Welcome back to our monthly series, “Upcoming Publications in Canadian History,” where I’ve compiled information on all the upcoming releases for the following month in the field of Canadian history from every Canadian academic press, all in one place. This includes releases in both English and French. To see the releases from last month, click here.
***Please note that the cover images and book blurbs are used with permission from the publishers.***
N.B. This list only includes new releases, not rereleases in different formats.
August 1
Linda Mahood, Thumbing a Ride: Hitchhikers, Hostels, and Counterculture in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018)
In the 1920s, as a national network of roads and youth hostels spread across Canada, so did the practice of hitchhiking. By the 1960s, the Trans-Canada Highway had become the main thoroughfare for thousands of young baby boomers seeking adventure.
Thumbing a Ride examines the rise and fall of hitchhiking in the 1970s, drawing on records from the time. The Trudeau Liberals responded to youth unemployment by subsidizing a network of hostels to make travel an educational adventure, and many equated hitching and hostelling with the freedom to do their own thing. At the same time, a counter-narrative emerged, of girls gone missing and other dangers. Town councillors, community groups, and motorists called for a nationwide clampdown on a transient youth movement that they believed was spreading hippie sensibilities and anti-establishment nomadism.
Hitchhiking is a ritual that requires trust, boundary negotiation, and control. Neither the identity of the hitchhiker nor the motives of the motorist can be determined in advance. Linda Mahood unearths good and bad stories and key biographical moments that formed young travellers’ understandings of personal risk, agency, and national identity. Thumbing a Ride asks new questions about hitchhiking as a rite of passage, and about adult interventions that turned a subculture into a pressing moral and social issue.
This book will appeal to students and scholars of history, sociology, and social policy. It will also find an appreciative audience among baby boomers who recall the transient youth movement.
Available Formats: Hardcover
Publisher’s Link: https://www.ubcpress.ca/thumbing-a-ride
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Thumbing-Ride-Hitchhikers-Hostels-Counterculture/dp/0774837330/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532641066&sr=1-17
August 15
George R. Lindsey (ed. Matthew S. Wiseman), The Selected Works of George R. Lindsey: Operational Research, Strategic Studies, and the Canadian Defence in the Cold War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018)
(No cover image.)
During a government career that spanned nearly the whole of the Cold War, George Roy Lindsey gained a reputation as a leading defence scientist and military strategist for Canada’s Defence Research Board. Having influenced Canadian policy in such important areas as air defence, anti-submarine warfare, and the militarization of space, Lindsey’s writings spanning his career with the Department of National Defence, shed light not only on one of Canada’s most influential civil servants of the Cold War era, but on the inner-workings of the Canadian defence establishment during the nuclear age.
The Selected Works of George R. Lindsey provides full access to a wealth of valuable, previously classified, historical material regarding the scientific and technical aspects of Canadian defence and national security in the Cold War. Lindsey’s writings clarify Canada’s approach to the strategic issues of the nuclear age, while his first-hand experience is valuable for understanding the role and structure of the postwar Canadian defence establishment.
Available Formats: Hardcover, ePub
Publisher’s Link: https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-selected-works-of-george-r-lindsey-2
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Selected-Works-George-Lindsey-Operational/dp/1487503539/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532640913&sr=1-13
August 24
Jan Raska, Czech Refugees in Cold War Canada, 1945–1989 (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2018)
During the Cold War, more than 36,000 individuals entering Canada claimed Czechoslovakia as their country of citizenship. A defining characteristic of this migration of predominantly political refugees was the prevalence of anti-communist and democratic values. Diplomats, industrialists, politicians, professionals, workers, and students fled to the West in search of freedom, security, and economic opportunity.
Jan Raska’s Czech Refugees in Cold War Canada explores how these newcomers joined or formed ethnocultural organizations to help in their attempts to affect developments in Czechoslovakia and Canadian foreign policy towards their homeland. Canadian authorities further legitimized the Czech refugees’ anti-communist agenda and increased their influence in Czechoslovak institutions. In turn, these organizations supported Canada’s Cold War agenda of securing the state from communist infiltration. Ultimately, an adherence to anti-communism, the promotion of Canadian citizenship, and the cultivation of a Czechoslovak ethnocultural heritage accelerated Czech refugees’ socioeconomic and political integration in Cold War Canada.
By analyzing oral histories, government files, ethnic newspapers, and community archival records, Raska reveals how Czech refugees secured admission as desirable immigrants and navigated existing social, cultural, and political norms in Cold War Canada.
Available Formats: Paperback
Publisher’s Link: https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/czech-refugees-in-cold-war-canada
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Czech-Refugees-Cold-War-Canada/dp/0887558275/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532696204&sr=1-1&keywords=Czech+Refugees+in+Cold+War+Canada
August 31
Tracey L. Adams, Regulating Professions: The Emergence of Professional Self-Regulation in Four Canadian Provinces (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018)
Self-regulation has long been at the core of sociological understandings of what it means to be a “profession.” However, the historical processes resulting in the formation of self-regulating professions have not been well understood.
In Regulating Professions, Tracey L. Adams explores the emergence of self-regulating professions in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia from Confederation to 1940. Adams’s in-depth research reveals the backstory of those occupations deemed worthy to regulate, such as medicine, law, dentistry, and land surveying, and how they were regulated. Adams evaluates sociological explanations for professionalization and its regulation by analysing their applicability to the Canadian experience and especially the role played by the state. By considering the role of all those involved in creating the professional landscape in Canada, Adams provides a clear picture of the process and illuminates how important this has been in building Canadian institutions and society.
Available Formats: Hardcover, ePub
Publisher’s Link: https://utorontopress.com/ca/regulating-professions-1
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Regulating-Professions-Emergence-Professional-Self-Regulation/dp/1487502494/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532640913&sr=1-14
September 2
Wendy Mitchinson, Fighting Fat: Canada 1920-1980 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018)
While the statistics for obesity have been alarming in the 21st century, concern about fatness has a history. In Fighting Fat Wendy Mitchinson discusses the history of obesity and fatness from 1920 to 1980 in Canada. Through the context of body, medicine, weight measurement, food studies, fat studies, and the identity of those who were fat, Mitchinson examines the attitudes and practices of medical practitioners, nutritionists, educators, and those who see themselves as fat.
Fighting Fat analyzes a number of sources to expose our culture’s obsession with body image. Mitchinson looks at medical journals, both their articles and the advertisements for drugs for obesity, as well as magazine articles and advertisements, including popular “before and after” weight loss stories. Promotional advertisements reveal how the media encourages negative attitudes towards body fat. The book also includes over 30 interviews with Canadians, who defined themselves as fat highlighting the emotional toll caused by the stigmatizing of fatness.
Available Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, ePub
Publisher’s Link: https://utorontopress.com/ca/fighting-fat-2
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Fighting-Fat-1920-1980-Wendy-Mitchinson/dp/1487522746/ref=sr_1_23?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532643788&sr=1-23
September 7
Mary Jane Logan McCallum & Adele Perry, Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2018)
Structures of Indifference examines an Indigenous life and death in a Canadian city and what it reveals about the ongoing history of colonialism. At the heart of this story is a thirty-four-hour period in September 2008. During that day and half Brian Sinclair, a middle-aged, non-Status Anishinaabeg resident of Manitoba’s capital city, arrived in the emergency room of the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg’s major downtown hospital, was left untreated and unattended to, and ultimately died from an easily treatable infection. His death reflects a particular structure of indifference born of and maintained by colonialism.
McCallum and Perry present the ways in which Sinclair, once erased and ignored, came to represent diffuse, yet singular and largely dehumanized ideas about Indigenous people, modernity, and decline in cities. This story tells us about ordinary indigeneity in the city of Winnipeg through Sinclair’s experience and restores the complex humanity denied him in his interactions with Canadian health and legal systems, both before and after his death.
Structures of Indifference completes the story left untold by the inquiry into Sinclair’s death, the 2014 report of which omitted any consideration of underlying factors, including racism and systemic discrimination.
Available Formats: Paperback
Publisher’s Link: https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/structures-of-indifference
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Structures-Indifference-Indigenous-Death-Canadian/dp/0887558356/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532641591&sr=1-1&keywords=Structures+of+Indifference
September 29
Bruce L. Guenther, The Ältester: Herman D. W. Friesen, A Mennonite Leader in Changing Times (Regina: University of Regina Press, 2018)
Offering a unique window into the Old Colony Mennonite community in Saskatchewan, this biography of Herman D.W. Friesen reveals the life of a man who attempted to modernize his community, often in opposition to traditional religious beliefs.
The story begins on the Hague-Osler Mennonite reserve in the 1910s and 20s. At this time the government was pressuring Mennonite communities to send their children to province-run schools. This set off a series of migrations, in which Mennonites left for Mexico, Central America, and other parts of Canada.
During the watershed decade of the 1960s, Friesen was elected as a minister, and later as the Äeltester (Bishop). Despite growing up in an environment filled with intense governmental conflict and considerable suspicion towards “the English outsiders,” he did not try to organize another migration out of Saskatchewan. Instead, taking a unique approach to leadership, Friesen tried to navigate a gradual process of accommodation to the changes taking place in the province.
Included in the book are Friesen’s sermons, translated from German, providing a unique glimpse into the Old Colony Mennonite theology that aided him in guiding the church in a strategy of gradual cultural accommodation.
Available Formats: Paperback
Publisher’s Link: https://uofrpress.ca/Books/T/The-Aeltester
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/%C3%84ltester-Herman-Friesen-Mennonite-Changing/dp/0889775729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532643228&sr=1-1&keywords=THE+%C3%84LTESTER
David Mittelstadt, The Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan: the First Hundred Years (Regina: University of Regina Press, 2018)
A history of Saskatchewan’s highest court as it reaches its centennial in 2018, The Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan places the court within the advancement of law in Canada, as well as within the specific context of Saskatchewan’s legal, political, and social development.
Tying together legal analysis with a strong narrative of a crucial Saskatchewan institution, Mittelstadt includes a biography of every judge of the court, including the context of their appointments, discusses the court’s internal workings and organization, and relates some of the touchstone legal decisions that influenced both the province and the nation.
Available Formats: Hardcover
Publisher’s Link: https://uofrpress.ca/Books/T/The-Court-of-Appeal-for-Saskatchewan
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Court-Appeal-Saskatchewan-First-Hundred/dp/0889775699/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532643276&sr=1-1&keywords=THE+COURT+OF+APPEAL+FOR+SASKATCHEWAN+THE+FIRST+HUNDRED+YEARS
Serge Cipko, Starving Ukraine: The Holodomor and Canada’s Response (Regina: University of Regina Press, 2018)
From 1932 to 1933, a catastrophic famine, known as the Holodomor (“extermination by hunger”), raged through Ukraine, killing millions of people. Although the Soviet government denied it, news about the tragedy got out and Canadians came to learn about the famine from many, though often contradictory, sources. Through an extensive analysis of newspapers, political speeches, and organized protests, Serge Cipko examines both the reporting of the famine and the Canadian response to it, highlighting the vital importance of journalism and the power of public demonstrations in shaping government action.
Available Formats: Hardcover, Paperback
Publisher’s Link: https://uofrpress.ca/Books/S/Starving-Ukraine2
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Starving-Ukraine-Holodomor-Canadas-Response/dp/0889775605/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532643527&sr=1-4
That’s all for this month! I hope you enjoyed this blog post. If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice! Are there any books in particular that you are looking forward to? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below! And don’t get to check back on Sunday for a brand new Canadian history roundup! See you then!
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