About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
Can a book about tax history be a page-turner? You wouldn’t think so. But Give and Take is full of surprises. A Canadian millionaire who embraced the new federal income tax in 1917. A socialist hero, J.S. Woodsworth, who deplored the burden of big government. Most surprising of all, Give and Take reveals that taxes deliver something more than armies and schools. They build democracy.
Tillotson launches her story with the 1917 war income tax, takes us through the tumultuous tax fights of the interwar years, proceeds to the remaking of income taxation in the 1940s and onwards, and finishes by offering a fresh angle on the fierce conflicts surrounding tax reform in the 1960s.
Taxes show us the power of the state, and Canadians often resisted that power, disproving the myth that we have always been good loyalists. But Give and Take is neither a simple tale of tax rebels nor a tirade against the taxman. Tillotson argues that Canadians also made real contributions to democracy when they taxed wisely and paid willingly.
Contributor Notes
Shirley Tillotson has taken a leading role in the writing of Canada’s new political history. Through her many books and articles, she has shown how electoral politics and social politics intersect and influence each other. Her first book, The Public at Play: Gender and the Politics of Recreation in Post-War Ontario, was recognized for its excellence in regional history. Her second book, Contributing Citizens: Modern Charitable Fundraising and the Making of the Welfare State, 1920–66, was shortlisted for national prizes in the social sciences and in Canadian history.
She is an Inglis Professor at the University of King’s College and an adjunct member of the History Department at Dalhousie University.
Awards
- Winner, François-Xavier Garneau Medal, Canadian Historical Association
- Winner, 2019 Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History, Canadian Historical Association
- Short-listed, Canada Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Editorial Reviews
…this is a path-breaking work that hopefully will lead to other investigations of Canadians’ love/hate relationship with the state, a relationship where taxes generally land in the hate department.
— Alberta Views
Give and Take is amazingly well researched[...]
— Canadian Historical Review
[Tillotson] writes in a light, accessible manner … [she] is skilful in using historical analysis to explain the past through a modern lens.
— Canada's History
