Canada's Victorian oil town : the transformation of Petrolia from a resource town into a Victorian community / Christina Burr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burr, Christina Ann, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Community life--Ontario--Petrolia--History.

Community life.

Group identity--Ontario--Petrolia--History.

Group identity.

Petroleum industry and trade--Social aspects--Ontario--Petrolia--History.

Petroleum industry and trade.

Petrolia (Ont.)--History.

Petrolia (Ont.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (308 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Departing from traditional historiography focused on the economic role of resource development, Canada's Victorian Oil Town incorporates an understanding of the connections between science and technology, nation and imperialism, and cultural nuances of community-building. Burr looks at the cultural importance of place and how collective identity was nurtured in the community. She also illustrates how the image of Petrolia as Canada's Victorian Oil Town has been used since the 1970s to develop a thriving tourist industry in the region. Interdisciplinary in scope, Canada's Victorian Oil Town draws from the history of imperialism, science, resource development, local history, gender studies, and cultural geography.

Contents:

Introduction : colonization, culture, and the making of Canada's Victorian oil town

1. "Oil mania" : colonial land policy, land speculators, and settlement in Enniskillen Township, 1830s-60s

2. "Oil smellers" and "professors" : science, colonization, and the oil boom in mid-nineteenth-century Enniskillen Township

3. The petrolia discovery and the making of an oil resource community

4. A respectable Victorian town : public space, voluntary associations, and the creation of a culture of refined sociability

5. "Some adventures of the boys" : Enniskillen Township's "foreign drillers," imperialism, and colonial discourse

6. "Canada's Victorian oil town" : history, public memory, and community.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612866371

9780773581142

0773581146

9781282866379

1282866370

9780773575905

0773575901

OCLC:

923234943