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In the 1880s Canadians began to cope with the meaning of their emerging industrial society. During that decade the federal government first investigated industrial conditions and provincial governments passed Canada's first factory legislation. The same period saw the resurgence of an articulate and angry labor movement protesting against the excesses of modern industry. Through the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labor and Capital we can perhaps gain our best insight into the everyday world of workers and capitalists in late nineteenth-century Canada. The commission gathered evidence in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick and talked to thousands of workers, businessmen, and other concerned citizens. This edited version of its investigation includes much of the best testimony; it describes working class living conditions, the emergence of organized labor, and the attitudes of businessmen to industrial capitalism. The testimony takes us with the commissioners on their tour of New Brunswick cotton mills, Capre Breton coal pits, Ontario shops and foundries, and Quebec City wharves; it explores as well the darkest corners of Montreal cigar factories. Industrialists discuss profits, markets, sources of raw material, and problems with labor. But what is perhaps more important, the working people themselves are also heard, men and women who in most historical records appear as little more than cold statistics. The warmth and humanity of these Canadians reflecting on their lives and on the society around them bring the commission documents to life. Aging craftsmen, ten-year-old saw-mill hands, girls from the spindles and looms, describe their workplaces, wages, hours, and aspects of their lives away from the job. These almost unique interviews allow us to enter their intellectual and cultural world – to learn of their past and present and of some of their hopes and aspirations. The Labor Commission reports and testimony are essential for an understanding of the Canadian working class as it was being transformed by the new techniques of industrial production. --Publisher's description

The essays are gathered around two themes: the relationship of sociology and social history, and the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and region with class. Unlike most Canadian essay collections, the contributors and their subjects cover Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland, with forays into Cape Breton and central Canada. The volume contains articles by Ian McKay, Gordon Darroch, James R. Conley, Alicja Muszynski, Gillian Creese, and Jim Overton. An interesting collection of some of the new work being done in Canada by historians and sociologists, Class, Gender, and Region reflects Charles Tilly’s suggestion that “there should be no disciplinary division of labour: simply both doing social history.” --Publisher's description (Athabasca University Press) Contents: Introduction / Gregory S. Kealey -- The crisis of dependent development: class conflict in the Nova Scotia coalfields, 1872-1876 / Ian McKay --Class in nineteenth-century, central Ontario: a reassessment of the crisis and demise of small producers during early industrialization, 1861-1871 /Gordon Darroch -- “More theory, less fact?” Social reproduction and class conflict in a sociological approach to working-class history / James R. Conley -- Race and gender: structural determinants in the formation of British Columbia’s salmon cannery labour force / Alicja Muszynski -- The politics of dependence: women, work, and unemployment in the Vancouver labour movement before World War II / Gillian Creese -- Public relief and social unrest in Newfoundland in the 1930s: an evaluation of the ideas of Piven and Cloward / James Overton.

The article reviews "The Garden Transformed: Prince Edward Island, 1945-1980," by Verner Smitheram, David Milne, and Satadal Dasgupta, "Women and Trade Unions in Eleven Industrialized Countries," edited by Alice Cook, Val R. Lorwin, and Arlene Kaplan Daniels, "Black Socialist Preacher: The Teachings of Reverend George Washington Woodbey and his Disciple Reverend George W. Slater, Jr.," edited by Philip S. Foner, "Supremacy and Subordination of Labour: The Hierarchy of Work in the Early Labour Movement," by Mike Holbrook-Jones,"Canadian Papers in Rural History," v. 4, edited by Donald H. Akenson, "The Company on the Coast," edited by E. Blanche Norcross, "Class Power and State Power; Political Essays," by Ralph Miliband, "Labor in the World Social Structure," v. 2, edited by Immanuel Wallerstein, "The Polish Peasant in Europe and America," by William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, edited and abridged by Eli Zaretsky, "Shopkeepers and Master Artisans in Nineteenth-Centurv Europe," edited by Geoffrey Crossick and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, "Family Honour: An American Life," by George Cuomo, "Passages in the Life of a Radical," by Samuel Bamford, "In the Tracks of Historical Materialism," by Perry Anderson, "Marx and Engels: A Conceptual Concordance," by Gerard Bekerman, "Twenty Years of the Fishermen's Protective Union of Newfoundland," edited by Hon. Sir W.F. Coaker, / reviews by Gregory S. Kealey -- "The Culture of Technology," by Arnold Pacey / review by C. de B.

Replies to Michael Piva's "comment" on statistics regarding the proportion of the Ontairo working population who were members of the Knights of Labor. Concedes that there was an error, but argues with Piva's usage of 1891 Canadian census data and his pessimistic assessment of the Knights' impact.

Max Swerdlow's life as labour organizer and educator began in Depression-era Winnipeg and carried him to national and international prominence in the Trades and Labour Congress, the Canadian Labour Congress, and the International Labour Organization. In this lively memoir, Swerdlow recaptures the persons and events of his life in the Labour movement. --Publisher's description

The essays are gathered around two themes: the relationship of sociology and social history, and the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and region with class. Unlike most Canadian essay collections, the contributors and their subjects cover Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland, with forays into Cape Breton and central Canada. The volume contains articles by Ian McKay, Gordon Darroch, James R. Conley, Alicja Muszynski, Gillian Creese, and Jim Overton. An interesting collection of some of the new work being done in Canada by historians and sociologists, Class, Gender, and Region reflects Charles Tilly's suggestion that "there should be no disciplinary division of labour: simply both doing social history." --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction / Gregory S. Kealey -- The crisis of dependent development: class conflict in the Nova Scotia coalfields, 1872-1876 / Ian McKay -- Class in nineteenth-century, central Ontario: a reassessment of the crisis and demise of small producers during early industrialization, 1861 -1871 / Gordon Darroch -- "More theory, less fact?" Social reproduction and class conflict in a sociological approach to working-class history / James R. Conley -- Race and gender: structural determinants in the formation of British Columbia's salmon cannery labour force / Alicja Muszynski -- The politics of dependence: women, work, and unemployment in the Vancouver labour movement before World War II / Gillian Creese -- Public relief and social unrest in Newfoundla nd in the 1930s: an evaluation of the ideas of Piven and Cloward / James Overton.

Pays homage to Irene Whitfield (1941-2013), who was managing editor of the journal from 1982 to 2007.

Documents the exposure of Jack Esselwein, also known as Sergeant John Leopold, who, as an undercover operative of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, joined the Communist Party of Canada. His identity was revealed after a series of police raids on August 11, 1931, which led to the arrest of a number of leading Communists, including Tim Buck. Esselwein testified at the trial in November 1931 whereby the Communists were convicted and sentenced to penitentiary terms under the notorious section 98 of the criminal code. They had already discovered that Esselwein was a police spy. The Toronto Daily Star report (published November 13, 1931) on Esselwein's unmasking is included in the article.

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.

Part of the new aproach currently transforming the writing of Canadian history, this volume approaches the past in terms of people and the activities and events that shaped their existence. The essays explore the roots of the radical tradition and outline the struggle against industrial capitalism between 1850 and 1925. [This book] increases our understanding of the past, provides a valuable perspective on present struggles, and, in a broader sense, contributes substantially to a new and decisive synthesis of Canadian history. --Publisher's description. Contents: Contributors -- Introduction -- The Orange Order in Toronto: Religious riot and the working class / Gregory S. Kealey -- Brainworkers and the Knights of Labor: E.E. Sheppard, Phillips Thomson, and the Toronto News, 1883-1887 / Russell Hann -- Respected and profitable labour: Literacy, jobs and the working class in the Nineteenth Century / Harvey J. Graff -- Working Class housing in a small Nineteenth Century Canadian city: Hamilton, Ontario 1852-1881 / Michael J. Doucet -- Give us the road and we will run it: The social and cultural matrix of an emerging labour movement / Bryan D. Palmer -- The last artisans: Toronto printers, 1896-1914 / Wayne Roberts -- Ethnicity and violence: The Lakehead freight handlers before World War I / Jean Morrison -- Class conflict in the coal industry: Cape Breton 1922 / David Frank -- Bibliographic essay -- Notes.

In 1919 at the height of the post-war labour revolt,the RCMP took responsibility for national security. This volume contains archival materials and other materials received through Canadian Access to Information legislation. It includes lists of personal files, subject files, and security bulletins circulated to the government. In general the material provides an excellent overview of the genesis of the Canadian state security system. --Publisher's description

This volume completes the Depression Years Series and, for the time being, our publication of the RCMP Bulletins, John Manley examines the RCMP facination with the CPC and how the CPC coped with the Popular Front and the Nazi-Soviet pact. Manley concludes that the CPC's anti-war line was a disaster, claiming that "undoubtedly..., the Comintern was the RCMP's best friend"(29) --Publisher's description

These Bulletins show that the RCMP's continued fascination with the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) was broadened to include the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) in 1937. The RCMP believed the CPC's fingerprints were all over the CIO. Other topics examined in the bulletins include reports on the Spanish Civil War, municipal elections, ethnic newspapers and strikes. --Publisher's description

This volume is a continuation of the RCMP Security Bulletins series on the Depression. The RCMP Security Service reported in these Bulletins on security and intelligence matters to Cabinet and other government officals. Those for 1936 contain much material on labour and the left. --Publisher's description

This volume documents the RCMP's surveillance activities during 1935 and contains informants', agents', and operatives' perspectives on developments within the Communist Party of Canada on labour unions, and on unemployed organizations. It includes coverage of the 1935 federal election, the successes of red unions, and the development of popular front strategies. The introduction by historian John Manley provides a considered overview of the events. The volume is fully indexed. --Publisher's description

This volume completes the series of RCMP Security Bulletins for late 1933 and 1934. It begins a new series on the Depression years. These Bulletins allow us to see not only the nature of RCMP Security concerns but also the underlying ideology of the Security Service. The volume also contains a critical introduction by Gregory S. Kealey. --Publisher's description

This three-part report presents the results of a major research project underdertaken in the early 1980s. The project aimed to establish a new statistical time series for strikes in Canada. The final results of this work will appear in 1990 in volume three of the Historical Atlas of Canada which will contain a series of four plates on Canadian labour in the years 1891-1961. In this report we shall focus on the data concerning the years 1891-1950. An essay on method and sources is published here as Part II of this report and the data set is presented fully in Part III. In addition, we want to state at the outset that the more we work on this data, the more fully we agree with David Montgomery's assertion that "any attempt to formulate a positivistic 'natural history of strikes* is doomed to failure. Strikes can only be understood in the context of the changing totality of class conflicts, of which they are a part." --From authors' introduction

This three-part report presents the results of a major research project underdertaken in the early 1980s. The project aimed to establish a new statistical time series for strikes in Canada. The final results of this work will appear in 1990 in volume three of the Historical Atlas of Canada which will contain a series of four plates on Canadian labour in the years 1891-1961. In this report we shall focus on the data concerning the years 1891-1950. An essay on method and sources is published here as Part II of this report and the data set is presented fully in Part III. In addition, we want to state at the outset that the more we work on this data, the more fully we agree with David Montgomery's assertion that "any attempt to formulate a positivistic 'natural history of strikes* is doomed to failure. Strikes can only be understood in the context of the changing totality of class conflicts, of which they are a part." --From authors' introduction

This three-part report presents the results of a major research project underdertaken in the early 1980s. The project aimed to establish a new statistical time series for strikes in Canada. The final results of this work will appear in 1990 in volume three of the Historical Atlas of Canada which will contain a series of four plates on Canadian labour in the years 1891-1961. In this report we shall focus on the data concerning the years 1891-1950. An essay on method and sources is published here as Part II of this report and the data set is presented fully in Part III. In addition, we want to state at the outset that the more we work on this data, the more fully we agree with David Montgomery's assertion that "any attempt to formulate a positivistic 'natural history of strikes* is doomed to failure. Strikes can only be understood in the context of the changing totality of class conflicts, of which they are a part." --From authors' introduction

Provides an overview of the current issue, in particular the contributions to the ongoing discussion of the writing working-class and labour history in Canada. Changes to the structure and membership of the editorial board are discussed, with appreciation expressed to departing members, notably David Bercuson. The advisory board has been discontinued.