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REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS
| Magda Fahrni, Household Politics: Montreal Families and Postwar Reconstruction (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2005)
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| MAGDA FAHRNI'S STUDY OF Montreal families is the latest in a series of studies which have forced a re-thinking of the post-World War Two period in Canada. In it, she extends and deepens our understanding of the connection between the personal and the political as revealed in what she terms "household politics." The author takes us to Montreal in the period from the last few months of the war to 1949 and tests how well our preconceptions of the period stand up to a sustained examination. She shows that the immediate post-war period was not necessarily a time of prosperity; in fact many returning veterans struggled to find employment and decent housing for their families. Nor did those families all fit the ideal nuclear model; some had to incorporate children born as a result of wartime infidelity, some were single-parent families, others included grandparents and siblings. She debunks also the image of the stereotypically large Québec family. Yet, she argues, "visions of family were central to reconstruction and the postwar public realm," and she looks at the meaning of reconstruction from the point of view of families and their relationship with various levels of government. Fundamental to her argument is the insight that during this period the boundaries between private and public were not just fluid and permeable, but that "the spheres themselves were undergoing a transformation...the public was expanding under pressure from various groups of citizens, who, in demanding measures of social and economic security, made private matters public for political purposes." Thus, "the family not only became absorbed into the public, but also fashioned the public." (22) |
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Federal, provincial, and municipal governments all shared the belief in the need for social stability in the wake of years of economic depression and war, but historians have paid most attention to the efforts of the King government to implement a welfare state. Fahrni is convincing in demonstrating that these new public measures did not immediately take over the task of providing for post-war families. Instead, she argues that in Montreal in the 1940s there was a "mixed social economy" in place, in which older forms of welfare co-existed with the new federal policies. Thus, Montrealers, whether francophone, anglophone, or Jewish, continued to turn to private agencies, voluntary associations, and the Catholic Church for support, even though they often resented the value judgments these agencies made about their housekeeping and parenting skills. Wary of the interventionist federal state, they also looked to the provincial government for assistance. |
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Using the records of a variety of these organizations, Fahrni concludes that, as a result of wartime experiences, both men and women quickly displayed a sense of entitlement to a new array of benefits and allowances. Not surprisingly, veterans felt their service to their country gave them the right to jobs, housing, education allowances, and pensions. One of Fahrni's most interesting findings, however, is the attitude of women towards the emerging welfare state and the nature of their citizenship. Women's social citizenship – their claim to allowances and benefits – rested on their dependent status as wives and mothers of service men, but their complaints if the cheque did not arrive on time, or their demands for allowances to be indexed to the rising cost of living, clearly showed their sense of entitlement both as newly enfranchised citizens and family members. |
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Post-war prices were a major concern for families from a variety of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds; and here Fahrni contests the American notion of high post-war consumption. In Montreal, families had to be very cautious in their consumption of necessities during this period. Poverty was not the source of shame it had been and consumers demanded a reasonable cost of living and turned to consumer activism and demanded changes in government policy in order to assure a comfortable, stable lifestyle. The author chooses specific incidents to demonstrate that both men and women were involved in this form of "household politics." The Squatters' Movement of 1946–7 illustrated the importance fathers attached to being able to provide decent housing for their families, and in the Catholic school teachers' strike of 1949 they articulated claims for their children's rights to education and their right as fathers to a voice in their children's education. Women meanwhile mobilized to organize consumers' groups, boycotted high-priced produce, and lobbied government for cheaper alternatives such as margarine. |
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While Fahrni does not attempt to overgeneralize her findings, explaining from the outset that she considers Montreal to be an exceptional city, she does enter into five specific historiographic debates. For instance, she agrees with recent arguments that have challenged the notion of Duplessis's reign in Québec as being an unremitting "Great Darkness." She sees the discussions going on in Québec about the role of government, private charity, and professional social work as being very similar to those taking place in other provinces. In addition, she contests the idea that the Catholic Church was a monolithic institution, showing that some groups, such as the Ligue Ouvrière Catholique, were adapting to social changes and attempting to keep themselves relevant in this new environment. Her research leads her to conclude that the Quiet Revolution was rooted in the modernization of Québec society already underway in the 1940s. |
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Fahrni's text is exemplary in its organization and clarity. The Introduction would serve as an ideal model for both graduate and undergraduate students – for the former to emulate, and the latter to dissect. It is also a splendid example of a new generation of historical synthesis which pays attention to differences of gender, class, and ethnicity as a matter of course, and combines consideration of discourses with analysis of material conditions and lived experience. In this well-rounded study all the constituent parts of the family are considered: mothers, fathers, children, and even grandparents. Admittedly, middle-class families and Anglophone families do get less attention than working-class and Francophone families, but Jewish families and Jewish social services are included. The plethora of primary sources consulted results in a bewildering number of acronyms, but the author can hardly be faulted for that, and in fact should be congratulated for the meticulous nature of her research and citations. One shortcoming which could be mentioned is that no translations are given for quotations from French-language sources. While this should not be a problem for the expert or upper-level student, the extensive use of untranslated quotations in chapter 6, for example, might mitigate against the text being adopted for undergraduate courses. Translations of key passages given in the footnotes would have been an asset. In addition, the text is supplemented with some well-chosen photographs which are beautifully printed on glossy paper. Given the high cost of printing, it's understandable that these are grouped together in the centre of the book, but the opportunity to make them contribute to the text is lost because they are not referred to specifically or even cited at appropriate places. Nevertheless, these are small quibbles about a study which contributes significantly to our understanding of the years between 1945 and 1949, and challenges us to re-think some of our assumptions about the subsequent period. |
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GILLIAN POULTER
Acadia University |
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