Basing her work on extensive study of Montreal's city records, Dagenais gives us a view of city government from inside city hall, showing how the city's institutions really functioned. From 1900 to 1950, the municipal administration underwent a decisive transformation to become a modern bureaucracy. Dagenais explores the forces behind modernization by illuminating the roles played by city hall's main actors; elected officials, department heads and civil servants. Dagenais presents the municipal government from three perspectives. She first views it as a public administration whose history is...

Basing her work on extensive study of Montreal's city records, Dagenais gives us a view of city government from inside city hall, showing how the city's institutions really functioned. From 1900 to 1950, the municipal administration underwent a decisive transformation to become a modern bureaucracy. Dagenais explores the forces behind modernization by illuminating the roles played by city hall's main actors; elected officials, department heads and civil servants. Dagenais presents the municipal government from three perspectives. She first views it as a public administration whose history is...