High S. (2022) Deindustrializing Montreal: Entangled Histories of Race, Residence, and Class. McGill-Queen’s University Press

High adds a beautifully nuanced account of Montreal to the literature on deindustrialization with his new book, Deindustrializing Montreal.High's expertise on deindustrialization, as evidenced in one of his prior books, Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America's Rustbelt, is applied to this study of two working-class neighborhoods in Montreal.He understands Montreal as a revivified, thriving city but one in which postindustrial development plays itself out unevenly across lines of class, race, and residence in two communities.High structures the book as a comparative study of Point Saint-Charles and Little Burgundy, two working-class neighborhoods in Southwest Montreal, one white and the other multiracial.The book takes the reader through waves of deindustrialization: the decline of the railroads with the growth of automobile culture; the closing of the Lachine Canal to ship traffic; and shutdowns, over decades, of the many factories along the banks of the canal.It also explores the histories of changing social policy in and around cities, exploring the impact of suburbanization, urban renewal, and gentrification on these neighborhoods.High's histories are supported by his in-depth, long-term, ethnographic work in these two communities.Steve High lives in Point Saint-Charles, has worked extensively with students and community partners in both neighborhoods, has collected oral histories, planned public events, conducted neighborhood walk-throughs and engaged with local institutions for more than 15 years.This long-term, deeply embedded research results in incredibly rich archival materials, including oral histories, photographs, and primary documents, most of which have been collected by High and his students.