The Last Best West: A Canadian Myth of Success
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/AdAmericam.15.2014.15.08Abstract
This paper demonstrates how social myths play an important role in creating the collective imagination and provides a more detailed look at the Canadian frontier myth. At the turn of the twentieth century, Canada was actively promoted as the Last Best West. The idea that Canada would follow the American experience (or even that the twentieth century would be “Canada’s century”) lies behind the characteristic settlement propaganda around the turn of the twentieth century, which also lies at the core of one of the most familiar social myths – the American Dream. This paper constitutes a sociological examination of such propaganda.
Downloads
References
Albański, Łukasz. “Blood will tell: The Eugenics Movement in Canada Prior to World War II.” Politeja 13, 2010: 241‑250.
Google Scholar
Albański, Łukasz. “Etniczność i dyskurs. Analiza prasy codziennej i etnicznej w Winnipeg, 1896‑1919.” Studia Socjologiczne 4 (207), 2012: 177‑205.
Google Scholar
Albański, Łukasz. “Social Darwinism.” The Encyclopedia of Populism in America. Ed. Alexandra Kindell, Elizabeth Sherburn Demers. Santa Barbara: ABC‑Clio, 2014: 656‑659.
Google Scholar
Albański, Łukasz, and Małgorzata Krywult‑Albańska. “Seks, nauka i czystość rasy: Jak ruch eugeniczny za oceanem chciał stworzyć społeczeństwo doskonałych jednostek.” Nowiny Lekarskie 5 (80), 2011: 407‑413.
Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict R. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (revised and extended). London: Verso, 1991.
Google Scholar
Barlett, Donald L., and James B. Steele. The Betrayal of the American Dream. New York: Public Affairs, 2012.
Google Scholar
Connor, Ralph. The Foreigner: A Tale of Saskatchewan. Toronto: Westminster Co., 1909.
Google Scholar
Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Google Scholar
Department of the Interior. The Country Called Canada. Ottawa, 1912.
Google Scholar
Friesen, Gerald. The Canadian Prairies: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984.
Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer. Facing up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400821730
Google Scholar
Katz Yossi, and John C. Lehr, The Last Best West: Essays on the Historical Geography of the Canadian Prairies. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1999.
Google Scholar
Kipling, Rudyard. Letters to the Family: Notes on a Recent Trip to Canada. Toronto: Macmillan Co., 1908.
Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada. Don Mills, On.: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Google Scholar
Leacock, Stephen. My Discovery of the West: A Discussion of West and East in Canada. Toronto: Thomas Allen, 1937.
Google Scholar
Sifton, Clifford. “Only Farmers Need Apply: The Immigrants Canada Wants.” Maclean’s Magazine 1 April 1922: 16, 32‑34.
Google Scholar
Turner, Frederick J. “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” Web. 13 September 2013. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/frontierthesis.html.
Google Scholar
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Łukasz Albański
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
