From Subjects to Citizens: A Hundred Years of Citizenship in Australia and Canada

Extract

From Subjects to Citizens: A Hundred Years of Citizenship in Australia and Canada, Pierre Boyer, Linda Cardinal and David Headon, eds., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2004, pp. xvi, 328.

Citizenship is no longer viewed as a concept restricted to the relationship between an individual and the state. It is now seen as encompassing the series of overlapping identities that define an individual's relationship to a political community. This means that discussions of citizenship are now likely to involve an examination of individual and group rights, political participation and an individual's sense of belonging. The collection of conferences papers under review pushes this expanded notion of citizenship to its limits, and beyond. While the nominal topic is “a hundred years of citizenship in Australia and Canada,” the contents of the book include chapters on the Australian exploration of Antarctica, Nellie Melba as a famous Australian, the secret ballot and the franchise in Australia, government sponsorship of culture in Canada, and a fascinating (if depressing) study of evidentiary law relating to rape in two early twentieth-century cases. In addition to the startling range of topics, the styles of analysis and disciplinary backgrounds of the contributions vary widely, from literary to mainstream social science. A few chapters are more notable for their polemical approach than their content.