Acknowledgements

Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century was designed around the recognition that those of us living through the first decades of the twenty-first century have experienced a historical rupture from what came before. Witnessing the shockwaves of deindustrialization, which directly impacted Cape Breton and its residents, recent years have also seen the quickening of climate change, the ravages of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and a host of social mobilizations in the face of structural inequity—from Occupy Wall Street to Idle No More and Black Lives Matter. With these shifts in full view, the editors sought to craft a collection that would consider the place of Cape Bretoners in this changing landscape. Drawing upon a national network of researchers whose work touches on the island, this book provides a reconnaissance of Cape Breton’s history nearly two decades after its cornerstone industries of coal and steel were closed. The result is a text that reveals the transnational threads that have influenced Cape Breton residents during the long twentieth century and examines some of the ways that islanders have responded to these transformations.

The editors would like to thank all of the contributors for their thoughtful work and Pamela Holway, Megan Hall, and Karyn Wisselink at Athabasca University Press. A special thank you goes to Alvin Finkel for agreeing to provide a summative afterword. This could not have happened without all of your hard work, and we are grateful.

Financial support for this book came from Athabasca University Press, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and Cape Breton University through the Robert J. Morgan fund. We would like to thank the Beaton Institute for all that it does—not only in support of this project but also in support of historical work on the island, within the Atlantic region, and across Canada. A special thank you to archivists Jane Arnold and Anna MacNeil for the provision of material that is used throughout this book.

Lachlan would like to thank Richard MacKinnon, Joan Weeks, David Frank, and Steven High for their contributions to his thinking on Cape Breton Island, deindustrialization, and historical writing. In different ways, each of them has demonstrated the importance of keeping the lives and experiences of regular people at the centre of historical writing. He would also like to especially thank Sheralynne, Landon, and Addison for all their love and support.

Andy owes a debt of gratitude to Graham Reynolds and Anne Marie Lane Jonah, two scholars who consistently placed the island’s history in a wider global context, integrated neglected voices into their work, and engaged the broader public in meaningful historical conversations.