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The article reviews the book, "The Limits of Labour: Class Formation and the Labour Movement in Calgary, 1883-1929," by David Bright.

The article reviews the book, "The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919: An Illustrated History," by J. M. Bumsted.

The article reviews the book, "Close Ties: Railways, Government, and the Board of Railway Commissioners, 1851-1933," by Ken Cruikshank.

The article reviews the book, "The Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875-1925," by David M. Emmons.

The article reviews the book, "The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada, 1896-1914," by John A. Eagle.

This article reviews the book, "The Nottingham Labour Movement 1880-1939," by Peter Wyncoll.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the socialist movement in Canada began a campaign to create national political organizations and to forge links with the working class, The strongest of these organizations was the Socialist Party of Canada (SPC), which elected several provincial deputies in the West after 1903, and won the affiliation of a number of unions, above all District 18 of the United Mine Workers of America. This article analyzes the socialist project in the coal mining regions of Alberta and British Columbia, 1900-20. Here, mining conditions provoked long and hard working-class struggles, such as the violent strike of non-union miners on Vancouver Island in 1912-4, or the general strike of miners in the Crow's Nest Pass in 1919. Socialist politics had the sympathy of the militants but more importantly, of the mass of electors in these regions. Contrary to the mythology of the frontier, the majority of working-class socialists comprised stable industrial communities. And the Marxist programme of the SPC offered an alternative to each of the great ethnic blocks in the coalfields: European immigrants on the one hand, and English-speaking workers on the other. Be that as it may, the socialists suffered a decisive defeat after 1914. The historical juncture of 1919 created new marching orders for the miners: towards the Communist Party, or the "reformist" socialism of the CCF.

This article reviews the book, "Duplessis and the Union Nationale Administration," by Richard Jones.

This article reviews the book, "Class, Culture and Community: A Biographical Study of Social Change in Mining," by Bill Williamson.

The article reviews and comments on "CPR West: The Iron Road and the Building of a Nation," edited by Hugh A. Dempsey, "Essays in the Political Economy of Alberta," edited by David Leadbeater, and ""The Canadian Prairies: A History," by Gerald Friesen.

This article reviews the book, "Small Worlds: Provinces and Parties in Canadian Political Life," by David J. Blkins & Richard Simeon. This article reviews the book, "Society and Politics in Alberta: Research Papers," by Carlo Caldarola.

This article reviews the book, "Prairie Capitalism: Power and Influence in the New West," by John Richards and Larry Pratt.

In and around the site of the town of Minto lie New Brunswick's only major coal deposits. From the Laurier period to World War II the district experienced a process of industrial development, accompanied by the emergence of a working-class community, dominated at the time of World War I by immigrant mine labour, later, by native-born workers drawn into the industry from the surrounding rural areas. Like colliers in Nova Scotia or the western regions, Minto's workers sought relief from the worst abuses of industrial-capitalist development through trade union organization. This met with fierce resistance from the employers, resulting in major coal strikes in 1920, 1926, 1934, and 1937-38. In Minto, however, a specifically political response, easily observable in other coal-mining regions was largely lacking. Radicalism in particular was weak, the political activity of Minto's workers being mainly confined to attempts to influence the policies and practices of the existing authorities. The paper attempts an explanation of the particular characteristics of Minto's working-class movement through reference to the interaction of local factors of culture and structure, and the evolution of the complex relationships between labour, business, and the state.

The Mine Workers' Union of Canada was a trade union, centred in the coal fields of the Province of Alberta, which existed between the years 1925 and 1936, and included a membership of between 2,000 and 4,900 mine workers during that period. The formation of the union came about as a result of the break-up of District 18 of the United Mine Workers of America in 1924-1925. From the onset, its leadership was composed of differing elements, from conservatives who opposed the U.M.W. of A. for nationalistic reasons, to members of the Communist Party. The M.W.U.C. was one of the founding members of the All Canadian Congress of labour in 1927, and its President, Frank Wheatley, was a Vice-President of the Congress, until his ouster from the miners' union in 1930. miners' union in 1930. Early in that year the Communists, led by Harvey Murphy, began a drive to have the M.W.U.C. disaffiliate from the A.C.C.L., and join the new revolutionary trade union central, the Workers' Unity League. They were apparently successful, for in May of 1931, the union's membership voted by a 73% margin to affiliate with the W.U.L. Later that year the Communist Party of Canada was outlawed and the M.W.U.C. itself was declared to be an "unlawful association" in the courts. Anti-communist and anti-union sentiments on the part of employers led to long and bitter strikes, the most important of which took place in the Crows' Nest Pass in 1932. Finally, after six years of intense struggle on both the industrial and political fronts, the Workers Unity League was disbanded by the Communist Party. In June of 1936, the membership of the Mine Workers' Union of Canada voted to return to the U.M.W. of A. and the union passed into history.

This article reviews the book, "Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880-1922," by David Alan Corbin.

This chapter seeks to move the discussion of labour and politics beyond the contest of political ideologies in the movement and the constraints of the liberal democratic state. To explain the different political histories of the Australian and Canadian movements we use a model with three dimensions: the changing balance between labour and politics; the different social forces that labour seeks to represent; and the different conceptions of politics that labour holds. After a discussion of the literature on labour and politics in the two countries, the paper applies this model to distinguish two periods, a formative period up to the early 1920s, in which labour entered politics. and the period from the 1920s to the 1950s when parties or governments took politics into the labour movement. The model enables us to characterize the politics of the Australian Labor Party as a form of class-based labourism, with significant moments of working-class socialism. We characterize the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation/New Democratic Party as a form of populist socialism. The paper concludes with some insights gained from using a common model in a comparative exercise.

[The article studies] the sugar beet workers of Southern Alberta and their attempt during the Depression to organize a trade union. Radical militants from the Farmers and Workers Unity Leagues organized the foreign born workers and in 1935 and 1936 led strikes which brought the "class struggle" to the farm gate. Observing the exploitative relationship which also existed between the beet growers and the Rogers Sugar Company, union leaders attempted to create a worker-grower movement against the Company. This proved an unrealizable goal, and the collaboration of growers, the sugar company and the state ultimately crushed the beet workers' union.