Town and Country in the Redefinition of State–Federal Power: Canada and the United States, 1630–2005

One thing many studies of American political development lack is a comparative dimension. This is all the more so in the case of urban affairs. Numerous multi-city studies exist, but they rarely, if ever, transcend America’s national border.1 America’s closest neighbor, politically and culturally speaking, is Canada, and it is to Canada that I turn here in seeking to contextualize the particularities of the American experience.