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Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the WorldA Region and Its Global Connections |
eBook Coming Soon
A worldly perspective on the history, culture, and identity of the Eastern Townships.
The Eastern Townships of Quebec are celebrated in popular discourse as a charming and remote nature playground for busy Montrealers, an appendage to stately Quebec City, and a northern abutment to the Northeast Kingdom of the United States. A closer look reveals a region with its own gravity, sense of being, and worldly connections.
Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World examines the region's direct links to larger prevailing international forces and identities. Here, the Eastern Townships take centre stage as the reader encounters the vibrancy of a place marked not by its insularity but by its long history: a central meeting ground shaped by its many engagements with the world. The book provides new perspectives on compelling and significant topics in Townships history and culture, including Indigenous land use, the mobility of peoples to and from the region, linguistic diversity, economic production, education, sport, religion, and culture in myriad forms. These studies recast the Eastern Townships as a centre, a borderland, a lieu de passage between nations, communities, and peoples.
Featuring original and compelling insights, Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World confirms that this beautiful region was and is a global place, one intimately connected to the world
Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World examines the region's direct links to larger prevailing international forces and identities. Here, the Eastern Townships take centre stage as the reader encounters the vibrancy of a place marked not by its insularity but by its long history: a central meeting ground shaped by its many engagements with the world. The book provides new perspectives on compelling and significant topics in Townships history and culture, including Indigenous land use, the mobility of peoples to and from the region, linguistic diversity, economic production, education, sport, religion, and culture in myriad forms. These studies recast the Eastern Townships as a centre, a borderland, a lieu de passage between nations, communities, and peoples.
Featuring original and compelling insights, Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World confirms that this beautiful region was and is a global place, one intimately connected to the world
Details
438 Pages, 6.5 x 9.5
48 figures, 8 tables
ISBN 9780228023586
March 2025
Formats: Paperback, eBook
“Fascinating throughout, Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World freshens current views about the Townships while emphasizing that the region must be understood in larger contexts including Quebec, New England, and beyond.” Chad Gaffield, University of Ottawa
“Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World is a timely collection that challenges readers to think in new ways about global trends as they interact with local and regional realities, with specific reference to one of Quebec’s most interesting and distinctive regions.” Peter Gossage, Concordia University
“Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World is a timely collection that challenges readers to think in new ways about global trends as they interact with local and regional realities, with specific reference to one of Quebec’s most interesting and distinctive regions.” Peter Gossage, Concordia University
Cheryl Gosselin is professor of sociology at Bishop’s University.
Andrew C. Holman is professor of history and director of the Canadian Studies Program at Bridgewater State University.
Christopher Kirkey is director of the Center for the Study of Canada and the Institute on Quebec Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Andrew C. Holman is professor of history and director of the Canadian Studies Program at Bridgewater State University.
Christopher Kirkey is director of the Center for the Study of Canada and the Institute on Quebec Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh.
TABLES AND FIGURES xi
FOREWORD xv
Michael Goldbloom
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii
INTRODUCTION: The Eastern Townships: A Region and Its World 3
Andrew C. Holman, Cheryl Gosselin, and Christopher Kirkey
Part One
SPACE AND PLACE: MAKING THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS 25
1 The Toponymy of the Eastern Townships before the Eastern Townships: A Portrait of Abenaki Toponymic Resilience from the Earliest Times to the End of the French Regime 27
Philippe Charland
2 “The Security of Our Frontiers”: British Colonization Projects in the Eastern Townships during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century 59
J.I. Little
3 Agriculture in Transition: Global Crisis and the Eastern Townships’ Identity 81
Darren Bardati
Part Two
PEOPLES IN MOTION: MOVING INTO AND OUT OF QUEBEC’S EASTERN TOWNSHIPS 101
4 Abenaki Mobility and the Eastern Townships of Ndakina 103
Jean L. Manore
5 Townships Women Go Off to School: Teaching Diplomas, Career Ambitions, and the McGill Normal School, 1857–65 120
Roderick MacLeod and Mary Anne Poutanen
6 Going to Someone Else’s War: Border-Crossing Enlistments from the Eastern Townships during the American Civil War 140
Jane Jenson
7 Transitioning from Southern Honour to Dependency: Jefferson Davis in Montreal and the Eastern Townships, 1867–68 165
Gordon S. Barker and Christopher Kirkey
8 Immigration in the Eastern Townships of Quebec: Patterns of Regional Settlement and Belonging 191
Cheryl Gosselin
Part Three
INSTITUTIONS, LOCAL IDENTITIES, AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 213
9 Community, Identity, and Borderland Schooling in the Eastern Townships and Northern Vermont: Reflections in an Impermeable Era 215
Anthony Di Mascio
10 “The Latest and Most Important Local and Foreign News”: Producing and Reading the Press in the Eastern Townships (1867–1939) 231
Harold Bérubé and Henri Dion
11 “A duty to her Indian citizens”: Bishop’s University and Canada’s “Indian Problem,” 1845–1945 256
Louis-Georges Harvey
12 Fight Nights: The Sherbrooke Athletic Commission and the Boxing World, 1955–66 281
Andrew C. Holman
13 Recent Transformations and Dynamics in the Eastern Townships’ Religious Landscape: A Perspective from Sherbrooke 303
Claude Gélinas, Lorraine Derocher, and Camille Sasseville
Part Four
THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS AS AN IMAGINED PLACE AND A GLOBAL COMMODITY 323
14 Quebec’s New Regional Fiction and the Eastern Townships: Literary Landscapes of Deindustrialization 325
Ceri Morgan
15 Postcards, Cultural Landscape Analysis, and the Eastern Townships in the Past 125 Years 344
Caroline Beaudoin
16 Dimensions of Community in the Novels of Louise Penny 368
J. Debbie Mann
CONTRIBUTORS 391
INDEX 397
FOREWORD xv
Michael Goldbloom
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii
INTRODUCTION: The Eastern Townships: A Region and Its World 3
Andrew C. Holman, Cheryl Gosselin, and Christopher Kirkey
Part One
SPACE AND PLACE: MAKING THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS 25
1 The Toponymy of the Eastern Townships before the Eastern Townships: A Portrait of Abenaki Toponymic Resilience from the Earliest Times to the End of the French Regime 27
Philippe Charland
2 “The Security of Our Frontiers”: British Colonization Projects in the Eastern Townships during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century 59
J.I. Little
3 Agriculture in Transition: Global Crisis and the Eastern Townships’ Identity 81
Darren Bardati
Part Two
PEOPLES IN MOTION: MOVING INTO AND OUT OF QUEBEC’S EASTERN TOWNSHIPS 101
4 Abenaki Mobility and the Eastern Townships of Ndakina 103
Jean L. Manore
5 Townships Women Go Off to School: Teaching Diplomas, Career Ambitions, and the McGill Normal School, 1857–65 120
Roderick MacLeod and Mary Anne Poutanen
6 Going to Someone Else’s War: Border-Crossing Enlistments from the Eastern Townships during the American Civil War 140
Jane Jenson
7 Transitioning from Southern Honour to Dependency: Jefferson Davis in Montreal and the Eastern Townships, 1867–68 165
Gordon S. Barker and Christopher Kirkey
8 Immigration in the Eastern Townships of Quebec: Patterns of Regional Settlement and Belonging 191
Cheryl Gosselin
Part Three
INSTITUTIONS, LOCAL IDENTITIES, AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 213
9 Community, Identity, and Borderland Schooling in the Eastern Townships and Northern Vermont: Reflections in an Impermeable Era 215
Anthony Di Mascio
10 “The Latest and Most Important Local and Foreign News”: Producing and Reading the Press in the Eastern Townships (1867–1939) 231
Harold Bérubé and Henri Dion
11 “A duty to her Indian citizens”: Bishop’s University and Canada’s “Indian Problem,” 1845–1945 256
Louis-Georges Harvey
12 Fight Nights: The Sherbrooke Athletic Commission and the Boxing World, 1955–66 281
Andrew C. Holman
13 Recent Transformations and Dynamics in the Eastern Townships’ Religious Landscape: A Perspective from Sherbrooke 303
Claude Gélinas, Lorraine Derocher, and Camille Sasseville
Part Four
THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS AS AN IMAGINED PLACE AND A GLOBAL COMMODITY 323
14 Quebec’s New Regional Fiction and the Eastern Townships: Literary Landscapes of Deindustrialization 325
Ceri Morgan
15 Postcards, Cultural Landscape Analysis, and the Eastern Townships in the Past 125 Years 344
Caroline Beaudoin
16 Dimensions of Community in the Novels of Louise Penny 368
J. Debbie Mann
CONTRIBUTORS 391
INDEX 397
