the new. Places that were once agricultural, then left to waste and ruin, are today revivified by tourism. Areas that now house office buildings were long ago open playgrounds where children ruled. Drawing on vast research, Courville shows how, in spite of the turbulence Quebec often endures – or perhaps because of it – the land itself may be seen as an important participant in the history of its peoples.
Quebec: A Historical Geography was originally published by Les Presses de l’Université Laval as Le Québec: Genèses et mutations du territoire.
About the Author(s)
During his twenty-two years as a professor in the Department of Geography at Université Laval, Serge Courville authored or co-authored some seventeen books, including an ambitious comparative study of colonization and immigration in Canada. Richard Howard has been translating books from the French, chiefly in the social sciences, for over three decades.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations / viii
Preface and Acknowledgments / xi
Introduction / xiii
PART 1 The Territory
1. Historical Depth / 3
General Characteristics / 3
Legal Evolution / 4
Horizons of Development / 13
PART 2 Prehistoric Ranges
2. Origins / 19
Postglacial Environment / 19
Human Arrivals / 20
Two Major Geographic Domains / 21
Geography as a Reflection of Way of Life and Culture / 30
3. European Contact / 33
The Norse / 33
The First True Contacts / 34
Ascending the St. Lawrence / 36
French Trade Strategy / 39
Consequences for Aboriginals / 42
Vain Hopes / 45
PART 3 Frontier Farmers
4. Establishing a Colony / 49
Bridgehead Strategy / 49
An Original Land Distribution Approach / 52
Legal Framework / 63
The Church’s Complementary Role / 66
5. A Century of Expansion / 69
Royal Government / 69
A Chiefly Rural Development / 82
Colonial Geography / 88 A Dense Cultural Space / 97
6. After the Conquest / 99
Relative Peace / 99
Institutional Change / 103
Economic and Social Change / 111
PART 4 Growth and Colonization
7. Transition / 121
Population Explosion, 1815-40 / 121
The Ecumene Transformed / 122
Institutional, Economic, and Social Change / 130 End-of-Era Tensions / 151
8. Taking the Land / 153
The Colonization Argument / 153
Example from Afar / 156
Promotional Tools / 158
Other Ideological Tools / 162
Scientific Legitimacy / 169
Limited Results / 173
9. The Other Frontier / 189
The Geography of the 1950s / 189
A Century of Change / 194
End of a Context / 245
PART 5 Prospects
10. From Growth to Recession / 251
The Backwardness Debate / 251
Maîtres chez nous! / 253
Demographic Breakdown and Territorial Redeployment / 26
Economic Restructuring and Its Territorial Consequences / 268
Uproar of the 1990s / 278
Today’s Challenges / 282
Conclusion / 286
Afterword / 291
Notes / 296
References / 304
Index / 323
Reviews
“A monumental survey, by one of Canada’s foremost historical geographers, of the changing use of the territory that became Quebec, from the beginnings of human occupation to the present. Drawing on materials unknown to most English readers, this work paints a vivid picture of a predominantly rural society faced, in the mid-nineteenth century, by the loss of new agricultural land and the challenges of urbanization and industrialization. After the mid-twentieth century, a largely urbanized Quebec faced the drastic demographic, social, and cultural changes that still reverberate there. Courville paints this large panorama with great insight and clarity. His book will be a valued text, and of broad interest to scholars and the public.”
-- Cole Harris, author of The Reluctant Land and general editor of the first volume of The Historical Atlas of Canada
“More than a book, this is a dictionary, an encyclopedia. It’s a volume that can be read not just from beginning to end but also diagonally, from back to front, and from top to bottom. It shouldn’t be confined to three centimetres on a bookshelf but instead kept open on the corner of one’s desk … Clearly written, chock-full of figures, tables, and maps, and including an extensive bibliography, it is ideal for class use and will be of interest to all those who study and teach history.”
-- Patrice A. Dutil, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University
“Following twenty years of study devoted to the historical geography of Quebec, Serge Courville presents a large fresco of the origins and transformations of the Québécois territory.”
-- Claude Manzagol, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, Université de Montréal
Sample Chapter
Front Matter and Chapter One
Related Topics
Geography > Canada
History > Canada
Other Ways To Order
In Canada, order your copy of Quebec from UTP Distribution at:
UTP Distribution
5201 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3H 5T8
Phone orders: 1(800)565-9523 or (416)667-7791
Fax orders: 1(800)221-9985 or (416)667-7832
Email: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca
Ordering information for customers outside Canada
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