The Eastern Townships of Quebec are celebrated in popular discourse as a charming and remote nature playground for busy Montrealers, an appendage to stately Quebec City, and a northern abutment to the Northeast Kingdom of the United States. A closer look reveals a region with its own gravity, sense of being, and worldly connections.

Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World examines how the Eastern Townships are linked directly to larger prevailing international forces and identities. Here, the Eastern Townships take centre stage as the reader encounters the vibrancy of a place marked not by its insularity but by its long history: a central meeting ground shaped by its many engagements with the world. The book provides new perspectives on compelling and significant topics in Townships history and culture, including Indigenous land use, the mobility of peoples to and from the region, linguistic diversity, economic production, education, sport, religion, and culture in myriad forms. These studies recast the Eastern Townships as a centre, a borderland, a lieu de passage between nations, communities, and peoples.

Featuring original and compelling insights, Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World confirms that this beautiful region was and is a global place, one intimately connected to the world.

Cheryl Gosselin is professor of sociology at Bishop’s University.

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Andrew C. Holman is a professor of history and the director of the Canadian Studies Program at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.  

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Christopher Kirkey is Director of the Center for the Study of Canada and the Institute on Quebec Studies at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh.   

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“Fascinating throughout, Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World offers a freshening of current views about the townships while emphasizing the extent to which the region must be understood in larger contexts including Quebec, New England, and beyond.” Chad Gaffield, University of Ottawa

“Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World is a timely collection that challenges readers to think in new ways about global trends as they interact with local and regional realities, with specific reference to one of Quebec’s most interesting and distinctive regions.” Peter Gossage, Concordia University