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In Canada, the donut is often thought of as the unofficial national food. Donuts are sold at every intersection and rest stop, celebrated in song and story as symbols of Canadian identity, and one chain in particular, Tim Horton's, has become a veritable icon with over 2500 shops across the country. But there is more to the donut than these and other expressions of 'snackfood patriotism' would suggest. In this study, Steve Penfold puts the humble donut in its historical context, examining how one deep-fried confectionary became, not only a mass commodity, but an edible symbol of Canadianness. Penfold examines the history of the donut in light of broader social, economic, and cultural issues,...
The Manly Modern, the first major book on the history of masculinity in Canada, traces the history of what happened when men's supposed modernity became one of their defining features. Through a series of case studies covering such diverse subjects as car culture, mountaineering, war veterans, murder trials, and a bridge collapse, Christopher Dummitt argues that the very idea of what it meant to be modern was gendered. A strong current of anti-modernist sentiment bubbled just beneath the surface of postwar masculinity, creating rumblings about the state of modern manhood that, ironically, mirrored the tensions that burst forth in 1960s gender radicalism.
In the past, Western women inhabited a conceptual space divorced from the world of business. Historians have consequently tended to overlook the experiences of women entrepreneurs. Who were these women, and how were they able to justify their work outside the home? The Business of Women explores the world of women entrepreneurs in early twentieth-century British Columbia. Contrary to expectation, the typical businesswoman was not unmarried or particularly rebellious, but a woman who reconciled entrepreneurship with her femininity and her identity as a wife, mother, or widow. The entrepreneurial woman was the product of a frontier ethos in British Columbia that translated into higher rates of marriage for women and more married women working outside the home than in any other province in Canada. Like men, they worked to support their families.
Historians, veterans, museums, and public education campaigns have all documented and commemorated the experience of Canadians in times of war. But Canada also has a long, rich, and important historical tradition of resistance to both war and militarization. This collection brings together the work of sixteen scholars on the history of war resistance. Together they explore resistance to specific wars (including the South African War, the First and Second World Wars, and Vietnam), the ideology and nature of resistance (national, ethical, political, spiritual), and organized activism against militarization (such as cadet training, the Cold War, and nuclear arms). As the federal government continues to support the commemoration and celebration of Canada’s participation in past wars, this collection offers a timely response that explores the complexity of Canada’s position in times of war and the role of social movements in challenging the militarization of Canadian society.
Through personal narratives and assessments of artistic expression, the contributors present critical and inventive views of masculinity and how it is performed and interpreted in urban space. Set against the backdrop of Toronto, the essays engage with the global and transnational processes that affect identity and consider how the social hybridity of large cities allows individuals to work against fundamentalist and essentialist attitudes toward gender.
In The Real Dope, Edgar-Andre Montigny brings together leading scholars from a diverse range of fields to examine the relationship between moral judgment and legal regulation in the debate surrounding the potential decriminalization of marijuana.
Making It Like a Man: Canadian Masculinities in Practice is a collection of essays on the practice of masculinities in Canadian arts and cultures, where to “make it like a man” is to participate in the cultural, sociological, and historical fluidity of ways of being a man in Canada, from the country’s origins in nineteenth-century Victorian values to its immersion in the contemporary post-modern landscape. The book focuses on the ways Canadian masculinities have been performed and represented through five broad themes: colonialism, nationalism, and transnationalism; emotion and affect; ethnic and minority identities; capitalist and domestic politics; and the question of men’s relatio...
Thousands of children attended summer camps in twentieth-century Ontario. Did parents simply want a break, or were broader developments at play? The Nurture of Nature explores how competing cultural tendencies � antimodern nostalgia and modern sensibilities about the landscape, child rearing, and identity � shaped the development of summer camps and, consequently, modern social life in North America. A valuable resource for those interested in the connections between the history of childhood, the natural environment, and recreation, The Nature of Nurture will also appeal to anyone who has been packed off to camp and wants to explore why.
The increased participation of women in the labour force was one of the most significant changes to Canadian social life during the quarter century after the close of the Second World War. Transforming Labour offers one of the first critical assessments of women's paid labour in this era, a period when more and more women, particularly those with families, were going 'out to work'. Using case studies from across Canada, Joan Sangster explores a range of themes, including women's experiences within unions, Aboriginal women's changing patterns of work, and the challenges faced by immigrant women. By charting women's own efforts to ameliorate their work lives as well as factors that re-shaped the labour force, Sangster challenges the commonplace perception of this era as one of conformity, domesticity for women, and feminist inactivity. Working women's collective grievances fuelled their desire for change, culminating in challenges to the status quo in the 1960s, when they voiced their discontent, calling for a new world of work and better opportunities for themselves and their daughters.
For those who did not live through the experience of the Sixties, it is often difficult to comprehend this tumultuous period. Even those who lived though the era and have studied the Sixties have wrestled with its deeper meaning. While the Sixties ultimate "meaning" remains elusive, there can be no doubt that the period's transformative effect upon Canadians - culturally, politically, and economically - was immense. From arts and architecture to politics and protest, the decade has attained near-mythical status, leaving an undeniable influence on virtually every aspect of Canadian life. The images, sounds, and tastes of the decade remain an indelible part of our own twenty-first-century expe...