La Prairie, under the French régime, was one of the earliest and most populous seigneuries of the Montreal district. Written and published in French, Louis Lavallée's study of peasant society in La Prairie begins in 1647 when the seigneury was conceded to the Jesuits, the most important landowners in New France, and ends with the Conquest. Lavallée discusses La Prairie's status as a frontier and way-station, its remarkable demographic growth -- the population had reached nearly two thousand in 1760 -- and the importance of the seigneurial and parochial frameworks in its development. These last bounded people's lives, giving the inhabitants of La Prairie a sense of financial and domestic structure. The second part of the book covers sociability, inheritance practices, the fur trade, and the form of stratification which prevailed in this traditional society.

Parish registers, notarial acts, administrative and judicial archives were used extensively to provide a comprehensive view of the formation and evolution of this society in its seigneurial context. In La Prairie en Nouvelle-France the seigneury comes into its own as a vantage point from which to view Canadian society under the French régime. The comparative approach that informs the entire work permits parallels and contrasts between colonial and metropolitan societies.