The Great Depression of the 1930s often recalls images of the drought-stricken Canadian Prairies. It was a region in the grips of an environmental disaster made even worse by the economic effects of the Depression. Between 1929 and 1932, per capita incomes fell by half in Manitoba, by 61 per cent in Alberta, and by an astonishing 72 per cent in Saskatchewan. The result was an enormous political and social upheaval that swept through the rest of the country.

This sixth volume of the History of the Prairie West Series contains a broad range of articles bringing together the best research of the past forty years about this pivotal decade in the history of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It features a multifaceted investigation of the Great Depression on the Canadian Prairies and covers a broad range of topics, including unemployment, ecology, coal miners’ strikes, soldier settlements, school disintegration, homesteading, prairie politics, and the legacy of the rural prairie novel.

Gregory P. Marchildon is a Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Economic History at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina. He was executive director of the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada (the Romanow Commission). His most recent books include Health Systems in Transition: Canada (2013) and Nunavut: A Health System Profile (2013).

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