Arnaud Theurillat-Cloutier, Printemps de force: Une histoire engagée du mouvement étudiant au Québec (1958–2013)

In this book Arnaud Theurillat-Cloutier tells the story of Quebec's vibrant student movement.His effort is comprehensive and well-documented, supported by a long list of archives, interviews, government and media reports, and elaborate footnotes.This work complements and goes beyond previous manuscripts about Quebec's student movement that were based on limited sources, such as Marc Simard, Histoire du mouvement étudiant québécois 1956-2013 (2013), or were limited to shorter time periods, such as Benoît Lacoursière, Le mouvement étudiant au Québec de 1983 à 2006 (2006).The introduction starts with the words "Un spectre hante le Québec" -referring to the 2012 student strike and popular uprising that became known as the Maple Spring.Theurillat-Cloutier asks and answers questions about the source of the movement's strength.The author makes clear that this is an "engaged" history, which he hopes can elicit action and responsibility towards the present and future.I had therefore expected -in the feminist tradition of engaged scholarship -the author to explain his own involvement from 2005 to 2012 in the student movement.Instead, the introduction shows, the author's theoretical analysis is based on Jean-Marc Piotte's division between two types of labour syndicalism: participation with the state (which the author sometimes refers to as "concertationniste") versus contestation (or combative syndicalism).The distinction and application to student activism is well nuanced by Theurillat-Cloutier, who might have more clearly credited others (e.g.Lacoursière) who have previously applied it to the student movement.This introduction also clarifies the author's focus on the importance of national (read provincial) student unions.However, he has still allowed a great variety of historical and sociopolitical considerations and actors, including individual students and smaller student associations, to have a voice in his book and to claim their fair share of the credit.The book is divided into six chapters, with an introduction and epilogue as bookends.Each chapter covers a decade and begins with a socio-political summary of that decade, followed by a much more in-depth account.While at times this creates a sense of repetition and a chronology that is not always easy to follow, Theurillat-Cloutier compensates for this with a short conclusion at the end of each chapter wrapping up the main historical events in a more coherent chronological manner, and with a visual graph at the beginning of each chapter.The author's prose and an impressive level of detail -including photographs and long quotes -also enable the reader to become immersed in the debates and storytelling.A concise chapter 1 continues the introduction's work of highlighting unexpected linkages to the past by focusing on the 1950s in Quebec: the role of progressive Catholic youth and a first, albeit unsuccessful, student strike in 1958 alongside heated labour strikes.Chapter 2 then hurls the reader into the fervour of Quebec's

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