<p>What is the relationship between literature and the society in which it incubates? Are there common political, social, and economic factors that predominate during periods of heightened literary activity? <i>New Brunswick at the Crossroads: Literary Ferment and Social Change in the East</i> considers these questions and explores the relationships between periods of creative ferment in New Brunswick and the socio-cultural conditions of those times. </p><p>The province’s literature is ideally suited to such a study because of its bicultural character—in both English and French, periods of intense literary creativity occurred at different times and for different reasons. What emerges is a cultural geography in New Brunswick that has existed not in isolation from the rest of Canada but often at the creative forefront of imagined alternatives in identity and citizenship. At a time when cultural industries are threatened by forces that seek to negate difference and impose uniformity, <i>New Brunswick at the Crossroads</i> provides an understanding of the intersection of cultures and social economies, contributing to critical discussions about what constitutes “the creative” in Canadian society, especially in rural, non-central spaces like New Brunswick. </p>