The Twentieth Century, a sequel to the author's Quebec and Its Historians: 1840 to 1920, is a survey of the main interpretive currents of a period of remarkable transformation in the study of French-Canadian history. Gagnon's principal themes are the emergence of professional or "scientific" history in postwar Quebec and the continuing struggles of nationalist and anti-nationalist scholars. At the same time, the author himself emerges as an impassioned partisan in the debates he chronicles and much of this work consists of a critique of the positions of Fernand Ouellet, a leading protagonist in recent historical controversies.

In earlier chapters, Michel Brunet, Jean Hamelin, Guy Frégault, Marcel Trudel and Louise Dechêne, among others, are placed in the context of their times and their reactions to previous scholarship is examined.

There are very few works on Canadian historiography and, the essays of Ramsay Cook aside, the most widely-read book on the subject, Carl Berger's The Writing of Canadian History, deals only with English-Canadian historians. This volume will, therefore, be of particular interest to English speaking historians, students, and general readers. The latter might also be interested in learning about the connections between historical debate and the political conflicts that rocked Quebec in recent decades.