Grandma Knox recalled that after her father ploughed up seven acres of virgin prairie, he seeded his entire 1933 crop to oats. “He just seeded it by hand,” she wrote. “Beautiful crop. Grew up about six feet high, and froze right down in August. Wasn’t even good feed.”
This one incident pretty much encapsulates the frustrations prairie farmers felt during the Great Depression. By recording and recounting his grandmother’s experiences, Clinton N. Westman brings the flavour of the past to life. His article is just one appearing in Drought and Depression, edited by Gregory P. Marchildon.
A collection of fourteen articles by fifteen authors, it’s the latest book in the History of the Prairie West Series. Each book in the series is based on a particular theme. As the title suggests, Drought and Depression focuses on the Dirty Thirties on the Canadian Prairies.
This selection of articles was originally published in the Prairie Forum journal between 1977 and 2009. The advantage of this book series format is that it gathers all this material together into one readily accessible location. Marchildon, overall editor of the series, contributed to three of the articles plus the introduction.
In addition to agricultural issues, this volume deals in part with Saskatchewan’s labour history. Lorne Brown explains how rising unemployment precipitated demonstrations and a fateful trek to Ottawa, culminating in the Regina Riot.
In addition to maps, tables, and an indispensable index, Drought and Depression contains seventeen black and white photos, almost all from the provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, dispersed throughout its 357 pages.
Although geared primarily towards an academic audience, Drought and Depression has enough material of interest, especially the recollections of Grandma Knox, to appeal to a much wider readership.
“Drought & Depression”
(History of the Prairie West Series, Vol. 6)
edited by Gregory P. Marchildon
Published by University of Regina Press
Review by Keith Foster
$34.95 ISBN 978-0-88977-539-8
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
