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Working People in Alberta traces the history of labour in Alberta from the period of First Nations occupation to the present. Drawing on over two hundred interviews with labour leaders, activists, and ordinary working people, as well as on archival records, the volume gives voice to the people who have toiled in Alberta over the centuries. In so doing, it seeks to counter the view of Alberta as a one-class, one-party, one-ideology province, in which distinctions between those who work and those who own are irrelevant. Workers from across the generations tell another tale, of an ongoing collective struggle to improve their economic and social circumstances in the face of a dominant, exploitative elite. Their stories are set within a sequential analysis of provincial politics and economics, supplemented by chapters on women and the labour movement and on minority workers of colour and their quest for social justice. Published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Working People in Alberta contrasts the stories of workers who were union members and those who were not. In its depictions of union organizing drives, strikes, and working-class life in cities and towns, this lavishly illustrated volume creates a composite portrait of the men and women who have worked to build and sustain the province of Alberta. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction : Those who built Alberta -- Millennia of Native work / Alvin Finkel -- The fur trade and early European settlement / Alvin Finkel -- One step forward : Alberta workers, 1885-1914 / Jim Selby -- War, repression, and depression, 1914-1939 / Eric Strikwerda and Alvin Finkel -- Alberta labour and working-class life, 1940-1959 / James Muir -- The boomers become the workers : Alberta, 1960-1980 / Alvin Finkel -- Alberta labour in the 1980s / Winston Gereluk -- Revolution, retrenchment, and the new normal : the 1990s and beyond / Jason Foster -- Women, labour, and the labour movement / Joan Schiebelbein -- Racialization and work / Jennifer Kelly and Dan Cui -- Conclusion : A history to build upon / Alvin Finkel.

The article reviews the book, "J. B. McLachlan: A Biography," by David Frank.

The article briefly reviews Michael R. Weldon's "Little Mosie from the Margaree: A Biography of Moses Michael Coady;" Penny R. Gurstein's "Wired to the World, Chained to the Home: Telework in DailyLife;" Miriam Edelson's "My Journey with Jake: A Memoir of Parenting and Disability;" Jim Bohlen's "Making Waves: The Origins and Future of Greenpeace;" Gunther Peck's "Reinventing Free Labor: Padrones and Immigrant Workers in the North American West, 1880-1930;" Dale Hathaway's "Allies Across the Border: Mexico's 'Authentic Labor Front' and Global Solidarity;" Maria Victoira Murillo's "Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions, and Market Reforms in Latin America;" Peter McLaren's "Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution;" "Left Catholicism: Catholics and Society in Western Europe at the Point of Liberation-1943-1955" edited by Gerd-Rainer Horn and Emmanuel Gerard; William B. Husband's "'Godless Communists': Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932;" John Belchem's "Merseypride: Essays in Liverpool Exceptionalism;" Clare Haru Crowston's "Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791;" Pamela Pilbeam's "French Socialists Before Marx;" and John Isbister's "Capitalism and Justice: Envisioning Social and Economie Fairness."

The article briefly reviews Bridget Anderson's "Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Realities of Domestic Labour;" Barbara Paleczny's "Clothed in Integrity: Weaving Just Cultural Relations and the Garment Industry;" Walter Johnson's "Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market;" Anna Heilman's "Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman;" Lesley Gill's "Teetering on the Rim: Global Restructuring, Daily Life, and the Armed Retreat of the Bolivian State;" "Public Sector Pay Determination in the European Union" edited by Robert Elliott, Claudio Lucifora, and Dominique Meurs; Philip Resnick's "The Politics of Resentment: British Columbia Regionalism and Canadian Unity;" "Against the Grain: Foresters and Politics in Nova Scotia" by L. Anders Sandberg and Peter Clancy; and "The Nonprofit Sector in Canada: Roles and Relationships," edited by Keith G. Banting.

The article reviews the book, "On the Side of the People: A History of Labour in Saskatchewan," by Jim Warren and Kathleen Carlisle.

The article reviews the book, "Ordinary Poverty: A Little Food and Cold Storage," by William DiFazio.

The article reviews the book, "Bounded Rationality and Policy Diffusion: Social Sector Reform in Latin America," by Kurt Weyland.

The article reviews the book, "Forgotten Families: Ending the Growing Crisis Confronting Children and Working Parents in the Global Economy," by Jody Heymann.

The article reviews the book, "Tending the Gardens of Citizenship: Child Saving in Toronto, 1880s-1920s," by Xiaobei Chen.

The article reviews the book, "Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome," by Janet Golden.

The article reviews the book, "From UI to EI: Waging War on the Welfare State," by Georges Campeau.

The article reviews the book, "The Myth of the Good War: America in the Second World War," by Jacques R. Pauwels.

The article reviews the book, "'Enough to Keep Them Alive':Indian Welfare in Canada, 1873-1965," by Hugh Shewell.

The article analyzes scholarly works on the Canadian welfare state since 1979. Works discussed include Dennis Guest's "The Emergence of Social Security in Canada" (1979; 3rd edition, 1997), Jane Ursel's "Private Lives, Public Policy: 100 Years of State Intervention in the Family" (1992), James Struthers' '"The Limits of Affluence: Welfare in Ontario, 1920-1970" (1994), Penny Bryden's "Planners and Politicians: Liberal Politics and Social Policy, 1957-1968" (1997), and Nancy Christie's "Engendering the State: Family, Work, and Welfare in Canada" (2000). Concludes that while there has been important work in a number of areas, "the tendency in the historical and sociological literature to pay more attention to discourse than to political economy has tended to understate class dimensions in the formation of social policy."

The article reviews the book, "Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg," by Esyllt W. Jones.

The article reviews the book, "The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better," by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.

The article reviews the book, "Creating a Failed State: The U.S. and Canada in Afghanistan," by John W. Warnock.

The paper reviews the book, "1939: L 'Alliance de la dernière chance," by Michael Carley, published in English as "The Alliance That Never War."

The article reviews the book, "The World Guide 2001/2002: An Alternative Reference to the Countries of Our Planet."

The article reviews the book, "Politics and Public Debt: The Dominion, the Banks, and Alberta's Social Credit," by Robert L. Ascah.