With Our Own Hands: Margaret Fairley and the 'Real Makers' of Canada

Introduces the Communist writer, educator, and activist Margaret Fairley, who in the 1950s edited a book of Canadian oral labour history that was left unfinished. The book, entitled "With Our Own Hands," included three manuscripts - memoirs of Claude Theodore, Peter Cordoni, and A.J. MacDonald - that are published for the first time. Collectively, they shed light on the largely rural, immigrant, working-class experience of Canada in the early 20th century. MacDonald's reminiscences also describe life in the village of Cadott, Wisconsin, in the 1890s, before the family moved to Alberta. The manuscripts are located at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto.