First published in 1981, H. Clare Pentland's Labour and Capital in Canada 1650-1860 is a seminal work that analyzes the shaping of the Canadian working class and the evolution of capitalism in Canada. Pentland's work focuses on the relationship between the availability and nature of labour and the development of industry. From that idea flows an absorbing account that explores patterns of labour, patterns of immigration and the growth of industry. Pentland writes of the massive influx of immigrants to Canada in the 1800s--taciturn highland Scots who eked out a meagre living on subsistence farms; shrewd lowlanders who formed the basis of an emerging business class; skilled English artisans who brought their trades and their politics to the new land; Americans who took to farming; and Irish who came in droves, fleeing the poverty and savagery of an Ireland under the heel of Britain. Labour and Capital in Canada is a classic study of the peoples who built Canada in the first two centuries of European occupation.

The Canadian Labour Movement is a fascinating story that brings to life the working men and women who built Canada's unions. This concise history recounts the story of Canadian labour from the nineteenth century to the present day. First published in 1989, it has been updated to include new developments in the world of labour up to 1995. Heron depicts the major events and trends in labour's history, and assesses the current state and direction of the labour movement. The Canadian Labour Movement is a masterful overview of the subject, providing a broad and accessible introduction to Canadian labour.

Cohen focuses on the productive relations in the family and the significance of women’s labour to the process of capital accumulation in both the capitalist sphere and independent commodity production. In this study Marjorie Griffin Cohen argues that in research into Ontario’s economic history the emphasis on market activity has obscured the most prevalent type of productive relations in the staple-exporting economy – the patriarchal relations of production within the family economy. Cohen focuses on the productive relations in the family and the significance of women’s labour to the process of capital accumulation in both the capitalist sphere and independent commodity production. She shows that while the family economy was based on the mutual dependence of male and female labour, there was not equality in productive relations. The male ownership of capital in the context of the family economy had significant implications for the control over female labour. Among countries which experience industrial development, there are common patterns in the impact of change on women’s work; there are also significant differences. One of the most important of these is the fact that economic development did not result in women’s labour being withdrawn from the social sphere of production. Rather, economic growth has steadily brought women’s productive efforts more directly into the market sphere. In exploring the roots of this development Cohen adds a new dimension to the study of women’s labour history.

This volume in the Osgoode Society's distinguished series on the history of Canadian law is a tribute to Professor R.C.B. Risk, one of the pioneers of Canadian legal history and for many years regarded as its foremost authority. The fifteen original essays are by notable scholars, some of whom were students of Professor Risk, and represent some of the best and most original work in the area of Canadian legal history. They cover a number of important topics that range from the form of the criminal trial in the eighteenth century, to debates over the meaning of property in the nineteenth, and to lawyer/poet Tom MacInnes's views on the law of aboriginal title in the twentieth century.

The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy is a handy reference to the vast range of research and writing that political economists in Canada have completed to the date of publication. The book is divided into twenty-five subject bibliographies, each one compiled and introduced by an expert in the field. The overall range of subjects includes economic development in Canada, Canada's external economic relations, regional disparities and regional development, social and economic classes, women, Native peoples, politics and the Canadian state, nationalism, culture and political thought. The book is indexed by author, and includes a helpful shortlist of the "staples" in Canadian political economy. Published in 1985, The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy remains a useful reference to some of the classic literature of the discipline.

The collected essays in this volume represent the highlights of legal historical scholarship in Canada today. All of the essays refer back in some form to Risk's own work in the field.

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.