Alberta: A New History

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta,
co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views of
Canada, 1880-1914, and co-editor of The Collected Works of E.J. Pratt.

This history is “new” partly because it synthesizes the considerable
amount of historical research done by Alberta historians in the past two
decades, partly because it concentrates on the “new” Alberta society
that has emerged out of the assimilated values and attitudes of the many
different nationalities who settled here early in this century, and
mainly because the Palmers have managed to avoid the dry-as-dust
approach of most historians. It is, as Hurtig insists all his books must
be, not merely a sound scholarly work but one that will appeal to the
general reader: clear chapter designations, helpful interchapter
headings, and a lucid and engaging style make this history accessible to
all. The chapter “The Crisis Years and the Rise of Social Credit” is
a model one in terms of clarity, thematic unity, and explanation of
historical significance. And historic fact is always pleasantly blended
with human personality.

Though history teaches us much, it is not easy to predict the future
based on the past. The Palmers are confident, however, that “the
overlapping central strands in Alberta’s history—the Native
experience; the impact of the frontier; the legacy of the pioneer years,
ethnic and religious pluralism; the subtle play among religion,
ethnicity and politics; its status as an economic and political
hinterland, dependent on outside metropolitan centres; and its
resource-based boom-bust economy—will continue to shape its
destiny.” Those are the shaping forces of Alberta’s history as the
Palmers depict it; and their conclusion seems justified in view of the
picture they present—a picture all Canadians should look at.