Scoundrels, Dreamers, and Second Sons: British Remittance Men in the Canadian West. 2nd ed.

A.A. den Otter is a professor of history at the Memorial University of
Newfoundland in St. John’s. He is the author of The Philosophy of
Railways.

Among the many colorful characters who wandered onto the Canadian
prairies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the remittance
men. Most of these individuals—usually the second or younger offspring
of British aristocrats, sent overseas by their fathers to make something
of themselves, and supported by regular allowances—were ill-suited for
frontier life. Many simply took up the sporting and leisurely lifestyle
they had enjoyed in the old country and thus earned the mistrust and
disdain of those who had to work hard to survive on the prairies in
those early years. But, totally oblivious to the contempt of their
less-fortunate contemporaries, the remittance men enjoyed their parties,
steeple-chases, fox hunts, tennis, and picnics until the First World War
called them to place their lives in service of their country.

Basing his colorful stories on diaries, correspondence, newspapers, and
interviews, Mark Zuehlke has ably reconstructed an integral part of
Western Canadian frontier life. Amply illustrated, revised, and
expanded, this is the second edition of a valuable addition to frontier
literature.