In this collection of twelve essays Philip Resnick provides a comparative perspective on the modern state, arguing that the power of the state, like the mythological god Proteus, takes many different forms and cannot be revealed by any single discipline. He delves into political theory, political economy, and political sociology, as well as examining a number of isms important to any treatment of the modern state.

The new Canadian political economy has emerged from its infancy and is now regarded as a respected and innovative field of scholarship. Understanding Canada furthers this tradition by focusing on current issues in an accessible and informative way.

Through readings of literature, canonical history texts, studies of museum displays and media analysis, this work explores the historical formation of myths of Canadian national identity and then how these myths were challenged (and affirmed during the 1990 standoff at Oka. It draws upon history, literary criticism, anthropology, studies in nationalism and ethnicity and post-colonial theory.

In The Ghost behind the Masks, W. David Shaw traces Shakespeare’s influence on nine Victorian poets: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy, Matthew Arnold, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Algernon Swinburne, Arthur Hugh Clough, and George Meredith. Often, he writes, the transparency of Shakespeare's influence on Victorian poets and the degree of their engagement with Shakespeare exist in inverse ratio. Instead of imitating a play by Shakespeare or merely quoting his lines, a Victorian poet may embrace more elusive elements of rhetoric and style, adapting them to his or her own ends. Shaw argues that the most Shakespearean attribute of the Victorian poets is not their addiction to any particular trope or figure of speech but their reticence, the classical restraint of their great monologues, and their sudden descent from grandeur to simplicity. He explores such topics as man-made law versus natural right, Stoic fatalism versus self-reliance, and the sanity of lunatics, lovers, and poets versus the madness of commonplace minds.

In this book, the author argues that Trudeau betrayed the trust of Quebecers during the 1980 referendum on sovereignity-association and contends that the whole patriation exercise, completed without their consent, is not legitimate in Quebec.