It was the 1880's, a time of great excitement in the world: Canada had opened the west. The Last Best West transports us to the private world of the aristocrat Lady Adela Cochrane, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Stradbroke and her husband, Thomas Cochrane. She couldn’t be more different than Alice Bradley, British immigrant from the working class, and her husband eastern Canadian Billie Bradley, who were seeking relief from the economic downturn of their day. The Last Best West brings themes of upstairs, downstairs British life to western Canada. Lady Adela and Thomas were completely unprepared to build the town of Mitford and create businesses from the opportunities awaiting them. Alice and Billie suffered the extreme capriciousness of the harsh life offered to them as pioneers. Connect with the resiliency, courage and excitement lived by these two couples as they find out what life is like in The Last Best West.

Baby Trouble in the Last Best West explores the ways that women's childbearing became understood as a social problem in early twentieth-century Alberta.

THE AUTHOR TOOK HER GRANDFATHER JB HANSEN’S memoir, written before his death in the mid sixties, and by augmenting it with a variety of interesting primary sources, and her own personal comments, she brings new life to the realities of southeastern Saskatchewan homesteading in the Rural Municipality of Souris Valley # 7 in the first half of the twentieth century. This will give readers of today a better understanding of everyday life in those homesteading days. Many examples show changes in the forms of travel, cost of living, farming methods, food preparation and daily activities all to help us understand this history and serve to inspire us in dealing with the problems of our day. Their personal stories show they found ways to thrive and have good times in spite of the challenges of the times.

The Prairie Provinces cover Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Southwest Montana is beautiful country, evoking mythologies of freedom and escape long associated with the West. Partly because of its burgeoning presence in popular culture, film, and literature, including William Kittredge's anthology The Last Best Place, the scarcely populated region has witnessed an influx of wealthy, white migrants over the last few decades. But another, largely invisible and unstudied type of migration is also present. Though Mexican migrants have worked on Montana's ranches and farms since the 1920s, increasing numbers of migrant families—both documented and undocumented—are moving to the area to support its growing construction and service sectors. The Last Best Place? asks us to consider the multiple racial and class-related barriers that Mexican migrants must negotiate in the unique context of Montana's rural gentrification. These daily life struggles and inter-group power dynamics are deftly examined through extensive interviews and ethnography, as are the ways gender structures inequalities within migrant families and communities. But Leah Schmalzbauer's research extends even farther to highlight the power of place and demonstrate how Montana's geography and rurality intersect with race, class, gender, family, illegality, and transnationalism to affect migrants' well-being and aspirations. Though the New West is just one among many new destinations, it forces us to recognize that the geographic subjectivities and intricacies of these destinations must be taken into account to understand the full complexity of migrant life.

A guided tour of Montana's literature, including Native American stories, autobiographies, journals, fiction, and poetry.

"This collection of unusually powerful stories opens up a refreshing new chapter in Canadian history. Since there are so few written records of the lives of frontier women, Dr. Silverman collected 'memories'; the result has the hypnotic appeal of all genuine storytelling. It extends our understanding of Canadian heritage by weaving 'a collective autobiography' of the women who were the earliest settlers in Alberta, the site of the final North American land rush. The true story of how these women created a society from a harsh frontier is heartwarming and inspiring."--Publisher.