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History General

Rough Work

Labourers on the Public Works of British North America and Canada, 1841-1882

by (author) Ruth Bleasdale

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2018
Category
General, North America, General, History & Theory
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781487502485
    Publish Date
    Feb 2018
    List Price
    $85.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781487521998
    Publish Date
    Feb 2018
    List Price
    $49.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487515430
    Publish Date
    Mar 2018
    List Price
    $49.95

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Description

The labourers at the heart of this study built the canals and railways undertaken as public works by the colonial governments of British North America and the federal government of Canada between 1841 and 1882.

 

Ruth Bleasdale’s fascinating journey into the little-known lives of these labourers and their families reveals how capital, labour and the state came together to build the transportation infrastructure that linked colonies and united an emerging nation. Combining census and community records, government documents, and newspaper archives Bleasdale elucidates the ways in which successive governments and branches of the state intervened between labour and capital and in labourers’ lives. Case studies capture the remarkable diversity across regions and time in a labour force drawn from local and international labour markets. The stories here illuminate the ways in which men and women experienced the emergence of industrial capitalism and the complex ties which bound them to local and transnational communities. Rough Work is an accessibly written yet rigorous study of the galvanization of a major segment of Canada’s labour force over four decades of social and economic transformation.

About the author

Ruth Bleasdale is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Dalhousie University.

Ruth Bleasdale's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, 2018 Wilson Book Prize awarded by the Wilson Institute for Canadian History

Editorial Reviews

"Rough Work is an exhaustive social history of public works projects, the men who labored on them, and the men who tried to keep these laborer’s in line. Bleasdale has made a vital contribution by diligently documenting this time and place."

<em>University of Toronto Quarterly: Letters in Canada 2018</em>