4159 Abel, Kerry M. Changing Places: History, Community, and Identity in Northeastern Ontario. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 519p. photos. map. biblio. index. $80.00. $32.95pa. ISBN 0-7735-3038-X. ISBN 0-7735-3071-1pa. CCIP. DDC 971.3'142.

Changing Places studies the emergence of a sense of community in the Timmins-Iroquois Falls-Matheson region of northeastern Ontario over a period of 350 years. Historian Kerry Abel takes the story back to the early days of post-contact fur-trade relations and carries it forward by examining the influx of a succession of non-Natives seeking to make their fortunes by exploiting the area’s rich resources. The commerce in fur was succeeded by the exploitation of base and precious metals, pulp and paper, and hydroelectric power, most of it carried out by capital, individuals, and agencies from outside the region.
        Abel’s narrative is overlaid by an analytical grid that focuses on ethnicity/race, religion, self-perception, and class. She handles this potentially awkward tool with great skill, taking the reader through a breathtaking array of data in remarkably clear and readable prose. Her research is wide-ranging and in-depth. Throughout, Abel shows impressive familiarity with theoretical approaches, as well as abundant good judgment and common sense.
        Changing Places finds that by the middle of the 20th century a definite sense of community—composed of regional self-awareness and resentment of the exploitive and condescending South—emerged. It was shaped by economic, political, cultural, and historical forces. Abel concludes that social science theories about community that focus on structure fall short; they don’t fit this regional case study at all. She also concludes that those seeking to understand how community is fashioned must take historical forces into account.
        All in all, Changing Places is a tour de force by a highly accomplished historian. Anyone interested in regional and community studies, Canadian history, Native–newcomer relations, or the emergence of regionalism as an intellectual and political reality should read it.