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Michael Boudreau, City of Order: Crime and Society in Halifax, 1918-35. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012. xii, 327 pp., illus.; Paperback; ISBN: 978-0-7748-2205-3; $34.95.
In his "Introduction," Michael Boudreau states that between 1918-35 "[Halifax] underwent a dramatic and disruptive transformation. Modernity uprooted many of the values and meanings that had been woven into the fabric of Halifax society... The idea of a 'traditional community' founded upon trust and security seemed to crumble. In its wake came feelings of uncertainty and, for some at least, dread of the social environment" (p. 5). These are startling assertions, whose theoretical underpinnings are derived in part from the sociologist Anthony Giddens in his book The Consequences of Modernity (1990).
Boudreau portrays Halifax during this period as "A City of Order in a Time of Turmoil" (p. 16), where there was an "incessant drive for law and order" (p. 34). It is certainly the case that growth stagnated; the city's population crept up from 58,372 in 1921 to 59,275 ten years later (p. 23). The First World War was followed by an economic slump which lifted briefly in the late 1920s before the onset of the Great Depression. Janet Guildford points out that the labour movement was decimated by Halifax's economic decline during the inter-war period (Judith Fingard, Janet Guildford and David Sutherland, Halifax: The First250 Years (1999), pp. 140-42). Hard times led to quiescence on the part of organized labour, as well as widespread dependence upon inadequate private charity and public relief. However, in contrast to the picture painted by Boudreau, Guildford does not suggest that these deplorable circumstances resulted in the disruption of a "traditional community," stating that social cohesion was reinforced by adversity: "Many Haligonians, especially skilled workers, gave up on Halifax during the 1920s and moved to the United States or other parts of Canada, where work was available. Those who stayed behind, many of them women and children abandoned temporarily or permanently by the men in their families, relied on friends and neighbours for help.. ..Many older Haligonians still have warm memories of the help they received from friends and neighbours..." (Guildford, in ibid., p. 144).
The affluent, according to Boudreau, living in their "majestic homes and mansions" in the South and West ends of...