Like all major events in Canadian history, the Quebec Conference of 1864, an important step on Canada's road to Confederation, deserves to be discussed and better understood. Efforts to revitalize historical memory must take a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach.

The Quebec Conference of 1864 expresses a renewed historical interest over the last two decades in both the Quebec-Canada constitutional trajectory and the study of federalism. Contributors from a variety of disciplines argue that a more grounded understanding of the 72 Quebec Resolutions of 1864 is key to interpreting the internal architecture of the contemporary constitutional apparatus in Canada, and a new interpretation is crucial to appraise the progress made over the 150 years since the institution of federalism.

The second volume in a series that began with The Constitutions That Shaped Us: A Historical Anthology of Pre-1867 Canadian Constitutions, this book reveals a society in constant transition, as well as the presence of national projects that live in tension with the Canadian federation.

Eugénie Brouillet is professor of constitutional law and vice-president of research and innovation at Université Laval, Québec.

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Alain-G. Gagnon holds the Canada Research Chair in Québec and Canadian Studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal. His most recent books include, as author, The Case for Multinational Federalism and Minority Nations in the Age of Uncertainty; as co-author, Federalism, Citizenship, and Quebec; and, as co-editor, Federal Democracies as well as Political Autonomy and Divided Societies and Multinational Federalism.

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Guy Laforest is executive director of the École Nationale d’Administration Publique (ÉNAP), Québec.

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