This is a social history of death, burial and a cherished public space in Montreal from the early 19th century to the present day. Brian Young shows how the history of the Mount Royal Cemetery, founded in 1852, mirrors the evolving social makeup, changing mores, and tragic events of what was long Canada's largest city. We meet not only prominent members of the elite but ordinary Montrealers, natives, the poor and suicides. Young shows how epidemics, train-wrecks, and the deaths of soldiers or firemen challenged conventional notions of the family and reveals that the cemetery introduced new...

A beautifully illustrated history of culture, religion, and public space."

Through the use of new sources, this study gives prominence to Cartier's business, social, and family milieu. It examines his emergence as a corporation lawyer, company director, landlord, and railway promoter as well as his political battles with his in-laws, his disintegrating marriage, and his long liaison with the unorthodox Luce Cuvillier. A rebel and political exile in 1837, Cartier by the 1850s was a member of the militia, a government minister, and a perennial defender of British traditions. His solid conservatism brough him support and rewards from the English-speaking bourgeoisie,...