The Prairie West as Promised Land
- Publisher
- University of Calgary Press
- Initial publish date
- Aug 2007
- Category
- General, Rural, Historiography
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781552382301
- Publish Date
- Aug 2007
- List Price
- $54.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781552384329
- Publish Date
- Aug 2007
- List Price
- $54.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
So the emblem of the West Our bright Maple Leaf is bless'd To its children of the goodly open hand; All the nations of the earth Are now learning of its worth And are flocking to this wealthy, promised land. - The Sugar Maple Tree Song, 1906
In 1906, the Sugar Maple Tree Song was just one example of the rhapsodic pieces that touted the Prairie West as the "promised land." In the formative years of agricultural settlement from the late nineteenth century to the First World War, the Canadian government, along with the railways and other Prairie boosters, further developed and propagated this image within the widely distributed promotional literature that was used to attract millions of immigrants to the Canadian West from all corners of the world. Some saw the Prairies as an ideal place to create a Utopian society; others seized the chance to take control of their own destinies in a new and exciting place. The image of the West as a place of unbridled prosperity and opportunity became the dominant perception of the region at that time. During the interwar and post-World War II eras, this image was questioned and challenged, although not entirely replaced, thus showing its pervasive influence.The Prairie West as Promised Land is group of essays, which includes contributions from some of the best-known Prairie historians as well as some of the most promising new scholars in the field, explores this persistent theme in Prairie history and makes an important contribution to the historiography of the Canadian West.
With Contributions By: Sarah Carter Catherine A. Cavanaugh Brett Fairbairn Michael Fedyk R. Douglas Francis David Hall SteveHewitt Laurence Kitzan Chris Kitzan George Melnyk Doug Owram Anthony W. Rasporich Bradford J. Rennie Bill Waiser Matthew Wangler Randi Warne
About the authors
Doug Owram is Deputy Vice Chancellor and Principal at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.
R. Douglas Francis is a professor of history at the University of Calgary. He has published extensively in the areas of Canadian and western Canadian intellectual and cultural history.
R. Douglas Francis' profile page
Chris Kitzan manages content creation for Library and Archives Canada’s Web Content and Services Division. Formerly a curator at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Chris has more than fifteen years experience authoring historical productions, exhibitions and publications for both academic and popular audiences.
Laurence Kitzan's profile page
Chris Kitzan manages content creation for Library and Archives Canada's Web Content and Services Division. Formerly a curator at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Chris has more than fifteen years experience authoring historical productions, exhibitions, and publications for both academic and popular audiences.
Matthew Wrangler's profile page
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David Hall is an award-winning photographer and photojournalist whose work has been published in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Natural History, Sierra, Time, Science, Scientific American, and other magazines. He is also the author of ten children's books in Scholastic's Undersea Encounters series. He lives in Woodstock, New York.
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Sarah Carter, F.R.S.C., is H.M. Tory Chair and Professor in the Department of History and Classics, and Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She is a specialist in the history of Western Canada and is the author of Aboriginal People and Colonizers of Western Canada to 1900, Capturing Women, and Lost Harvests. Sarah Carter was awarded the Jensen-Miller Prize by the Coalition for Women's History for the best article published in 2006 in the field of women and gender in the trans-Mississippi West.
Anthony W. Rasporich's profile page
Bill Waiser is one of Canada's foremost historians. For more than three decades, he was a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan. He is now a full-time writer and public speaker. Bill has published nineteen books, in addition to plying his trade in radio, television, and print media. He's known for an engaging, popular style that draws on the power of stories. His most recent book, In Search of Almighty Voice: Resistance and Reconciliation, was launched at the One Arrow First Nation's community powwow at the request of the Elders.
Bradford J. Rennie's profile page
Catherine A. Cavanaugh's profile page
STEVE HEWITT was born and raised in Southern Ontario. He is the author of Spying 101: The RCMP's Secret Activities at Canadian Universities, 1917-1997 and is a member of the Department of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
George Melnyk is an associate professor of Canadian studies and film studies in the Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary. He is a cultural historian who specializes in Canadian cinema. Among his film publications are One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema (2004) and Great Canadian Film Directors (2007). Most recently he has published The Young, the Restless, and the Dead: Interviews with Canadian Filmmakers (2008) in the Film and Media Studies series at WLU Press.
Brett Fairbairn is a professor in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan specializing in democratic governance and history. He is also a Fellow in Co-operative Thought and Ideas at the University’s Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
