The Great Depression: 1929-1939

Front Cover
Doubleday Canada, Feb 21, 2012 - History - 560 pages
Over 1.5 million Canadians were on relief, one in five was a public dependant, and 70,000 young men travelled like hoboes. Ordinary citizens were rioting in the streets, but their demonstrations met with indifference, and dissidents were jailed. Canada emerged from the Great Depression a different nation.

The most searing decade in Canada's history began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ended with the Second World War. With formidable story-telling powers, Berton reconstructs its engrossing events vividly: the Regina Riot, the Great Birth Control Trial, the black blizzards of the dust bowl and the rise of Social Credit. The extraordinary cast of characters includes Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who praised Hitler and Mussolini but thought Winston Churchill "one of the most dangerous men I have ever known"; Maurice Duplessis, who padlocked the homes of private citizens for their political opinions; and Tim Buck, the Communist leader who narrowly escaped murder in Kingston Penitentiary.

In this #1 best-selling book, Berton proves that Canada's political leaders failed to take the bold steps necessary to deal with the mass unemployment, drought and despair. A child of the era, he writes passionately of people starving in the midst of plenty.
 

Contents

The worst of times
9
1935
15
The legacy of optimism
23
Crash
29
The world of 1929
38
1930
43
Not a five cent piece
47
Mothers boy
54
The Pang of a Wolf
263
Slave camps
266
Bennetts New Deal
281
Speedup at Eatons
287
The tin canners
295
On to Ottawa
312
The Regina Riot
325
Changing the guard
338

Mrs Bleaneys clouded crystal ball
62
Bonfire Bennett
70
Oldfashioned nostrums
75
1931
78
Still fundamentally sound
83
Rocking the boat
87
The Red Menace
95
Quail on toast
103
Blood on the coal
111
Nine on trial
120
1932
129
The dole
131
Shovelling out the unwanted
140
Boxcar cowboys
147
Restructuring the future
159
An attempt at political murder
166
1933
175
The shame of relief
177
Death by Depression
182
Childhood memories
189
Making headlines
196
The Regina Manifesto
204
Bible Bill
210
1934
221
The seditious A E Smith
223
Radio politics
229
Harry Stevenss moment in history
237
The year of the locust
245
Pep ginger and Mitch
252
State of the nation
349
The weather as enemy
355
Le Chef the Church and the Reds
360
4 Birth control on trial
367
Abdication
375
1937
385
The rocky road to Spain
387
Dead in the water
396
Mitch Hepburn v the CIO
399
The Prime Minister and the dictator
411
The black blizzard
418
Bypassing democracy
423
1938
426
A loss of nerve
433
Trampling on the Magna Carta
439
Bloody Sunday
446
The Nazi connection
460
Keeping out the Jews
467
1939
475
A yearning for leadership
477
Back from the dead
482
The royal tonic
488
War
496
AFTERWORD The first convoy
505
Authors Note
513
Sources
515
Bibliography
519
Index
533
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2012)

Pierre Berton was one of Canada’s most popular and prolific authors. From narrative histories and popular culture, to picture and coffee table books to anthologies, to stories for children to readable, historical works for youth, many of his fifty books are now Canadian classics.

Born in 1920 and raised in the Yukon, Pierre Berton worked in Klondike mining camps during his university years. He spent four years in the army, rising from private to captain/instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston. He spent his early newspaper career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily. He wrote columns for and was editor of Maclean’s magazine, appeared on CBC’s public affairs program “Close-Up” and was a permanent fixture on “Front Page Challenge” for 39 years. He was a columnist and editor for the Toronto Star and was a writer and host of a series of CBC programs.

Pierre Berton received over 30 literary awards including the Governor-General’s Award for Creative Non-Fiction (three times), the Stephen Leacock Medal of Humour, and the Gabrielle Leger National Heritage Award. He received two Nellies for his work in broadcasting, two National Newspaper awards, and the National History Society’s first award for “distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history.” For his immense contribution to Canadian literature and history, he was awarded more than a dozen honourary degrees, is a member of the Newsman’s Hall of Fame, and is a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Pierre Berton passed away in Toronto on November 30, 2004.

Bibliographic information