City of Order

An in-depth investigation of how Halifax faced the challenges of modernity by mounting a war on crime.

For determined popular readers as well as serious scholars, Boudreau’s book is worth plowing through to acquire an in-depth understanding of crime and working-class culture in interwar Halifax. It is even more valuable as a reminder that tough-on-crime policies can actually compound rather than ease social inequalities, racial divisions and economic hardship for the most vulnerable in urban societies.

R. Blake Brown, Department of History, Saint Mary’s University:

Historians have given inadequate attention to the history of the criminal justice system in the twentieth century. City of Order offers the first detailed case study of the interwar justice system. It makes a significant contribution not only to legal history scholarship but also to the history of Halifax.