Calgary: Spirit of the West

R. Douglas Francis is a professor of history at the University of
Calgary.

Calgary is popularly known as the most traditional and truly western
city, especially each year at Stampede time when Calgarians en masse
dress in western garb. It is also the financial capital of western
Canada and the centre of the oil industry in the West. Driving both
these images is an unabashed spirit of optimism, the underlying theme
and motif of this book.

Hugh Dempsey, former curator of the Glenbow Museum and editor of
Alberta History, has produced a lively and informative history of the
city. He skilfully combines vignettes of unknown but interesting
incidents and individuals with an understanding of how Calgary’s
history fits into that of the province and the region as a whole. We
learn how Calgary went from Native camp, to police fort, to cowtown, to
city.

If there is one weakness in his book, it is Dempsey’s tendency to get
caught up in the “booster spirit” about which he writes. However,
his book is intended not as a critical and objective historical account
of the city, but rather as an entertaining and insightful look at its
evolution.