Awards
- Short-listed for Book of the Year, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2012
- Short-listed for First Book Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2012
- Winner of Nonfiction Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2012
- Winner of Saskatchewan Book Awards - Nonfiction 2012
Overview
Dirty Thirties is the sobriquet commonly applied to the agricultural crisis in the drylands of southern Saskatchewan in Canada that coincided with the Great Depression, and it is generally assumed that prior to this period healthier, normal conditions prevailed. In Happyland, Curtis McManus contends that the """"Dirty Thirties"""" actually began much earlier and were connected only peripherally to the Depression itself. McManus has mined the rarely consulted records of Rural Municipalities in Saskatchewan, as well as government documents, ministerial correspondence, local community histories, newspapers, and publications of relevant government departments, to tell a story of a quarter-century of stubborn persistence but also of absurdity, despair, social dislocation, moral corrosion, and inconsistent and often inept government policy. Thanks to McManus's rare and welcome blend of sound scholarship and living breathing prose, it is a gripping and evocative story as well.
Full Product Details
Author: Curtis McManus
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Imprint: University of Calgary Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.20cm
, Length: 22.60cm
Weight: 0.482kg
ISBN: 9781552385241
ISBN 10: 1552385248
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 30 June 2011
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Though McManus is happy to join a fraternity of popular historians like James Gray (the last historian to break the silence on the tragedy), his lively, trenchant and well-researched monograph contains all the necessary scholarly paraphernalia demanded by academia, including 11 pages of black and white photographs and 24 pages of tables. It would surely get senior undergraduate and postgraduate students talking. - Coral Ann Howells, University of London, British Journal of Canadian Studies, vol.27 No.1 2014 McManus makes effective use of the records of ten (of the ninety) rural municipalities in this region, as well as local newspapers and community history books, to document the economic, social, and psychological consequences of the recurring droughts J. William Brennan, The Canadian Historical Review Happyland is a joy to read. Margaret DH, GoodReads Happyland is written with verve and confidence. McManus is deeply engaged with the subject and his enthusiasm is contagious . . . Happyland tells a story that needs to be told, a great human tragedy that we have not yet fully fathomed. James M. Pitsula, Literary Review of Canada
Though McManus is happy to join a fraternity of popular historians like James Gray (the last historian to break the silence on the tragedy), his lively, trenchant and well-researched monograph contains all the necessary scholarly paraphernalia demanded by academia, including 11 pages of black and white photographs and 24 pages of tables. It would surely get senior undergraduate and postgraduate students talking. - Coral Ann Howells, University of London, British Journal of Canadian Studies, vol.27 No.1 2014
Author Information
Curtis McManus is a writer and historian. He teaches history at Lakeland College in Lloydminster, Alberta.
