Colonization and community : the Vancouver Island coalfield and the making of the British Columbian working class / John Douglas Belshaw.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Belshaw, John Douglas.

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history. Series two ; 15.

McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history. Series two ; 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coal miners--British Columbia--Vancouver Island--History.

Coal miners.

Working class--British Columbia--Vancouver Island--History.

Working class.

British--British Columbia--Vancouver Island--History.

British.

Coal mines and mining--Social aspects--British Columbia--Vancouver Island--History.

Coal mines and mining.

Ethnology--British Columbia--Vancouver Island.

Ethnology.

Vancouver Island (B.C.)--History.

Vancouver Island (B.C.).

Physical Description:

xv, 320 p. : ill., maps.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Colonization and Community John Belshaw takes a new look at British Columbia's first working class, the men, women, and children beneath and beyond the pit-head. Beginning with an exploration of emigrant expectations and ambitions, he investigates working conditions, household wages, racism, industrial organization, gender, schooling, leisure, community building, and the fluid identity of the British mining colony, the archetypal west coast proletariat. By connecting the story of Vancouver Island to the larger story of Victorian industrialization, he delineates what was distinctive and what was common about the lot of the settler society. Belshaw breaks new ground, challenging the easy assumptions of transferred British political traditions, analyzing the colonial at the household level, and revealing the emergent communities of Vancouver Island as the cradle of British Columbian working-class culture.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Tables and Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Mining Coal on the Edge of the Empire

The Emigrant British Miners and Their Kin

The Immigrant British Miners and Their Kin

Work and Wages

Conflicts in the Colonial Setting

Mobility and Identity

Building a Culture

Conclusions

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-308) and index.

ISBN:

1-283-52973-4

9786613842183

0-7735-7040-3