In a few short decades before the First World War, Calgary was transformed from a frontier outpost into a complex industrial metropolis. With industrialization there emerged a diverse and equally complex working class. David Bright explores the various levels of class formation and class identity in the city to argue that Calgary’s reputation as a prewar centre of labour conservatism is in need of revision.

David Bright's profile page

• Winner, Clio Award (Prairie Region), Canadian Historical Association

David Bright teaches history at the University of Calgary and at Mount Royal College, Calgary.

Bright's well-crafted work contributes usefully to the fast-developing study of local labor history in western Canadian cities ... Recommended.

Choice

This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the history of both Canadian labor and the Canadian West. It weaves together both a wealth of primary documents and secondary sources to fashion a forceful argument about the character of the working class in early Calgary. For the academic reader interested in class formation in western Canada, this is a must-read book.

Great Plains Research