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Multiauthored volumes are a terrific way to present the perspectives offered by specialists in a variety of areas. The one potential disadvantage is that there is not always a consistent argument, thought, or treatment. This volume presents that sort of challenge to the reviewer: It is like trying to review 18 papers (the number of chapters in the volume)-a rather daunting task. I shall attempt to provide a general (normative) analysis of the whole book: (a) compared with the previous editions, (b) compared with other current Canadian industrial relations textbooks, and (c) overall. The book is organized into five sections, with only two chapters (the first and the last) falling outside them. The first chapter reviews Dunlop's (1958) theory of industrial relations systems and summarizes different perspectives on industrial relations (e.g., institutional, neoclassical, political economy, etc.). While all of these perspectives are represented in the book, the predominant perspective is institutional. The authors have used Dunlop's modified model to organize the book (the first part is about the environment, the second is about the actors, the third is about conversion processes, the fourth is about outcomes, and the fifth is about industrial relations in special environments). The Transformation of Union-Management Relations in Canada: Comparison with Previous Editions In this edition the second and third sections (Actors and Conversion Processes) have been almost completely rewritten, while the rest of the chapters are relatively unchanged. More major changes were made between the appearance of the first (Anderson & Gunderson, 1982) and the second editions (Anderson, Gunderson, & Ponak, 1989), than between the second and the third (current) editions. Since the pattern and magnitude of the environmental changes suggested to me a pattern of possible revisions to the textbook that is different to the ones made, I have developed the following proposition: P1: In the writing of a text book the learning curves of the writers has a larger impact on the magnitude and pattern of subsequent revisions than does the environment. The first chapter of the third edition is not very different from the first chapter of the second edition. The Environment section has been reorganized so that the labour market chapter is presented first instead of last, but otherwise none of the chapters in this section is very different from the same chapters in the second edition. The second section, on the Actors, has been more substantially transformed, with only one chapter (Desmond Morton's History of the Canadian Labour Movement) remaining relatively unchanged. Mark Thompson's chapter (The Management of Industrial Relations) replaces John Anderson's chapter in the second edition (The Strategic Management of Labour Relations); Gregor Murray's chapter (Unions: Membership, Structures, and Action) replaces the chapter by Gary Chaison and Joe Rose in the second edition; and the chapter by Carla Lipsig-Mumme (Labour Strategies in the New Social Order: A Political Economy Perspective) is entirely new. The third section on Conversion Processes has been completely replaced by new chapters (on similar or the same topics) by new authors. The fourth and fifth sections on Outcomes and Special Environments have been revised (and reordered, in the case of the fourth section), but otherwise they are the same. Comparison with Other Canadian Textbooks in English There are really only two other current Canadian textbooks in English: Craig and Solomon (1993) and Godard (1994), and neither of these is an edited volume. Craig and Solomon take an institutional perspective and include chapters on theories of labour movements and the negotiation process, which Gunderson and Ponak have not included. Craig and Solomon is rather short on statistics, but it includes four detailed cases at the end of the book for classroom use. …
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