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Product Description
Review
"The Great Depression is the definitive work that will carry our collective memory with us into the next century." —Calgary Herald
"Berton's chilling magnum opus… [He] has produced something very near perfect. It's clearly written, fast-moving…and so well drafted it reads like a novel." —The Times Colonist, Victoria
"a scalding indictment of the law, big business, the bigots, the police and politicians." —Canadian Press
"Berton's chilling magnum opus… [He] has produced something very near perfect. It's clearly written, fast-moving…and so well drafted it reads like a novel." —The Times Colonist, Victoria
"a scalding indictment of the law, big business, the bigots, the police and politicians." —Canadian Press
Book Description
Over 1.5 million Canadians were on relief, one in five was a public dependant, and 70,000 young men travelled like hoboes. Ordinary citizens were rioting in the streets, but their demonstrations met with indifference, and dissidents were jailed. Canada emerged from the Great Depression a different nation.
The most searing decade in Canada's history began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ended with the Second World War. With formidable story-telling powers, Berton reconstructs its engrossing events vividly: the Regina Riot, the Great Birth Control Trial, the black blizzards of the dust bowl and the rise of Social Credit. The extraordinary cast of characters includes Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who praised Hitler and Mussolini but thought Winston Churchill "one of the most dangerous men I have ever known"; Maurice Duplessis, who padlocked the homes of private citizens for their political opinions; and Tim Buck, the Communist leader who narrowly escaped murder in Kingston Penitentiary.
In this #1 best-selling book, Berton proves that Canada's political leaders failed to take the bold steps necessary to deal with the mass unemployment, drought and despair. A child of the era, he writes passionately of people starving in the midst of plenty.
The most searing decade in Canada's history began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ended with the Second World War. With formidable story-telling powers, Berton reconstructs its engrossing events vividly: the Regina Riot, the Great Birth Control Trial, the black blizzards of the dust bowl and the rise of Social Credit. The extraordinary cast of characters includes Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who praised Hitler and Mussolini but thought Winston Churchill "one of the most dangerous men I have ever known"; Maurice Duplessis, who padlocked the homes of private citizens for their political opinions; and Tim Buck, the Communist leader who narrowly escaped murder in Kingston Penitentiary.
In this #1 best-selling book, Berton proves that Canada's political leaders failed to take the bold steps necessary to deal with the mass unemployment, drought and despair. A child of the era, he writes passionately of people starving in the midst of plenty.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
For most people, the Depression began on that manic morning of October 29, to be known forever as Black Tuesday, when the easy, buoyant era of the twenties - the roaring, turbulent, high-flying twenties - came to a dead stop. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
For most people, the Depression began on that manic morning of October 29, to be known forever as Black Tuesday, when the easy, buoyant era of the twenties - the roaring, turbulent, high-flying twenties - came to a dead stop. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Depression Years from a Canadian Perspective,
By A Customer
This review is from: Great Depression 1929-39 (Hardcover)
This is a compelling, often chilling, account of this period in Canadian history, and is also a fair warning regarding the future. I found this tragic story of the depression in Canada to be an eye-opener. Being one of the "nice Canadians", as well as being too young to have any personal experience of this time, it will certainly change the way in which I view our past. Written in typically well-researched and entertaining Berton-style, this is a should-read for every Canadian and any history buff. Other books by Pierre Berton that I recently read and enjoyed were "Niagara" and "The Dionne Years".
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An accurate history of a difficult time,
By
This review is from: The Great Depression: 1929-1939 (Paperback)
This is a well researched and consisely written book of a very difficult era in Canadaian history. Berton exposed both King and Bennett for their short sightedness over their impulsive and misdirected need to balance the federal budget instead of dealing with the needs of its 1.5M unemployed workers. Tales of hardship and horror serve as a tragic background to a nation that struggled with the hatred of racism, a misplaced Puritanical work ethic and an ongoing political single mindedness. Ironically the depression only came to a halt when the country was forced into a governmental spending frenzy. WWII shrank the unemployment lines, emptied the work camps and drew a unity between the people and its government. All this could have been accomplished a decade earlier and without the ensuing bloodshed.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Starving in a Land of Plenty,
By
This review is from: The Great Depression: 1929-1939 (Paperback)
Deportations of "political undesirables", fascist rallies protected by the police, internment camps disguised as work camps, shantytowns - sound like Canada? Well, it was Canada during the "Dirty Thirties".Pierre Berton has written a very readable account of our nation during this lost decade. Each chapter in the book covers a year, starting with the stock market crash of 1929 and ending with the first Canadian troops arriving in Britain in 1939. In between, he covers the founding of the CCF and the Regina Manifesto, the trek to Ottawa, the Regina Riot, the political crackpots and opportunists who sprang up in the 1930s (in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec) and the reluctance of the federal government to provide adequate relief to the urban unemployed and to those scratching out a living in the Prairie dust bowl. Rather than help the people who elected them, the politicians insisted on balancing the budget regardless of the social cost. Sound familiar? This book is a real eye-opener, especially in these dire economic times when it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Highly recommended!
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