Suzanne Morton – författare

The 1920s are seen by historians as a crucial period in the formation of the Canadian working class. In Ideal Surroundings, Suzanne Morton looks at a single working-class community as it responded to national and regional changes. Grounded in labour and feminist history, with a strong emphasis on domestic life, this analysis focuses on the relationship between gender ideals and the actual experience of different family members. The setting is Richmond Heights, a working-class suburb of Halifax that was constructed following the 1917 explosion that devastated a large section of the city. The Halifax Relief Commission, specially formed to respond to this incident, generated a unique set of historical records that provides an unusually intimate glimpse of domestic life. Drawing on these and other archives, Morton uncovers many critical challenges to working-class ideals. The male world-view in particular were seriously destabilized as economic transformation and unemployment left many men without the means to support their families, and as the daughters of Richmond Heights increasingly left their class-defined jobs for service and clerical positions. Drawing on recent theoretical and empirical work, Morton expertly combines interpretive and narrative material, creating a vivid portrayal of class dynamics in this critical postwar era. Her focus on the home and domesticity marks and innovative move towards the integration of gender in the study of Canadian history. (Studies in Gender and History)

Using a rich variety of historical sources, Suzanne Morton traces the history of gambling regulation in five Canadian provinces – Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and B.C. – from the First World War to the federal legalization in 1969. This regulatory legislation, designed to control gambling, ended a long period of paradox and pretence during which gambling was common, but still illegal.Morton skilfully shows the relationship between gambling and the wider social mores of the time, as evinced by labour, governance, and the regulation of 'vice.' Her focus on the ways in which race, class, and gender structured the meaning of gambling underpins and illuminates the historical data she presents. She shows, for example, as "Old Canada" (the Protestant, Anglo-Celtic establishment) declined in influence, gambling took on a less deviant connotation – a process that continued as charity became secularized and gambling became a lucrative fundraising activity eventually linked to the welfare state.At Odds is the first Canadian historical examination of gambling, a complex topic which is still met by moral ambivalence, legal proscription, and volatile opinion. This highly original study will be of interest to the undergraduate history or social science student, but will also hold the attention of a more general reader.

Contested Catch: Lobster and Localism on Canada's Atlantic Coast, 1870–1970 explores the complex development of the lobster fishery in Canada, focusing on the interplay between the ecology of lobsters, local fishing practices, evolving technologies, changing markets, and the role of the state. Drawing on nearly thirty different archives, this book spans the century from the expansion of the transnational commercial lobster industry and the introduction of government regulations around 1870 to the establishment of the first restricted-access ocean fishery on Canada’s East Coast in the late 1960s.Suzanne Morton argues that lobster regulation was always about more than just protecting the lobster population – it reflected deeper local, political, and economic forces at play. She examines how the Canadian state, keeping its enforcement budget to a minimum and wanting to avoid electoral reprisals, interacted with local communities, businesses, and political groups to regulate fisheries. While the government and other officials implemented formal regulations and turned to commissions and government science, local fishers operated with informal systems based on tradition, economic interests, and sometimes coercion. Following the Second World War, with economists playing a prominent role, policy shifted from managing lobster as a sustainable resource to increasing the standard of living for fishermen and their families through rationalized efficiency, ultimately limiting access to who could fish. Even then, the fishery was shaped by both formal government efforts and local, social dynamics.