Some books of interest if you wish to learn things of value about Alberta

As a volunteer I’ve spent several years involved with community self-organizing at the national level in Canada. Based as I am in Central Canada, I’ve had the opportunity to get a sense of how regions elsewhere in Canada view Central Canada. I refer to things that I’ve learned at an anecdotal level.

Before I became active as a volunteer, I worked at resort hotels in the Canadian Rockies during five summers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I also lived seven years in B.C., starting in the late 1960s, after which I subsequently lived for forty-three years (twenty-one of them in Long Branch) in Toronto. I now live in Stratford.

I am currently involved in a writing project which focuses among other things on Alberta history and what we might describe as selected Alberta worldviews.

To help me get oriented, I’ve borrowed some books from the Toronto Public Library. I’ve also bought a selection of books, some used and some new, that are helpful in enabling me to understand the history of Alberta, which includes its Indigenous history along with archeological and geological history.

For the current post, I will list some of the books I’ve borrowed from the Toronto Public Library that are of relevance for a person seeking to learn about Alberta.

It’s my hope you will enjoy reading this list!

List of books of relevance for a person who wishes to learn a bit about Alberta’s history and the worldviews associated with the province

How old is that mountain?: a visitor’s guide to the geology of Banff and Yoho National Parks
Yorath, C. J.

Discounted labour: women workers in Canada, 1870-1939
Frager, Ruth A., 1950-

Code politics: campaigns and cultures on the Canadian Prairies
Wesley, Jared J., 1980-

Protest and politics: the promise of social movement societies
Ramos, Howard, 1974- editor.

Skyscrapers hide the heavens: a history of Native-newcomer relations in Canada
Miller, J. R. (James Rodger), 1943-, author.

Milton Friedman: a biography
Ebenstein, Alan O.

The view from flyover country: dispatches from the forgotten America
Kendzior, Sarah, author.

The true spirit and original intent of Treaty 7
Hildebrandt, Walter.
Book

Orange Chinook: politics in the new Alberta
Brownsey, Keith, 1955- editor.

The Buffalo people : [pre-contact archaeology on the Canadian plains]
Bryan, Liz.

The dynamics of native politics: the Alberta Metis experience
Sawchuk, Joe, 1942-

Capitalism, alone: the future of the system that rules the world
Milanović, Branko, author.

Democracy in Alberta: social credit and the party system
Macpherson, C. B. (Crawford Brough), 1911-1987, author.

How to argue with a racist: what our genes do (and don’t) say about human difference
Rutherford, Adam, author.

Notley nation: how Alberta’s political upheaval swept the country
Sharpe, Sydney, author.

The great delusion: liberal dreams and international realities
Mearsheimer, John J., author.

Doing politics differently?: women premiers in Canada’s provinces and territories
Bashevkin, Sylvia B., editor.

Cities made of boundaries: mapping social life in urban form
Vis, Benjamin N., author.

Reading the rocks: a biography of ancient Alberta
Kieran, Monique.

Stone by stone: exploring ancient sites on the Canadian plains
Bryan, Liz, author.

Breadwinning daughters: young working women in a depression-era city, 1929-1939
Wriggly, Katrina, 1973-

A culture’s catalyst: historical encounters with peyote and the Native American Church in Canada
Kahan, F. H. (Fannie Hoffer), author.

Women and work: inequality in the Canadian labour market
Phillips, Paul Arthur, 1938-2008.

Trudeau’s tango: Alberta meets Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-1972
Raymaker, Darryl, 1939- author.

Facing eugenics: reproduction, sterilization, and the politics of choice
Dyck, Erika, author.

Wrapped in the flag: a personal history of America’s radical right
Conner, Claire, 1945-

The world of the John Birch Society: conspiracy, conservatism and the Cold War
Mulloy, D. J.

The aesthetics of meaning and thought: the bodily roots of philosophy, science, morality, and art
Johnson, Mark, 1949- author.

Another book of interest, not directly connected with Alberta

The personality brokers: the strange history of Myers-Briggs and the birth of personality testing
Emre, Merve, author.