John Irvine Little – författare

The Eastern Townships region of southwestern Quebec is an area of unique culture and history. Surrounded by a French-speaking majority, yet predominantly settled by Americans and British emigrants, the area has historically been distinguished by its anglo-protestant character. In The Other Quebec, J.I. Little – one of the foremost scholars on the Eastern Townships and on rural society in Canada – assembles seven of his essays and one by Marguerite Van Die on this unique region into one volume. The collection examines the role and influence of religion in the Eastern Townships. Little uses a microhistorical method, focusing on individuals who left behind informative and revealing diaries or personal letters, including those of a religious ecstatic, an Anglican clergyman, a genteel Englishwoman, and an entrepreneur. Through intimate glimpses into the lives of ordinary people, The Other Quebec explores some of the complex ways that religious institutions and beliefs affected the rural societies in which the majority of Canadians still lived in the nineteenth century. Little provides an intimate look at both a time and a place of singular importance and unique character in Canadian history.

Despite their strategic location on the American border, the townships of Lower Canada have been largely ignored in studies of the War of 1812 and the Rebellions of 1837-38. Originally settled by Loyalists from New York, and followed by much larger numbers of land seekers from New England, this was a potentially volatile borderland during British-American conflicts. J.I. Little's Loyalties in Conflict examines how the allegiance to British authority of the American-origin population within the borders of Lower Canada was tested by the War of 1812 and the Rebellions of 1837-1838.Little argues that while loyalties were highly localized, American border raids during the war caused a defensive reaction north of the 45th parallel. The resulting sense of distinction from neighbouring Vermont, with its radical religious and political culture, did not prevent a strong regional reform movement from emerging in the eastern townships during the 1820s and 1830s. This movement undermines the argument of Quebec's nationalist historians that the political contest in Lower Canada was essentially a French-English one, but the dual threat of French-Canadian and American nationalism did ensure the border townships's loyalty to the government during the rebellions. The following years would witness the development of an increasingly conservative and distinctly Canadian cultural identity in the region.A rigorous study of a pivotal period in North American history, Loyalties in Conflict is a fascinating account of conflicting forces in one region that, like the rest of Canada, has been largely shaped by the interaction of American and British influences, as well as French-language and English-language ones.

Patrician Liberal examines the life and career of a neglected figure in Canadian history, Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de LotbiniÈre. This book provides a detailed account of Joly’s political career as Quebec premier, Cabinet minister in the Laurier government, and lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, as well as his public role as a French-speaking Protestant promoter of national unity, a leading spokesperson for the Canadian forest conservation movement, a Quebec seigneur, and father to a large and devoted family.Joly’s life serves as a prism through which author J.I. Little elucidates important themes in Quebec and Canadian society, economy, politics, and culture during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. As Little reveals, Joly’s story is particularly fascinating for how closely the conflicting forces in his life – religious, cultural, and social – mirrored those of a Canadian society straining to forge a cohesive and distinctive national identity.