A Personal Reflection on Robert C.H. Sweeny’s Why Did We Choose to Industrialize? Montreal 1819–1849

Abstract

This reflection on Robert C.H. Sweeny’s Why Did We Choose to Industrialize? Montreal 1819–1849 is grounded in a consideration of various historical, historiographic, and personal moments, evaluating what Sweeny’s work means in a variety of contexts. Sweeny’s book offers a complex portrait of the changing inequalities of a nineteenth-century city, and important theoretical and methodological insights and cautions.