Although the empirical foundation of this updated and revised edition remains largely the same as the original 1999 work, this book is nevertheless sufficiently brought up to date to be a valuable addition to the current literature in the field. Examining the case of francophone schooling in Toronto, the book seeks “to grasp ways in which minority language schooling, as a discursive space of quasi-nationalism, dealt with challenges to its ability to construct hegemonic discourses; these challenges, then as now, flow from social difference and social inequality, and in particular from social changes related to political economic shifts” (p. viii). This is an incredibly important undertaking because it impacts on such issues as the commodification of both language and culture as well as on the legitimacy of both language and culture (and, of course, especially on the legitimacy of minority languages and cultures). Furthermore, as Heller notes, the book is fundamentally about “the role of language in the construction of social difference and social inequality at a time of transition” (p. xi).

This book is divided into seven chapters, focusing respectively on the transformation of linguistic minorities, unity in diversity (“l'unité dans la diversité”), norms and contradictions, being bilingual, girls and boys, periphery to center, and the distribution of linguistic capital. The book is, in essence, a very thorough and compelling ethnographic study of a minority language school and especially of the daily language practices of that school; this approach raises questions not only about language policy in schools and classrooms but also about issues of power, ideology, and identity. Without question, this is a valuable and worthwhile work, and one that deserves our attention.