The Question of Separatism Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty

Unquestionably one of North America#xE2;#xAC;"s most original thinkers, Jane Jacobs also grappled with the most important story of nations in North America, but nobody ever wanted to hear what she had to say. She wrote The Question of Separatism, Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty, her third book, while still in her prime. Yet, unlike her other six books, The Question of Separatism has been out of print since the 1980s. Jane Jacobs examined not only the particular question of Quebec and Canada, but the large issue of sovereignty and autonomy in general. She shows how Norway persistently broke its ties with Sweden and became a separate nation in a peaceful manner and suggests that Canada and Canadians should be inspired by that example. An essential component of the great thinker and urban activist#xE2;#xAC;"s work, The Question of Separatism incorporates and expands the 1979 Massey Lectures entitled #xE2;#xAC;SCanadian Cities and Sovereignty-Association#xE2;#xAC; commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This new edition is augmented by a previously unpublished interview with Jane Jacobs conducted in her Toronto home in 2005, twenty-five years after the book appeared and ten years after the 1995 Quebec referendum. In the interview Jacobs reasserts and updates points made in the book, discusses reaction to it, and addresses burning issues of the day like tar sands development in Albert and the future of the Euro and of Europe. The preface by Robin Philpot demonstrates that this book is inextricably linked to Jane Jacobs#xE2;#xAC;"s worldview.

Jane Jacobs was the author of Cities and the Wealth of Nations, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and The Economy of Cities. Robin Philpot is the author of six books in French on Quebec and international politics, and he is the coauthor of A People's History of Quebec. He lives in Montreal.