and secularism. While it is true that at different times during the nine-
teenth century radical and anti-clerical ideas from France were
adopted by some of Quebec's political leaders, the hierarchy was able
to prevent these ideas from spreading to the mass of the people. When
cultural contacts between France and Quebec became more extensive
after World War I the ideas which were most influential among the
French-Canadian élite were those of the modern representatives of the
Catholic tradition in France, such as Péguy, Mauriac, Mounier, and
Maritain. It is only since the Second World War that those writers who
are in the secular and anti-clerical tradition, such as Gide, Malraux,
Camus, and Sartre, have found a receptive audience in some intellec-
tual circles. ²

There is one other respect in which the province of Quebec differs
from many other regions in North America. Within the past fifty years
or so it has passed through an industrial revolution which has trans-
formed it from a backward rural and agrarian society into an advanced
urban and industrial one. This transformation has been brought about
primarily through the activities of British and American capital seek-
ing profitable fields for investment; French-Canadian capital has
played a negligible role in the process. Like all such revolutionary
changes, industrialization altered considerably the social and economic
structure of Quebec society, and presented a serious challenge to the
traditional way of life and values of the French Canadian. It also had
an important impact on the pattern of politics in that province. It is
this latter aspect of industrialization which we are concerned with
here.

This book is a study of the political party which dominated Quebec
politics during the most intensive phase of industrialization. The origin
of the party in question, the Union Nationale, can be traced back to a
nationalist movement which began to develop shortly after the First
World War. One of the most significant characteristics of this national-
ist movement was its opposition to the widespread changes which
industrialism was making in the French Canadian's way of life and to
the fact that the economy of the province was dominated by foreign
capital. The Union Nationale succeeded in driving the Liberal party
from power in 1936, and remained in office until 1939. Although the

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