Point Saint-Charles, a historically white working-class neighbourhood with a strong Irish and French presence, and Little Burgundy, a multiracial neighbourhood that is home to the city’s English-speaking Black community, face each other across Montreal’s Lachine Canal, once an artery around which work and industry in Montreal were clustered and by which these two communities were formed and divided.

Deindustrializing Montreal challenges the deepening divergence of class and race analysis by recognizing the intimate relationship between capitalism, class struggles, and racial inequality. Fundamentally, deindustrialization is a process of physical and social ruination as well as part of a wider political project that leaves working-class communities impoverished and demoralized. The structural violence of capitalism occurs gradually and out of sight, but it doesn’t play out the same for everyone. Point Saint-Charles was left to rot until it was revalorized by gentrification, whereas Little Burgundy was torn apart by urban renewal and highway construction. This historical divergence had profound consequences in how urban change has been experienced, understood, and remembered. Drawing extensive interviews, a massive and varied archive of imagery, and original photography by David Lewis into a complex chorus, Steven High brings these communities to life, tracing their history from their earliest years to their decline and their current reality. He extends the analysis of deindustrialization, often focused on single-industry towns, to cities that have seemingly made the post-industrial transition.

The urban neighbourhood has never been a settled concept, and its apparent innocence masks considerable contestation, divergence, and change over time. Deindustrializing Montreal thinks critically about locality, revealing how heritage becomes an agent of gentrification, investigating how places like Little Burgundy and the Point acquire race and class identities, and questioning what is preserved and for whom.

Steven High is a professor of history at Concordia University in Montreal where he co-founded the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. He has authored a number of books and articles on structural and mass violence as well as deindustrialization as a political, socio-economic, and cultural process. He is currently the head of the transnational “Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time” (DEPOT) research project which brings together researchers, museum professionals, archivists, and trade unionists across Europe and North America.

Steven High's profile page

• Short-listed, The Canadian Historical Society 2023 Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History Prize
• Winner, Prix Lionel-Groulx Institut d'histoire de l'Amérique française
• Winner, Canadian Historical Association 2023 Clio Prize, Québec region
• Winner, Prix du livre politique 2023 Prix de la présidence de l'Assemblée nationale

“There is no way to ignore the stunning presentation of Deindustrializing Montreal. With its large format, glossy pages, and dozens of photographs (many in color), it occupies a place between densely argued academic monograph and lavish coffee table book. High has succeeded in the difficult task of producing a volume that will be of interest to a wide variety of readers, from specialist scholars in urban and labor history to members of the general public interested in the evolution of Montreal’s Southwest or, more generally, the story of the twentieth-century North American city.” H-Sci-Med-Tech

“Steven High offers an original and innovative analysis of deindustrialization and gentrification in two neighbourhoods that have been at the heart of the expansion of industrial capitalism in Canada since the nineteenth century. The book’s rich illustrations and its insistence on including and engaging the voices of citizens of Pointe Saint-Charles and Little Burgundy make it directly relevant to residents and community groups in those neighbourhoods but also to anyone in the myriad urban communities living with deindustrialization. High has a special gift for connecting the issues of the past with the challenges of the present and for reminding us that the creation of historical knowledge is a communal endeavour.” Martin Petitclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal

“A deluxe love letter to two neighbourhoods and their residents. The book is filled with colour photographs, and the extensive interviews and archival detail testify to High’s diligence … . High is known locally as a public- facing scholar, who conducts walking tours, writes op-eds, and organizes off- campus events. His work is the kind of deeply humanist tribute that all neighbourhoods deserve but that few receive.” Literary Review of Canada

“Deindustrializing Montreal is an excellent book animated by a rich and rigorous use of oral history and careful attention to race and language. High combines a mastery of international literature with a serious engagement with place. The result is a fascinating study of neighbourhood in the context of capitalism, community, politics, and economic change.” Steve Penfold, University of Toronto

«Il est impossible de rendre justice, en quelques mots, au contenu de cet ouvrage exceptionnel. Il constitue un apport remarquable à l’histoire ouvrière, urbaine et politique de Montréal et de sa communauté noire. Enfin, soulignons les qualités esthétiques de ce livre dont la facture soignée reconnaît et rend hommage aux acteurs de cette histoire.» Le jury du Prix Lionel-Groulx