Not a Simpler Time: Essays in Canadian Rural and Economic History (McGill-Queen's Rural, Wildland, and Resource Studies, 21) (Volume 21) - Softcover

McCalla, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0228027845 ISBN 13: 9780228027843

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2026

Synopsis

Although the great majority of Canadians lived in rural communities until the early 1900s, rural life has often been dismissed as marginal to the country’s economic development. Not a Simpler Time challenges this view, arguing that the strategies, skills, and work of rural families were the backbone of the economy. In making this case, Douglas McCalla illustrates how established narratives can constrain new approaches to the past.

The book highlights the complexities of rural economies in early Canada, showing that the growth of the colonies that joined Confederation in 1867 relied far more on agriculture than on natural resources – a reality overlooked by proponents of the enduring staples thesis. Building on this argument, McCalla revises old stories: neither the timing nor the character of Ontario’s economic growth stemmed from natural resources; the emergence of a new economic core in the colonies contradicts the perception that they were essentially an imperial periphery; and the First World War did not, in fact, transform the economy as often imagined.

That a focus on natural resources still dominates accounts of economic growth in Canada underscores the book’s broader theme: recognizing the limits of older evidence and embracing new approaches will deepen historical understanding. Bringing together two decades of McCalla’s scholarship, Not a Simpler Time will spark debate while offering an indispensable resource for Canadian historians.

About this title

About the Author

Douglas McCalla is university professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Guelph.

From the Back Cover

Series editors: Jennifer Bonnell, James Murton, and R.W. Sandwell

The Rural, Wildland, and Resource Studies Series includes monographs, thematically unified edited collections, and rare out-of-print classics. Inspired by Canadian Papers in Rural History, Donald H. Akenson's influential occasional papers series, it seeks to catalyze reconsideration of communities and places lying beyond city limits, outside centres of urban political and cultural power, and located at past and present sites of resource procurement and environmental change. Scholarly and popular interest in the environment, climate change, food, and a seemingly deepening divide between city and country, is drawing non-urban places back into the mainstream. The series seeks to present the best environmentally contextualized research on topics such as agriculture, cottage living, fishing, the gathering of wild foods, mining, power generation, and rural commerce, within and beyond Canada's borders.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0228027845
• ISBN 13: 9780228027843
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306