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Beyond redrawing North American borders and establishing a permanent system of governance, the Quebec Act of 1774 fundamentally changed British notions of empire and authority. Although it is understood as a formative moment - indeed part of the "textbook narrative" - in several different national histories, the Quebec Act remains underexamined in all of them.
The first sustained examination of the act in nearly thirty years, Entangling the Quebec Act brings together essays by historians from North America and Europe to explore this seminal event using a variety of historical approaches. Focusing on a singular occurrence that had major social, legal, revolutionary, and imperial repercussions, the book weaves together perspectives from spatially and conceptually distinct historical fields - legal and cultural, political and religious, and beyond. Collectively, the contributors resituate the Quebec Act in light of Atlantic, American, Canadian, Indigenous, and British Imperial historiographies.
A transnational collaboration, Entangling the Quebec Act shows how the interconnectedness of national histories is visible at a single crossing point, illustrating the importance of intertwining methodologies to bring these connections into focus.
“[The editors] argue for ‘a reconsideration of the Quebec Act from Canadian, North American, Native American, and British Imperial perspectives’ that demonstrates that the importance of the Act is ‘greater than sum of its many fractured historiographical parts’. That is precisely what this collection does show! … one of those rare collections in which there is not a single bad essay.” British Journal of Canadian Studies
"Entangling the Quebec Act adds original and valuable insight to existing scholarship on the Quebec Act, which has declined in the past half century despite significant constitutional developments in Canada and the rise of "new" imperial and global history. This book is both timely and necessary." Ken MacMillan, University of Calgary and author of Death and Disorder: A History of Early Modern England, 1485-1690
“The contributors to this collection explore the far-reaching consequences of the 1774 document ... to better understand how eighteenth-century rulers and subjects addressed issues concerning the rights of minorities that, in Canada and elsewhere, we continue to wrestle with today. These essays are valuable contributions to our understanding of the origins and impact of the Quebec Act.” University of Toronto Quarterly