Dechêne's work, when first published, constituted a major milestone in the development of methodology and use of sources. Her systematic examination of difficult and massive documentary collections blazed a number of new trails for other researchers. Her judicious blending of numerical data and "qualitative" findings makes this book one of the rare examples of "new history" that avoids the extremes of statistical abstraction and anecdotal antiquarianism.

Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal won the Governor-General's Award and the Garneau Medal from the Canadian Historical Association when it first appeared in French.

Louise Dechêne (1928–2000) was professor in the Department of History at McGill University and author of Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal and Power and Subsistence: The Political Economy of Grain in New France. She is a recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award and twice winner of the Lionel-Groulx Prize.

Louise Dechêne's profile page

"There is no doubt about the quality of this book. It is fastidiously researched, constructed with great sensitivity and intelligence, and beautifully written. It is a Canadian classic, one of the outstanding achievements of our scholarship ... it will open up early French Canada to English Canada as no other book has." Cole Harris, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia.
"The most important contribution to scholarship concerning New France to appear in twenty years ... Like all really good historical studies, it poses as many questions as it answers and presents new evidence and interpretations ... It will reach an audience with much wider interests than those pertaining strictly to the history of New France." James Pritchard, Department of History, Queen's University.