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"Montréal est né parce qu'il se trouvait au cœur d'un bassin hydrographique exceptionnel. Son destin est demeuré étroitement lié au fleuve même si la ville a semblé s'en détourner quand elle a poussé ses faubourgs vers l'intérieur de l'île. Les Montréalais ont toujours manifesté la même fascination pour l'eau, que ce soit dans leur vie quotidienne ou dans leurs loisirs. Plus récemment, cette fascination s'est doublée d'une préoccupation pour l'eau polluée par les activités humaines et industrielles. L'historienne Michèle Dagenais aborde ici l'eau dans sa globalité et sous ses diverses formes, en examinant ensemble les cours d'eau qui ceinturent l'île et l'eau qui coule dans les réseaux souterrains. L'eau est appréhendée dans ses dimensions concrètes et tangibles, comme élément physique qui se transforme avec le développement de Montréal en même temps qu'il y contribue. L'eau est aussi examinée sur le plan socioculturel, comme une composante cruciale de la production et de la transformation de l'espace montréalais. L'auteur examine les principaux aménagements dont l'eau a fait l'objet au cours des deux cents dernières années. En somme, elle nous raconte l'histoire de Montréal dans ses rapports avec les éléments naturels, au premier rang desquels se trouve l'eau."--P. 4 de la couv

Under what circumstances did Canadian municipalities, charged with ensuring the existence of services which encouraged the development of real property, come to be involved in the field of culture and leisure? By examining the process through which the Municipal Library and the Botanical Garden were established in Montreal, this article attempts to answer this question. Because these projects constituted precedents in relation to the usual areas of Canadian municipal intervention, they provoked vigorous debate. Each in their own way, the projects served to call into question the definition of public culture and the democratization of knowledge. They also raised the equally contentious issue of the role of municipal government in the fields of leisure and culture.

"Built within an exceptional watershed, Montreal is intertwined with the waterways that ring its island and flow beneath it in underground networks. Montreal, City of Water focuses on water not only as a physical element - both shaping and shaped by urban development - but also as a sociocultural component of the life of the city. This unique study considers how water has produced and transformed urban space over two centuries. It traces the history of Montreal's urbanization, shining a light on current concerns about water pollution, rehabilitation, and public access to the riverfront - and on the power relations involved in addressing them."--

Basing her work on extensive study of Montreal's city records, Dagenais gives us a view of city government from inside city hall, showing how the city's institutions really functioned. From 1900 to 1950, the municipal administration underwent a decisive transformation to become a modern bureaucracy. Dagenais explores the forces behind modernization by illuminating the roles played by city hall's main actors; elected officials, department heads and civil servants. Dagenais presents the municipal government from three perspectives. She first views it as a public administration whose history is marked by the numerous power struggles which brought elected officials into conflict with professional bureaucrats. Secondly, she sees it as a large enterprise which was notably influenced by modern management techniques, and finally she shows it to be a working environment shaped by professional relationships. Dagenais provides the first detailed history of a municipal administration in Canada, one that is particularly important as Montreal was at the economic and financial centre of Canada during this crucial period of urban and industrial development.