An Historic Occasion

Okay, so maybe my title is over-stating things a bit, but I still found today to be quite interesting. I received an e-mail response from Dr Jarrett Rudy from the Quebec Studies area of McGill's Department of History, containing an invitation to the book launch for Michael Gauvreau's latest work, The Catholic Origins of Quebec's Quiet Revolution, 1931-1970. It took me all of 30 seconds to mull it over before accepting. Granted, I have absolutely no background in religious history, aside from my dabblings in ancient religions and mystery cults, but the title looked intriguing enough to make me want to take a look.

I think anyone familiar with Quebec will have heard of the Quiet Revolution, at least in passing, and when one looks at the monumental scale of the churches here (even in villages of a couple thousand people), I think it’s fair to say that the Church has an incontournable place in the collective memory of the Quebecois. So for Gauvreau to examine the Church’s place in such a defining time in the province’s history provides a definite appeal, at least for me. It’s all fine and well for me to explore pop culture and whatnot, but there has to be a starting point for everything.

I’m not going to delve too much more into the topic at the moment because I’ve barely had the book in my hands for an hour and trying to recount the author’s presentation really wouldn’t do the topic justice. So I guess my avid readers will have to wait a wee bit for me to revisit this topic. I’ll also be taking a look at Dr Rudy's book, The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco Consumption and Identity, and if his schedule permits, sit down with him to discuss his findings and maybe grab a comment or two about the upcoming non-smoking legislation. So that's some of what I've got coming up. I'll also be giving a brief tour of Quebecois beer. You know that topic will be well-researched, that's for sure. Til next time!