The Heiress vs the Establishment

Mrs. Campbell’s story, supported and augmented with the Backhouses’ careful and comprehensive research, provides a fascinating and sometimes devastating potrait of the world of the Toronto elite of the 1920s and 1930s. Mrs. Campbell, born into that elite and brought up to assume a subordinate role in it, is compelled by her cirumstances and her character to challenge many of the assumptions of her upbringing, and even to acquire some feminist consciousness. In this new edition of Mrs. Campbell’s book, the Backhouses assist in her transformation from heiress to heroine. ~Margaret McCallum, University of New Brunswick, The Canadian Historial Review, June 2005

It seems unnecessary to review a book that has a dustcover containing glowing reviews from none other than the chief justice of Canada, the chief justice of Ontario and a well-known Toronto lawyer. Readers interested in legal history will find reading both the inner and outer books fascinating and very worthy of time spent. ~Michael O’Keefe, QC, The Advocate, Vol 63, Part 4, July 2005

Constance and Nancy Backhouse have brilliantly brought Mrs. Campbell’s legal journey to life. They provide detailed endnotes which assist in contextualizing the journey in light of Mrs. Campbell’s own circumstances and the legal era in which the struggle took place. The Heiress vs. the Estalishment furnishes the reader with an excellent historical adventure of the impassioned battle of one woman against The Benchers of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Toronto General Trusts Corporation, and the Ontario Judiciary. ~Marianne “Chuck” Davies, Saskatchewan Law Review 2005, Vol. 68

A meticulously researched epilogue. The whole, entertaining to read, dissects Canada’s old legal elite. In the epilogue the Backhouses do a marvelous job of depicting the close social and business ties that maintained the Bar in Toronto in the early twentieth century ... an historically rich and dense picture of an extraordinary case and the woman who pursued it ... The Heiress vs. The Establishment gives a rarely available picture into the world of legal elites and the cross-cutting allegiances of class, gender, and profession. The disputes that can consume a plaintiff can often as much concern family and money as they can the large public issues of the day, and this book brings that point to life. ~Susan Sterett, Political Science Department, University of Denver, Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2005, No. 1

The primary strength of their presentation is that they allow Campbell to speak and readers to have their own reaction – alternately to laugh at her audacity, gasp at her brashness, and admire her persistence and fortitude ... the Backhouses have equipped us to think about these issues in an intelligent and fair way, finally pulling Mrs Campbell’s side of the story from its hiding-place. ~Angela Fernandez, University of Toronto Quarterly, v75, no1, Winter 2006

In The Heiress vs the Establishment, Constance Backhouse and Nancy L. Backhouse use the reprinting of Campbell’s narrative ... as the opportunity to explore questions about ender, judicial trust, and legal frameworks of early-twentieth-century Canada ... Ultimately, Mrs. Campbell’s case is placed firmly within its contradictory and confusing context. It is the mark of a well-researched critical introduction, epilogue, and notes that one in never quite able to applaud wholesale her victory. ~Jessica Schagerl, Canadian Literature, Spring 2006