Now available: Professor Jennifer Tunnicliffe's book, Constant Struggle: Histories of Canadian Democratization

Now available: Professor Jennifer Tunnicliffe's book, Constant Struggle: Histories of Canadian Democratization

Dr. Tunnicliiffe's new edited collection, Constant Struggle (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021), examines the history of democracy in Canada. Showcasing the work of scholars from a range of disciplines, the collection offers a renewed, sometimes unsettling depiction of Canada's past, stretching from studies of early Indigenous societies, through colonial North America and Confederation, into the twentieth century. Contributors reassess democracy in light of settler colonialism and the nation's history with white supremacy, investigate connections between capitalism and democracy, consider how democracy has been understood by those who advocated for or resisted it, and highlight the various ways in which the democratic ideal has been mobilized to advance particular visions of Canadian society. 

Demonstrating that Canada’s history with democracy has not always been one that empowered the people, Constant Struggle questions traditional views of the relationship between democracy and liberalism in Canada and around the world. It suggests that, rather than looking for a simple and progressive narrative of democracy in Canada's past, we must be alert to the slower, untidier, and incomplete processes of democratization in Canada.