Violence, Order, and Unrest: A History of British North America, 1749-1876

This edited collection offers a broad reinterpretation of the origins of Canada. Drawing on cutting-edge research in a number of fields, Violence, Order, and Unrest explores the development of British North America from the mid-eighteenth century through the aftermath of Confederation. The chapters cover an ambitious range of topics, from Indigenous culture to municipal politics, public executions to runaway slave advertisements. Cumulatively, this book examines the diversity of Indigenous and colonial experiences across northern North America and provides fresh perspectives on the crucial roles of violence and unrest in attempts to establish British authority in Indigenous territories. In the aftermath of Canada 150, Violence, Order, and Unrest offers a timely contribution to current debates over the nature of Canadian culture and history, demonstrating that we cannot understand Canada today without considering its origins as a colonial project.

Table of Contents:
Preface Notes on Contributors Maps Introduction Elizabeth Mancke, Jerry Bannister, Denis McKim, and Scott W. See Section I: Loyalty, Liberty, and Visions of Order 1. Aspirations and Limitations: "Peace, Order, and Good Government" and the Language of Violence and Disorder in British North America Scott W. See 2. Loyalty, Order, and Quebec’s Catholic Hierarchy, 1763–1867 D.C. Bélanger 3. Anxious Anglicans, Complicated Catholics, and Disruptive Dissenters: Christianity and the Search for Social Order in the Age of Revolution Denis McKim 4. Liberty, Loyalty, and Sentiment in Canada’s Founding Debates, 1864–1873 Jerry Bannister Section II: From Tory Imperialism to Liberal Settler Colonialism 5. Revolution Expected: The Invasion of Quebec and American Independence Jeffers Lennox 6. Empire, Settler Colonialism, and the Role of Violence in Indigenous Dispossession in British North America, 1749–1830 John G. Reid 7. Space, Race, and Violence: The Beginnings of Civilization in Canada E.A. Heaman 8. Worthy and Industrious or a Burden? Managing Migration in Upper Canada, 1815–1845 Section III: Resisting Dispossession 9. Searching for Order in a Settlers’ World: Wendat and Mississauga Schooling, Politics and Networks at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century Thomas Peace 10. Runaway Advertisements and Social Disorder in the Maritimes: A Preliminary Study Harvey Amani Whitfield 11. The Mobile Village: Metis Women, Bison Brigades, and Social Order on the Nineteenth-Century Plains Émilie Pigeon and Carolyn Podruchny 12. "We are men not Buffalos": Louis Riel and the Gendering of the Red River Public Sphere M. Max Hamon Section IV: Legitimating and Contesting the Public Sphere 13. Discontents and Dissidents: Unrest amongst Loyalist Freemasons in the 1780s and 90s Bonnie Huskins 14. Of Bludgeons and Ballots: Political Violence, Municipal Enfranchisement, and Local Governance in Mid-Nineteenth- Century Montreal Colin Grittner 15. Boys, Young Men, and Disorder in a Mid-Victorian City Ian Radforth 16. "To muse within these peaceful portals": Urban Space, Public Order, and the Makings of Montreal’s Viger Square, 1818–1870 Dan Horner Section V: Tools of Social Order: The Law and the Press 17. The Spectacle of State Violence: Executions in Quebec, 1759–1872 Donald Fyson 18. Making a Patriot Order: Violence, Respectability, and the Patriot Press in Exile, 1838–1847 Stephen R.I. Smith 19. The Ambivalence of Order: Jurisdiction in the Disputed Northeast Bradley Miller 20. For the Better Administration of the Town’s Affairs: Civic Engagement, Local Governance, and Grassroots Activism in Canada West/Ontario, 1849–1870 Darren Ferry 21. The Role of Newspapers in Halifax during the Confederate and the Repeal Movements, 1865–69 Mathias Rodorff Epilogue Elizabeth Mancke, Jerry Bannister, Denis McKim, and Scott W. See  

About the Author :
Elizabeth Mancke is Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies in the Department of History at the University of New Brunswick. Jerry Bannister teaches History and Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University. Denis McKim teaches in the History Department at Douglas College. Scott W. See is Libra Professor Emeritus and former chair of the University of Maine’s History Department.

Review :
"There is much of value in some of these essays for the social and constitutional historian." - Graham A. MacDonald (Prairie History) "This book will be a strong addition to the collection of any historian of Canada, and its efforts to be inclusive of English, French, Black, and Indigenous histories in the same volume to tell a fully Canadian story should be commended." - Ruth L. Almy, Temple University (Canadian Journal of History )