Donald Dennie. Une histoire sociale du Grand Sudbury: le bois, le roc et le rail (Sudbury, Prise de parole, 2017), 390 pages

Wood, rock, and rails have, as Donald Dennie tells us, provided important settings for the human history of today’s Greater Sudbury. Readers of this work, the first full-length history of the region written in French, learn something of each factor; but they will encounter more of the human factors that were at work. Dennie’s interest in class conflict and entrepreneurial roles adds useful insights into the “Nickel Belt,” revealing it as much more than a mining region. The interplay of forest, field, mine, and urban commerce offers much to readers unfamiliar with the region. That said, Une histoire sociale du Grand Sudbury is often familiar for the minority who have followed regional historical literature more closely. Longstanding historical indifference was punctuated only by a few popular histories and amateur local works. Matters improved in the 1970s, when Gilbert Stelter was at Laurentian University; his articles and those of his students raised standards for Nickel Belt history. Several generations of graduate students followed, investigating elements of regional history from business to politics to pollution to its varied populations. The centennial of Sudbury achieving town status saw new book-length publications. Dennie himself offered À l’ombre de l’INCO, which focused on the region’s francophones. Dennie mines these works and many more; while his citations are (perhaps for reasons of space?) basic, his bibliography is wide ranging. There are some curious absences—several doctoral theses, both recent and the first thesis to attempt an overview of the region’s early history, are not cited. Perhaps noting these gaps is to quibble—Dennie clearly has long experience assessing the historical evolution of Greater Sudbury. Other issues seem more important. An overview of the region should offer a significant discussion of the First Nations’ long history in the region. Fur trade histories and work on the Robinson Huron Treaty offer insights—Indian Affairs records offer another entry. But Dennie offers only passing comment (11–13). Even the notorious sale of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (Whitefish Lake) timber late in the nineteenth century receives no attention. While this book is a regional overview, in an era of recognition and reconciliation such cursory comment is insufficient. Beyond commenting on what is not in Dennie’s book, one can note that his long-established interest in the area’s Franco-Ontarians, notably in the once-agriculture sector termed “The Valley,” results in a somewhat uneven coverage of the region. Perhaps this imbalance is inevitable, as scholars are more comfortable writing about what is most familiar. Here, readers anticipating a “regional” coverage will find little about various parts of the Nickel Belt, especially its southwestern periphery, points north beyond the “Valley” and points east/southeast. One finds few references to centres like Cartier, Wahnapitae, or Whitefish, or, indeed, most of the mining centres. All much diminished now, they nevertheless served as useful “central places” for residents in the era preceding convenient automobile travel. That is not to say that Dennie is unaware of these places, but regional studies are best served when featuring geographic balance. Clearly this task in challenging: or even confusing—Saarinen’s recent regional coverage (2013) can disconcert through its valiant efforts to “look everywhere.” Tension between detail and overall coverage also emerges in dealing with social history. Dennie offers good coverage of francophone populations and adds useful social class analysis. That discussion also balances earlier tales of “entrepreneurial vigour” by pointing out the important, very pro-business role of the state in exploiting the various resources of the region. Timber, minerals, and even agriculture were “boosted” by state infrastructures and economic support; as the local mining economy grew, the state also sided with the mining firms when farmers tried to protect …