Improving Upper Canada: Agricultural Societies and State Formation, 1791–1852

“Improving Upper Canada breaks new ground for our understanding of agricultural associations. With an impressive amount of research and an extensive bibliography, Ross Fair offers a pioneering and useful work on Upper Canadian agricultural associations.” George Emery, Professor Emeritus of History, Western University

“Drawing on scholarship regarding agricultural improvement, Improving Upper Canada presents a nuanced understanding of state formation and the significance of agricultural reform in the Upper Canadian context. Ross Fair enhances our understanding of Ontario’s agricultural societies by consulting a wide variety of sources, including newspapers and periodicals, archival collections, government reports, and other contemporary publications. Well-written and engaging, this book makes a valuable contribution to the field.” Jodey Nurse, Faculty Lecturer at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University

“There hasn’t been much new scholarship on the political history of Upper Canada for well over a generation.  Improving Upper Canada makes a useful contribution to the literature and is quite original in its argument about the role of agricultural societies in the development of the state. Ross Fair explores an original topic – the creation of agricultural societies and their role in state formation, as well as the idea of improvement in the first half of the nineteenth century. This book will stimulate new research and provoke a renewed debate about the political culture of Old Ontario.”

David Mills, Professor of Canadian History, University of Alberta