Creating Societies: Immigrant Lives in CanadaDirk Hoerder shows us that it is not shining railroad tracks or statesmen in Ottawa that make up the story of Canada but rather individual stories of life and labour - Caribbean women who care for children born in Canada, lonely prairie homesteaders, miners in Alberta and British Columbia, women labouring in factories, Chinese and Japanese immigrants carving out new lives in the face of hostility. Hoerder examines these individual experiences in Creating Societies, the first systematic overview of the total Canadian immigrant experience. Using letters, travel accounts, diaries, memoirs, and reminiscences, he brings the immigrant's experiences to life. Their writings, often recorded for grandchildren, neighbours, and sometimes a larger public, show how immigrant lives were entwined with the emerging Canadian society. Hoerder presents an important new picture of the emerging Canadian identity, dispelling the Canadian myth of a dichotomy between national unity and ethnic diversity and emphasizing the long-standing interaction between the members of a different ethnic groups. |
Contents
Settings | 5 |
Sources | 15 |
Transitions | 27 |
PART TWO THE MARITIMES AND THE ST LAWRENCE VALLEY | 37 |
the Maritimes | 39 |
FrenchCanadian Migrations | 49 |
The Coming of the Irish | 58 |
PART THREE URBAN LIFE FARMING AND LUMBERING IN CENTRAL CANADA | 69 |
The Opening of the West | 137 |
Homesteading and Bloc Farming | 151 |
Storekeepers and Small Entrepreneurs | 176 |
Building and Imagining Western Society | 190 |
PACIFIC COAST | 205 |
East and West Do Meet | 218 |
PART SIX DISCRIMINATION AND EXCLUSION | 237 |
The Depression Thirties and Discriminatory Forties | 259 |
Immigrants in Montreal | 71 |
Life on the Ontario Frontier | 85 |
NorthwardBound to the Lumbering and Mining Frontier | 96 |
The Labouring and Lower Middle Classes in Toronto | 105 |
LABOURERS SETTLERS ENTREPRENEURS I 19 | 119 |
Immigrant Crossroads at Winnipeg | 121 |
FROM MANY | 279 |
Multicultural Lives in Canada | 295 |
Notes | 309 |
365 | |
373 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alberta American arrived Autobiography became Bickersteth Bill Johnstone British Columbia brother camp Canada Canadian Chinese colonies cultural daughter deportation Eaton's economic Edmonton emigration Empire England English Eskra ethnic European experiences farm farmers father French French-Canadian friends German Germans from Russia girls groups Helgi hired History Hoerder homestead immi immigrants Irish Italian Japanese Jewish Jews labour Land of Open later Letters life-writings lived London Manitoba Maritimes markets married Masajiro Miyazaki Matejko McClelland and Stewart Métis migrants Montreal mother moved Multicultural Native native-born neighbours newcomers Nordegg North Ontario Ottawa parents Pioneers Polish Settlers political Prairie Quebec Quebec City railway repr Romaniuk ronto Russian Salverson Saskatchewan Scottish sent settlement shack social St Lawrence tion took Toronto Press town transl travelled Ukrainian union University of Toronto Vancouver wages West wife Winnipeg winter woman women workers Yedlin