Stéphane Castonguay is a professor of environmental history and Quebec studies at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and former Canada Research Chair in Environmental History (2003–13). He is also the author of Protection des cultures, construction de la nature: L'entomologie économique au Canada, 1884–1959, and co-editor, with Matthew Evenden, of Urban Rivers: Re-making Rivers, Cities, and Space in Europe and North America and, with Michèle Dagenais, of Metropolitan Natures: Environmental Histories of Montreal. Käthe Roth has been a literary translator for more than thirty years.

• Foreword: Science in Action / Graeme WynnIntroduction1 The Administrative Capacities of the Quebec State: Specialized Personnel and Technoscientific Interventions2 The Invention of a Mining Space: Geological Exploration and Mineralogical Knowledge3 Soil Classification and Separation of Forest and Colonization Areas: Scientific Forestry and Reforestation4 Surveillance and Improvement of Fish and Game Territories: Conservation of Wildlife Resources5 Regionalization and Specialization of Agricultural Production: Disseminating Agronomic KnowledgeConclusion: Knowledge, Power, and TerritoryAppendix: Identification of Technoscientific Activities in the Public Accounts (1896–1940)Notes; Bibliography; Index

The author provides great detail on the history of technical and scientific advances in the four natural resource areas of Quebec from 1867 to 1939.- J. Organ, emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst (Choice Connect) In meticulously detailed chapters devoted to the development of mining, forestry, wildlife conservation, and agriculture, Casonguay shows how Quebec took control of its resources. - Geoff White (Literary Review of Canada)