Happyland : a history of the "dirty thirties" in Saskatchewan, 1914-1937 / Curtis R. McManus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McManus, Curtis R., 1972-

Series:

West series (Calgary, Alta.) ; 5.

The West series, 1922-6519 ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Depressions.

Depressions--1929--Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan.

Physical Description:

viii, 326 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Calgary : University of Calgary Press, [2011]

Summary:

"Dirty Thirties" is the sobriquet commonly applied to the agricultural crisis in the drylands of southern Saskatchewan that coincided with the Great Depression, and it is often assumed that prior to this period healthier, normal conditions prevailed. In Happyland, Curtis McManus contends that the "Dirty Thirties," as we understand the terms to mean agricultural devastation, drought, misery, starvation, and land abandonment, actually began much earlier and were contacted only peripherally to the Depression itself.

McManus's study begins in 1908, the year in which the south plains of Saskatchewan were settled. The first of the devastating droughts struck the south plains in 1914, and this set in motion patterns that continued with dulling momotony until 1937. Between 1917 and 1924, in particular, as many as 30, 000 people abandoned the south and west plains of the province due to agricultural failure caused by drought but also by faulty farming techniques that stripped and pulverized the soil, making it even more vulnerable; thousands more fled during the "Dirty Thirties" proper.

The book's title is an ironic reference to Happyland, a rural municipality in the drought-ravaged dryland district. McManus has mined the rarely consulted records of rural municipalities, as well as government documents, ministerial correspondence, local community histories, newspapers, and publications of relevant government departments, to tell this story that has yet been told - a story of a quarter-century of stubborn persistence, but also of absurdity, dispair, social dislocation, moral corrosion, and inconsistent and often inept government policy."--pub. desc.

Contents:

Chapter 1: The Descent

Chapter 2: "In the Thrill Zone of the Onrushing Calamity"

Chapter 3: Hard Times

Chapter 4: Exodus

Chapter 5: The Wreck of the 37

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [299]-303) and index.

ISBN:

9781552385241

1552385248

OCLC:

690088755