Delegates to the convention examined Newfoundland's economy and society, and debated the merits of returning to responsible government (suspended in 1934) or joining the Canadian confederation. A number of public figures of the 1950s and 1960s came into prominence during the convention, most notably Joseph R. Smallwood, leader of the confederate group. This unique and remarkable historical document is a must for Commonwealth and Canadian specialists and research libraries.

No other figure, historical or political, features more prominently in recent Newfoundland history than Joey Smallwood. During his long career in Newfoundland politics, Smallwood used the literary, rhetorical, and theatrical skills honed in the first five decades of his life to create a distinct and celebrated persona. He told his own story in his lively autobiography, I Chose Canada, published in 1973 only a year after he left office. Talented, venturesome, and above all resilient, he was no ordinary Joe. Smallwood was born in Gambo, Bonavista Bay, but grew up in St John's. Leaving school at fifteen, he quickly established himself as a journalist and as a publicist for Sir William Coaker's Fishermen's Protective Union. In the early 1920s Smallwood sojourned twice in New York, where he planned a Newfoundland labour party. Ambition, however, led him to support the Liberal Party of Sir Richard Squires. Defeated as a candidate in the general election of June 1932, he next promoted producer and consumer cooperatives, but with mixed results. In 1937 he edited The Book of Newfoundland and thereafter enjoyed great success on the radio as "The Barrelman." The book culminates with Smallwood's adoption of the cause of Confederation and his swearing in on 1 April 1949 as premier of the new Province of Newfoundland. There are multiple J.R. Smallwoods, but the aspiring and ambitious figure presented in this biography stands apart. Melvin Baker and Peter Neary use the largely untapped sources of Smallwood's own papers and his extensive journalistic writing to add a documentary basis to what is known or conjectured about the first five decades of Smallwood's remarkable life, both public and private.

The twentieth century witnessed both the formation of Newfoundland as a self-conscious national entity and the construction of distinct and self-aware middle and upper classes in its capital city. This interdisciplinary collection examines the key roles played by women in the creation of this state and society, and the essential influence that gender, ethnicity, and religion played in class relations. Shifting class relations were formed in the salient political events of the first half of the twentieth century in Newfoundland: the First World War, the suffrage movement, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and finally Newfoundland's contested entry into the Canadian Confederation. Creating This Place shows how upper-, middle-, and working-class worlds were established in the everyday work of women, as well as the ways in which the complex social boundaries of the period were constructed. Individual chapters explore issues such as women's work in religious and voluntary institutions, their struggle for voice, suffrage, and political change, work of domestic servants, and the construction of "proper" women and mothers through denominational education. Creating This Place adopts an innovative perspective on Newfoundland and Labrador that focuses on the often overlooked lives of urban women. Contributors include Sonja Boon (Memorial University), Linda Cullum (Memorial University), Margot Duley (University of Illinois at Springfield), Vicki Hallett (Memorial University), Jonathan Luedee (doctoral candidate, University of British Columbia), Bonnie Morgan (doctoral candidate, University of New Brunswick), Marilyn Porter (emerita, Memorial University), Karen Stanbridge (Memorial University), Helen Woodrow (Educational Planning and Design Associates and Harrish Press Publications).

With emphasis on East Asian and North American examples – notably Japan and Quebec – Date, Laniel and their contributors take a new approach to the understanding of small nations and their role in the international system. Small nations, by their very nature, raise significant questions about what a nation is. Some small nations are sovereign states with relatively small populations and limited territory, others are nations within larger sovereign states, with distinctive cultures, governance structures or other features that differentiate them from their “parent” state. By focussing on non-European nations in particular, the contributors to this volume challenge our conceptions of what a small nation is and how it operates within the international system. They focus in particular on the nation-within-a-nation-state of Quebec and on Japan, supplemented by further examples from East Asia. By interrogating what these examples have to show us about the typology and character of small nations, they offer a critique of superpower and draw out the potential of small nation studies. A valuable resource for students and scholars of international relations and theories of the nation and nation state.

Much of Canada’s modern identity emerged from the innovative social policies and ambitious foreign policy of Louis St-Laurent’s Liberal government. His extraordinarily creative administration made decisions that still resonate today: on health care, pensions, and housing; on infrastructure and intergovernmental issues; and, further afield, in developing Canada’s global middle-power role in global affairs and resolving the Suez Crisis. Yet St-Laurent remains an enigmatic figure. The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent fills a great void in Canadian political history, bringing together well-established and new scholars to investigate the far-reaching influence of a politician whose astute policies and bold resolve moved Canada into the modern era.