Watching Quebec: Selected Essays

Spanning forty years, this volume focuses on social and cultural change among French-speaking Canadians and its effect on the evolution of nationalism in Quebec. In essays that address both historical and contemporary issues, Ramsay Cook explores topics such as the implications of the Conquest of 1763 and the debate between federalists and separatists.

Evolving from a passionate desire to simply survive as a distinctive culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth century to a more confident and expansive ideology since the Second World War, nationalism in Quebec has provoked intense debates within the province and in the rest of Canada over language, provincial powers, and the very meaning of the term nation in the contemporary world. Watching Quebec examines the ideas of francophone individuals and groups, looks at their institutions and movements, and clarifies the complex relationship between French- and English-speaking Canadians.