Review of Minetown, Milltown, Railtown: Life in Canadian Communities of Single Industry, by Rex A. Lucas, introduction by Lorne Tepperman (Oxford University Press, 2008) 406 pp., paper $26.95, endnotes, Indexed.

First published in 1971, this inaugural study deserves to be updated by contemporary social scientists.

Three detailed community studies were done, with the social characteristics detailed.  In each study, intensive interviews were carried out, with a random sample of the population in the case of Minetown and representative samples in the cases of Railtown and Milltown.  Figure 1 is a representation of the occupational order of railtown.  Table 1 charts Medical services by size of community, 1968.  Table 2 offers Point of contact used by urban companies in the recruitment of new young employees.

The study is dedicated to Carl Addington (1887-1964) and introduced by Lorne Tepperman, who chooses to present Lucas as: “poor and homosexual in a single-industry town”, likening the result of his research to a prize-winning novel.

Lucas admits the literature on Canadian communities of single industry is “uneven”, and this factor alone justifies the inclusion of his seminal study in the Wynford series of titles representing significant milestones in Canadian literature, thought, and scholarship.

The Introduction offers a survey of reviews, including John Porter, Canadian Historical Review, the John Porter of The Vertical Mosaic (Toronto, 1965) labeled as “perhaps Canada’s pre-eminent sociologist of the era”, but who has since come under criticism for flaws in his research technique.

Lucas defines “urban” and “urbanization”, dealing with types of small communities, based on a population of 30,000, or less.  He then proceeds through:  “Stage I Construction of the Community”; “II The Recruitment of Citizens”; “III Transition”; and “Stage IV Maturity”. Lucas summarizes: “The Organization of Work”; “Occupation, Stratification, and Association”; “Interpersonal Relationships”; “Recreation; Goods and Services”; “Healing Arts”; “The School”; “Churches”; “Social Conflict and Social Control”; “Marriage and Migration of Youth”; concluding with “Some Social Implications”.

Of the latter, Lucas examines: “The One-Industry Community in Canada”, “The Universality of Communities of Single Industry”, “Isolation”; “Single Industry”, “Fishing, Farming and Commercial Communities”; “The Community of Dominant Industry”, “Community Size”, “Personal Relationships”; “Community Services”, “The Community of Single Industry and Canada”. 

This edition is rounded out, with a map of approximate locations of the Communities studied in this book; Notes on Data and Sources, (such as published and unpublished studies, magazine and newspaper articles, census, directory, and statistical material), as well as a Name Index, and  a Subject Index.

Anne Burke