Give and Take

Give and Take is amazingly well researched[...] Patricia E. Roy, Canadian Historical Review

[Tillotson] writes in a light, accessible manner … [she] is skilful in using historical analysis to explain the past through a modern lens. Victor Rabinovitch, distinguished fellow in the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University, Canada's History

…this is a path-breaking work that hopefully will lead to other investigations of Canadians’ love/hate relationship with the state, a relationship where taxes generally land in the hate department. Alvin Finkel, Alberta Views

Canadians urgently need ‘good tax talk,’ and Shirley Tillotson delivers in this brilliant and deeply researched history of taxation, society, and democracy in Canada. This important book raises the level of an old and continuing conversation about taxation, citizenship, and the nation-state – a conversation that resounds through the many chambers of the nation’s past and embraces all of us. Eric Sager, professor emeritus, History, University of Victoria

Give and Take is the very best history we have of Canadian taxation in the twentieth century, one that provides a wonderful model for studying the relationship between public finance and society in a modern liberal democracy. Tillotson’s brilliant use of primary sources sets a high bar for future explorations of the complex and intertwined roles of civic culture and class identity in shaping tax policy. W. Elliot Brownlee, research professor of history, University of California, Santa Barbara

An outstanding achievement. Tillotson’s book is a full-scale treatment of modern taxation in Canada. Her findings and methodology bring tax history onto a new plane. Not many books generate the intellectual force to reshape a subject. Give and Take is one that does. Romain Huret, author of American Tax Resisters

Those interested in future reform will welcome this detailed and fascinating history of the Canadian tax system from the introduction of the national income tax in 1917 to the Carter Commission and the 1971 federal budget. Michael Veall, editor, Canadian Public Policy

Shirley Tillotson’s brilliant book rescues the history of taxation from the grip of technical, abstract detail and gives it a human face. Here is cultural and social history at its best, written in an engaging style. She shows how tax payers and collectors held conversations over whether to comply or resist and how they debated the nature of democracy and citizenship. This book is a major contribution to the history of Canada with wider implications for understanding other twentieth-century societies. Martin Daunton, professor emeritus of economic history, Cambridge University

Rather than relying on ministerial statements and Department of Finance documents, Tillotson delves into the archives and studies ‘the conversation’ between tax authorities and tax payers, revealing emotion as well as logic. In other words, this is a very human history. Joe Martin, director of the Canadian Business and Financial History program, Rotman School of Management

Taxes are the price we pay for civilization. But the social contract underpinning our (sometimes grudging) willingness to pay them is complex, fragile, and should never be taken for granted. Shirley Tillotson’s rollicking history of Canadian tax debates reveals precisely how that social contract was constructed – and why Canada is a much better place for it. Jim Stanford, Harold Innis Industry Professor of Economics, McMaster University

This colourful and convincing portrait of Canadian tax culture masterfully illustrates how tax policy decisions reflected larger political and social currents of change and the power of taxation to define citizenship and the role of government. Shirley Tillotson has a talent for drawing the key characters and conveying the emotions aroused by debates over taxation and government more generally, bringing a delightful humour and wit to the telling of these stories. Lisa Philipps, professor of taxation law, Osgoode Hall Law School, and co-author of Canadian Income Tax Law, 5th ed.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, ‘I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.’ Shirley Tillotson says, ‘With taxes, we try to buy democracy, too.’ In Give and Take, she documents the what and when of twentieth-century-Canadian income tax, but she also explores how taxes redefined Canadians’ relationship with government and with citizenship. The results? ‘Well,’ she says, ‘mixed.’ Christopher Moore, author of Three Weeks in Quebec City: The Meeting That Made Canada