City of Order: Crime and Society in Halifax, 1918–1935 by Michael Boudreau (review)

In the years following the First World War, Halifax, Nova Scotia, faced great economic, political, and cultural change and uncertainty. Michael Boudreau’s City of Order: Crime and Society in Halifax, 1918–1935 explores how the criminal justice system was used to address this material and cultural insecurity as law-abiding Haligonians sought to cope with change through modernizing their “machinery of order”: their courts, prisons, and the police force. According to Boudreau, “[o]rder is not simply defined by the absence of violence and lawlessness but also by a set of social relations characterized by the inequality and discrimination perpetuated by the criminal justice system.” A modern city required public order. The absence of social stability and the perceived concern that the forces of modernity were responsible for a breakdown in public morality placed this issue on the civic agenda.

Boudreau’s account relies on extensive detailed archival work among case files and the contemporary press as well as quantitative comparative work to situate Halifax in the context of two other small Canadian cities, namely, Hamilton and Saint John. Interestingly, in comparison with reported crimes in these two cities, Halifax was not a “crime-ridden city.” Boudreau’s rich narrative is peppered with both criminals’ and victims’ sad stories. This is balanced with administrative and bureaucratic accounts that highlight rationalizations, such as better record keeping, and the adoption of new technologies, such as police cars, radios, and fingerprinting.

Yet Boudreau points out that those seeking order were not completely successful. Those he describes as associated with “traditional” compared to “progressive” forces prevailed, with an overall emphasis on the apprehension and punishment of criminals, who were cast as irredeemable. Progressive influence with an emphasis on rehabilitation was visible only in the treatment of young offenders.

Post-war social dislocation and the parallel emphasis on public order had a noteworthy impact on Halifax’s most marginal citizens, and Boudreau focuses particular attention on ethnic minorities, working-class men, women, and juvenile offenders. In the consideration of these groups, he focuses on both their social construction as criminals and their experience with the expanding public order agenda. Of special interest to readers may be accounts of the city’s Chinese population and the 1919 race riot as well as the prosecution of the city’s most prominent interwar abortionist.

This is an important and useful book for those interested in legal, criminal, urban, or specifically Halifax history. Boudreau has provided three appendixes, including a reproduction of the Nova Scotia Report of the Royal Commission Concerning Jails (1931) and a breakdown of reported crimes in his statistical profile of crime in Halifax, Hamilton, and Saint John. Both appendices would be very valuable resources in undergraduate teaching. I would have been interested in an explicit discussion about the ways in which American popular culture might have fanned local Halifax anxiety around crime and this broader connection to cultural modernity. I also question whether or not attitudes toward lawbreakers such as rum runners might not have been more complex than is presented, but these are small quibbles. City of Order is an impressive piece of work and one that deserves a wide readership.