Using an extensive array of primary sources, including local WCTU minute books and correspondence, Cook describes the origins, structures, strategies, and achievements of the Ontario WCTU in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She discusses the importance of its positions on such issues as Social Purity, women's franchise, the appropriate role of single women, working women's rights, the treatment of female offenders, and the effect of the WCTU's youth work. Cook traces the empowerment of women in the WCTU to the union's evangelical roots, arguing that the views of the Ontario WCTU were grounded in a vision of society that based the development of a moral society on the family unit and its moral centre, the mother.

Sharon Anne Cook is Distinguished University Professor Emerita at the University of Ottawa. She is the author and editor of twelve books on Canadian women’s history. The recipient of many teaching awards, she teaches graduate courses in the history of education. She lives in Ottawa.

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"A well-researched study of an organization that was a key voluntary association for many women in Ontario communities, 'Through Sunshine and Shadow' is a delight to read." Phyllis Airhart, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto.