From the Back Cover
The Prairie West: Historical Readings is a collection of thirty-five articles on Canadian prairie history written by Canada's leading historians, political scientists, and economists. Edited by R. Douglas Francis and Howard Palmer.
This expanded and revised second edition of The Prairie West provides a selection of articles that present both overview interpretations and research for use by scholars and students of prairie Canada. The articles are divided into the following topics:
- Interpretations and Historiography;
- Native People and the Fur Trade;
- The Métis, The Red River Colony and Canada;
- The West and Confederation;
- Indian Treaties and the Establishment of Canadian Law and Order;
- The Economics of Settlement;
- Ethnic Groups and Prairie Society;
- The Settlement Experience and the Creation of Prairie Institutions;
- Prairie Women;
- Rural and Agricultural Society of Prairie Canada;
- Urban Society and Labour in Prairie Canada;
- Agrarian Reform/Revolt;
- Prairie Society and Politics in the Great Depression;
- The Modern West: Politics and Economics; and
- Literature and Art.
Unfortunately, there is nothing on business development—an omission that is especially surprising in view of the region’s political adherence to independent entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, with Friesen’s survey, this book should be mandatory reading for every student interested in the Prairie region, and for every central Canadian politician and bureaucrat who ventures beyond the Lakehead.