We present the complete tables of contents of all 10 volumes of this important resource in rural history, published between 1978 and 1996. Where available, the editor's introductory summary of each paper is included.
When the first volume appeared, formal study of rural history was in its infancy in Canada. Yet, as Donald Harman Akenson, its founder and editor argued, “if we are to be true to the reality of the past, we must realize that until recently Canada was a rural nation…” And, he went on, “it was [rural] people themselves who created the country, section by section, township by township.” Emphasizing the work of scholars in many disciplines, and publishing work that ranged far beyond Canada, CPRH quickly became an indispensable work for rural historians in Canada.
This material is reproduced by kind permission of Donald Akenson. We take this opportunity also to acknowledge his immense contribution to the making of rural history in Canada, of which Canadian Papers in Rural History is only a small part.
The ten volumes are available at the University of Guelph library at: HN103 .C35
Volume X (1996)
One or Two Things I Know About Us: Rethinking the Image and Role of the “Okies”
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, pp.15-44.
The Bard in a Community in Transition and Decline, Oscar Dhu and the Hebridean Scots of the Upper St. Francis District, Quebec
by J.I. Little, pp.45-80.
Constance Lindsay Skinner and the Marketing of the Western Frontier
by Jean Barman, pp.81-116.
Female Virtue and Chastity in Pre-Famine Ireland: Kenneth Hugh Connell Revisited
by Andrea Ebel Broznya, pp.117-126.
The 1865 Canada Thistle Act of Upper Canada as an Expression of Common Culture of Weeds in Canada and the Northern United States
by Clint Evans, pp.127-148.
Rationality and Rationalization in Canadian National Parks’ Predator Policy
by Alan MacEachern, pp. 149-164.
'Co-Operation Pays and Pays Well': Cooperatives and the State in Ontario, 1914 to 1930
by Kerry Badgley, pp. 165-190.
The Allocation of Land to Agricultural Uses in Canada West, 1851: A View from the Individual Farm
by William L. Marr, pp. 191-204.
Not Just a Cowboy: The Practice of Ranching in Southern Alberta, 1881-1914
by W.M. Elofson, pp. 205-216.
Prairie Margins and Prairie Profits
by Michael F. Hopkinson, pp. 217-230.
Agriculture and Rural Change in Nova Scotia, 1851-1951
by Robert MacKinnon, pp. 231-274.
Peasants on the Coast? A Problematique of Rural British Columbia
by R.W. Sandwell, pp. 275-303.
Volume IX (1994)
The Irish Palatines in Ontario: Religion, Ethnicity and Rural Migration
by Caroline A. Heald, pp.17-186.
The Mennonites of Waterloo, Ontario and Hanover, Manitoba, 1890s: A Study of Household and Community
by Royden Loewen, pp.187-210.
Creating the Brotherhood: Status and Control in the Yarrow Mennonite Community, 1928-1960
by Harvey Neufeldt, pp.211-238.
Mobility and Rural Society in Annapolis Township, Nova Scotia, 1760-1861
by A.R. McNeil, pp.239-258.
One Model, Two Responses: Quebec, Ireland and the Study of Rural Society
by Ronald Rudin, pp.259-290.
Anatomy of a Lumber Shanty: A Social History of labour Production on the Lièvre River, 1876-1890
by Lorne F. Hammond, pp.291-322.
The Public and the POWs: Reaction to the release of German Prisoners of War for Agricultural Labour
by Stephanie Cepuch, pp.323-336.
‘Then I Saw I had been Swindled’: Frauds and Swindles Perpetrated on the Farmers in late Nineteenth-Century Ontario
by Kerry Badgley, pp.337-354.
The Household Structure of Rural Canada West in 1851: Old Areas and Frontier Settlement
by William L. Marr, pp.355-380.
Agricultural Change in Northern Bengal during the Nineteenth Century
by Kenneth Kelly, pp.381-400.
“Romance and Reality on the Vaal River Diggings”: race and Class in a South African Rural Community, 1905-1914
by Tim Clynick, pp.401-418.
Volume VIII (1992)
Perspectives on Ontario Agriculture, 1815-1930
- Chapter One – The Early Ontario Wheat Trade Staple Reconsidered, pp.17-48.
- Chapter Two – Ontario Agriculture at Mid-Century, pp.49-84.
- Chapter Three – The Changing Structure of Canadian Agriculture, 1867-1897, pp.85-90.
- Chapter Four – Output and Productivity in Canadian Agriculture, 1870-71 to 1926-27, pp.91-128.
by R.M. McInnis
Migration and Madness on the Upper Canadian Frontier, 1841-1850
by Cathy E. Kindquist, pp. 129-162.
“ County Homemakers”: The Daily Lives of Prairie Women as Seen Through the Woman’s Page of the Grain Growers’ Guide, 1908-1928
by Angela E. Davis, pp. 163-174.
Transition to Settlement. The Peace Hills Indian Agency, 1884-1890
by Brian Titley, pp. 175-194.
Golden Age or Bronze Movement? Wealth and Poverty in Nova Scotia: The 1850s and 1860s
by Julian Gwyn, pp. 195-230.
Change and Continuity in the Saguenay Agriculture: The Evolution of Production and Yields (1852-1971)
by Gérard Bouchard and Régis Thibeault, pp. 231-260.
Ontario’s Dairy Industry, 1880-1920
by Robert E. Ankli, pp. 261-276.
Emigration from South Leinster to Eastern Upper Canada
by Bruce S. Elliott, pp. 277-306.
Adapting to the Frontier Environment: The Ranching Industry in Western Canada, 1881-1914
by W.M. Elofson, pp. 307-327.
Volume VII (1990)
The Blacksmith in Upper Canada, 1784-1850: A Study of Technology, Culture and Power
by William N.T. Wylie, pp. 17-214.
William Wylie presents a detailed (almost definitive) study of the craft and of the social context of blacksmithing in Upper Canada. Wylie's work is informed by a knowledge both of archival sources and ny a wide reading in the secondary literature on labour organization and social history. But, the work's real distinction is in the use that is made of things - real, tangible objects - and their analysis in historical context.The study is profusely illustrated, for if the reader cannot touch the objects directly, he or she can determine many of the crucial qualities much more easily through pictures and drawings than in words. Many of the tools illustrated here have been visually chronicled especially for this volume, and in other cases, engravings are employed.In every case, accuracy of depiction is a paramount aspect of the process of historical documentation.
"Labouring at the Loom": A Case Study of Rural manufacturing in Leeds County, Ontario, 1870
by Janine Roelens and Kris Inwood, pp. 215-236.
The study by Janine Roelens and Kris Inwood of handloom weaving in eastern Ontario ties into the rapidly growing international literature on proto-industrialization. Their research suggests that this theme needs to be investigated as closely in Canadian economic history as it has been in the British Isles.
"A Motley Crowd": Diversity in the Ontario Countryside in the Early Twentieth-Century
by Charles M. Johnston, pp. 237-256.
Nicol Hugh Baird and the Construction of the Trent-Severn Waterway
by Wendy Cameron, pp. 257-272.
Family-Size Limitation in Canada West, 1851: Some Historical Evidence
by William L. Marr, pp. 273-292.
Social Credit Overreaction to Innovative Business Practices in Eastern Irrigation District: 1835-1940
by Ian Clarke, pp. 293-308.
Creating Stability Amid Degrees of Marginality: Divisions in the Struggle for Orderly Marketing in British Columbia, 1900-1940
by Ian MacPherson, pp. 309-334.
Agricultural and Industrial Teleology in Modern English History: An Essay in Historiographic Provocation and Sociological Revision
by Colin A.M. Duncan, pp.335-362.
Colin Duncan critically reviews the literature available on the English agricultural revolution. With gentle wit, he suggests that historians may have gotten much of the story wrong, largely because of our presentist assumption that agricultural modernization is of a piece with industrialization.
Seasonal Migration Between Ireland and England Prior to the Famine
by Ruth-Ann Harris, pp. 363-386.
Ruth-Ann Harris's article on the Irish seasonal migration to England in the nineteenth century brings into question some of the traditional economic theory of labour migration. And it reminds us of the centuries-old paradox: that Irish men and women, hating england, so often spent so much time and effort trying to get there.
Reading the Texts of Rural Emigrants: Letters from the Irish in Australia, New Zealand, and North America
by Donald H. Akenson, pp. 387-406.
Volume VI (1988)
Feudal Society and Colonization: A Critique and Reinterpretation of the Historiography of New France
by Roberta Hamilton, pp. 17-136.
"Do You want Your Daughter to Marry a Farmer?": Women's Work on the Farm, 1922
by Mary Kinnear, pp. 137-153.
Corporate Structures and Local Economies: The Case of the Williams lake District Lumber Industry
by Mary McRoberts, pp. 154-171.
The North American Wheat Futures Market During World War I
by Robert E. Ankli, pp. 172-191.
"A Little Province Like This": The Economy of Nova Scotia Under Stress, 1812-1853
by Julian Gwyn, pp. 192-225.
Moving Goods and People in Mid-Nineteenth Century New Brunswick
by Graeme Wynn, pp. 226-239.
What Ontario Wants, Canada Gets: The 1886 Margarine Debate
by Welf H. Heick, pp. 240-265.
"The Site of Paradise": A Settler's Guide to Becoming a Farmer in Early Upper Canada
by Terrance A. Crowley, 266-278.
Did Farm Size Matter? an 1871 Case Study
by William L. Marr, pp. 279-300.
A Statutory Chronology of Southwestern Ontario, 1792-1981
by Thomas A. Hillman, pp. 301-353.
Volume V (1986)
The Malin Thesis of Grassland Acculturation and the New Rural History
by Robert P. Sweirenga, pp. 11-22.
This article, by one of the leading American proponents of the 'new rural history', assays the work of James C. Malin whose relationship to modern rural studies is analogous to that of E.P. Thompson in urban studies.
Class Interests in the Emergence of Fruit-Growing Cooperation in Lincoln County, Ontario, 1880-1914
by Daryll Crewson and Ralph Matthews, pp. 23-49.
Only very rarely is social class analysis employed by rural historians, but here Professor Ralph Matthews and Dr. Daryll Crewson provide such an analysis concerning a major fruit-growing district in central Canada.
Contrasting land Development Rates in Southern Ontario to 1891
by H.W. Taylor, J. Clarke and W.R. Wrightman, pp. 50-72.
The rapidly expanding literature in land settlement - or 'agricultural colonization' - is augmented by the work of Professor Taylor, Clarke and Wrightman on land development rates in southern Ontario in the nineteenth century.
Boosterism and the Settlement Process in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, 1890-1914
by Paul M. Koroscil, pp. 73-103.
Professor Koroscil discusses 'boosterism' and the settlement process in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.
Agricultural Colonization in Ontario and Quebec: Some Evidence from the Great Clay Belt, 1900-1945
by Peter W. Sinclair, pp. 104-120.
Professor Peter Sinclair writes on the agricultural colonization of the great clay belt in northern Quebec and Ontario and provides an effective bridge into the usually distinct topics of Quebec and Ontario rural history.
Villages and Agriculture in the Seigneuries of Lower Canada: Conditions of a Comprehensive Study of Rural Quebec in the First half of the Nineteenth Century
by Serge Courville, pp. 121-149.
In a key article, Dr. Serge Courville presents the elements for a re-interpretation of the development of rural Quebec in the nineteenth century. This essay will inevitably be a signal influence on the literature in the next decade, particularly in its definition of the proper statistical framework for future work.
Seigneurial Survey and Land Granting Policies
by Francoise Noel, pp. 150-180.
Dr. Francoise Noel provides a useful counterpoint to Courville's article in her discussion of seigneurial survey and land granting policies.
Achd an Rhigh: A Highland Response to the Assisted Emigration of 1815
by Marianne McLean, pp. 181-197.
Dr. Marianne McLean recently has completed a major study of the settlement of Glengarry County, Ontario and here she discusses the response of the Scottish Highlanders to the assisted migration scheme of 1815.
British Travelers in Early Upper Canada: A Content Analysis of Itineraries and Images
by Robert S. Dilley, pp. 198-223.
The image that travelers to Canada promulgated in the old country greatly influenced migration patterns and Professor Robert Dilley presents a content analysis of the travel literature of the first third of the nineteenth century.
A Bid for Rural Ascendancy: The Upper Canadian Orangemen, 1836-1840
by Hereward Senior, pp. 224-234.
The first third of the nineteenth century is the focus of a discussion of the Irish Protestant bid for supremacy in parts of rural Ontario, presented by Professor Hereward Senior.
Demographic and Attitudinal Trends on the Irish Islands, 1891-1946
by Catharine Anne Wilson, pp. 235-261.
A more modern Irish story, the decline of the Irish islands in the present century, is the focus of Catharine Anne Wilson's contribution.
Herring Fishing by Small Boat off Islandmagee, County Antrim
by John Henshaw, pp. 262-268.
Farming in Manitoba: A Reminiscence
by Egbert W.A. Jenkinson, pp. 269-289.
We are pleased to have two first-person narratives of rural life, one by Rev. Egbert Jenkinson, a pioneer settler in Manitoba, and the other by John Henshaw, a knowledgeable Ulster seafarer from County Antrim. These two memoirs serve to remind historians of an important truth: no matter how sophisticated and abstract one's techniques of analysis become, rural history at its heart is about the life of individual people who are working out their own relationship to complex social and physical environment.
Ontario Agriculture, 1851-1901: A Cartographic Overview
by Marvin McInnis, pp. 290-302.
Professor Marvin McInnis is at present involved in a pioneering project - the computer cartographic presentation of the census and agricultural production data for Ontario - and some of the early results of that work are presented here.
A Statutory Chronology of Central Ontario, 1792-1984
by Thomas A. Hillman, pp. 303-375.
Thomas Hillman provides the second part of his three-part codification of all the municipal boundary changes in Ontario, from earliest times to present.
Volume IV (1984)
An Orderly Reconstruction: Prairie Agriculture in World War Two
by Ian MacPherson and John Herd Thompson, pp. 11-32.
Professors Ian MacPherson and John Thompson discuss the profound structural transformation of prairie agriculture which occurred during World War Two.
Farm Making Costs in Early Ontario
by Robert E. Ankli and Kenneth J. Duncan, pp. 33-49.
Professors Robert Ankli and Kenneth Duncan examine the economic costs for an individual who entered farming in Ontario in the formative years of the nineteenth century.
Tenant vs. Owner Occupied Farms in York County, Ontario, 1871
by William L. Marr, pp. 50-71.
The relationship between tenant- or land-owner occupied farms in Ontario in the nineteenth century is analysed by Professor William Marr.
Corporate Farming on Vancouver Island: The Puget Sound's Agricultural Company, 1846-1857
by Barry M. Gough, pp. 72-82.
Professor Barry Gough depicts the beginning of corporate farming on Vancouver Island during the last century.
Commercial Agriculture in the Region North and Northeast of Calcutta During the Nineteenth Century
by Kenneth Kelly, pp. 83-07.
Professor Kenneth Kelly provides a detailed discussion of structural change in commercial agriculture in a pivotal region in India in the same nineteenth century.
Migration and the Mennonites: Nineteenth Century waterloo County, Ontario
by Robert S. Dilley, pp. 108-129.
Migration, Pioneer Settlement and the Life Course: The First Families of an Ontario Township
by Darrell A. Norris, pp. 130-152.
In two individual articles, Professors Darrell Norris and Robert Dilley use a wide range of data, covering hundreds and hundreds of individual datum points, to elucidate the complex question of immigration in nineteenth century Canada: Dilley deals with with one of Ontario's most interesting religio-ethnic groups, the mennonites, and Norris with the first families of an Ontario township.
Irish Immigrants and the "Critical Years" in Eastern Ontario: The Case of Montague Township, 1821-1881
by Glenn J. Lockwood, pp.153-178.
The behaviour of a specific cultural group - in this case the Irish - is considered in Glenn Lockwood's study of Montague township, Ontario.
"A Pamphlet of a Very Scurrilous Nature": A Libel Case from Upper Canada of the 1840s
by Colm J. Brannigan, pp. 179-199.
Colm Brannigan uses a variety of legal evidence to show in a specific case the way in which law came to be an important modifier of rural behaviour patterns.
Lowering "The Walls of Oblivion": the Revolution in Postal Communications in Central Canada, 1851-1911
by Brian Osborne and Robert Pike, pp. 200-225.
Professors Osborne and Pike present a compelling case for considering the development of the postal service in the last century as every bit important a cultural revolution in rural life as has been the evolution of electronically transmitted information in the twentieth century.
Exploring the Price of Farmland in Two Ontario Localities since Letters Patenting
by Edward C. Gray and Barry E. Prentice, pp. 226-239.
The study of the price of farmland in two Ontario localities by Professor Edward Gray and Dr. Barry Prentice is at once a contribution to 'hard' rural history, and, equally important, and evaluation of the alternative sources of information on the crucial matter of land prices: researchers who rely solely on the Abstract Index of Deeds should study carefully Messrs. Gray and Prentice's warning.
Demographic Analysis and Regional Dialect Surveys in Canada: Data Collection and Use
by Enoch Padolsky and Ian Pringle, pp. 240-276.
Professor Ian Pringle and Enoch Padolsky provide us with a discussion of the demographic data available for a study of the linguistic patterns of the Ottawa Valley and as such provide a paradigm for all future research in Canadian rural dialectology.
A Statutory Chronology of Eastern Ontario, 1788-1981
by Thomas A. Hillman, pp.277-338.
Thomas Hillman presents the first part of an important project which involves a codification of all the municipal boundary changes in Ontario from the earliest times to the present. Anyone who has had to fight his way through the scrambled, illogical, and often contradictory official material on these jurisdictions will realize how valuable such a study is.
Volume III (1982)
A Reconsideration of the State of Agriculture in Lower Canada in the First half of the Nineteenth Century
by R.M. McInnis, pp.9-49.
Professor McInnis surveys the historical literature which has dominated the debate on Quebec agriculture and analyses both the assumptions of the scholars involved and the conclusions which they have drawn. His percipient analysis calls into question the terms of the entire debate on the on the alleged "agricultural crisis" in Lower Canada and the explanations adduced for that putative occurrence. His works has implications not only directly for agricultural history, but indirectly for the social history of the French Canadians in Quebec, for he undercuts the notion of the French Canadian farmer as being a peasant farmer of the most backward and intractable sort.
Time, Context, and House Type validation: Euphrasia Township, Ontario
by Darrell A. Norris and Victor Konrad, pp. 50-83.
Dr. Darrell Norris and Professor Victor Konrad, provide a tight micro-study of house types in a single township and illustrate how an inventory of of physical artifacts can be woven together with traditional historical documentation to yield a formidable web of analysis and explication.
The Activity of an Early Canadian Land Speculator in Essex County, Ontario: Would the Real John Askin Please Stand Up?
by John Clarke, pp. 84-109.
Professor John Clarke uses the methods of the historical geographer to delineate John Askin's extraordinary inquisitiveness.
Robert Gourlay's Vision of Agrarian Reform
by Gerald Bloch, pp. 110-128.
In illuminating the vision of agrarian reform professed by Robert Gourlay, Mr. Gerald Bloch employs traditional methods of historical analysis to deal with material and ideas which have been overlooked by Canadian political historians.
Upper Canada: A Poor Man's Country? Some Statistical Evidence
by Peter A. Russell, pp. 129-147.
Dr. Peter Russell uses a wide sample of assessment data from Upper Canada to examine the province as a place of opportunity, as "a poor man's country".
Economy and Society in Central Alberta on the Eve of Autonomy: The Case of the SLHC
by Bruce E. Batchelor, pp. 148-155.
Dr. Bruce Batchelor discusses the activities of the Saskatchewan land and Homestead Company.
Developments in Plowing Technology in Nineteenth-Century Canada
by Alan E. Skeoch, pp. 156-177.
Mr. Alan Skeoch provides a well-illustrated essay of the evolution in Canada of that most fundamental of all agricultural implements, the plow.
The Waterford Merchants and the Irish-Newfoundland Provisions Trade, 1770-1820
by John Mannion, pp. 178-203.
Professor John Mannion discusses both the direction and extent of some of the ties to the British Isles, in this instance the trade in both manufactured and agricultural commodities as between Newfoundland and Ireland. The overwhelming dependence of eighteenth century Newfoundland on external sources for provisions and supplies points to a problem that exists to this day. Despite the growth of local subsistence agriculture in outports during the nineteenth century, the meagre scale of agricultural production and the huge costs of imports have remained a problem throughout the twentieth century.
Ontario: Whatever Happened to the Irish?
by Donald H. Akenson, pp. 204-256.
This paper questions the received theory of the social and economic character of an ethnic group, in this case, the Irish in Ontario. Specifically, it is suggested that the Irish in Ontario in the nineteenth century did not settle mainly in urban centres as is usually claimed, but chiefly on farmsteads and in small towns. This pattern held true for both Protestants and Catholics of irish origin. The Irish in Ontario, then, cannot be understood in terms of the urban model imported from American history, but only in terms of the indigenous rural culture of central Canada.
Volume II (1980)
The Adoption of the Gasoline Tractor in Western Canada
by Robert E. Ankli, H. Dan Helsberg and John Herd Thompson, pp. 9-40.
Messrs. Ankli, Helsberg and Thompson provide a rigorous
accounting of the micro-economics behind the decision of thousands of
individual farmers to substitute petroleum-driven tractors for horse
power, which is nothing less than the agricultural revolution of the
The Shell-Mud Diggers of Prince Edward Island
by David E. Weale, pp. 41-58.
Professor David Weale uses the techniques of oral history to recapture not simply the technology of mining manure from the sea, but also to show the social context in which the particular technology flourished.
Trading on a Frontier: The Function of Peddlers, Markets and Fairs in Nineteenth Century Ontario
by Brian Osborne, pp. 59-82.
Professor Brian Osborne's study of the function of impermanent rural marketing activities - peddlers, markets and fairs - provides an excellent example of the insight to be gained by charting similar rural phenomenon over a wide geographic area.
Tracing Property Ownership in Nineteenth-Century Ontario: A Guide to the Archival Sources
by R.W. Widdis, pp. 83-102.
R.W. Widdis's work on tracing property ownership is a virtual guide to filling in, farm by farm, the historical map of Upper Canada.
The Seasonal Round of Gentry farmers in Early Ontario: A Preliminary Analysis
by James O'Mara, pp. 103-112.
In detailing the yearly round of the gentry farmer, James O'Mara shows that a sensitivity to the calendral, repetitive, and ritualistic aspects of rural behaviour can be useful.
A Company Community: Garden Island, Upper Canada at Mid-Century
by Christian Norman, pp. 113-134.
In his study, Christian Norman clearly establishes that one can analyse rural productive activity, not just as a productive unit, but as a functioning and well-integrated social system.
The Role of Shipping from Scottish Ports in Emigration to the Canadas, 1815-1855
by James M. Cameron, pp. 135-154.
Professor Cameron, in discussing the role of emigrant shipping from Scottish ports, contributes to our knowledge of one of the pivotal topics of Canadian rural history: the method and extent of cultural transfer from the old world to the new.
Listening to Rural Language: Ballycarry, Co. Antrim, 1798-1817
by Donald H. Akenson, pp. 155-172.
Donald Akenson suggests that rural historians should learn to use their ears as well as their eyes; and, in discussing the Ulster Scots dialect, he indirectly points to one of the major influences on the everyday speech of large numbers of Canadian country people.
Volume I (1978)
The National Policy and Prairie Economic Discrimination, 1870-1930
by Kenneth H. Norrie, pp. 13-32.
Professor Norrie argues that the alleged economic discrimination against prairie farmers in the years 1870-1930, was just that - allegation, not fact.
The Growth of Prairie Agriculture: Economic Considerations
by Robert E. Ankli and Robert M. Litt, pp. 33-66.
Professor Ankli and his associate, Dr. R.M. Litt, present estimates of the actual costs of establishing prairie farms and therefore take a first, major step towards answering the crucial question: how profitable was agriculture in the early days of the Canadian West?
The Development of Farm Produce marketing Agencies and Competition Between Marketing Centres in Eastern Simcoe County, 1850-1875
by Kenneth Kelly, pp. 67-88.
Professor Kelly shows how the development of marketing agencies in a representative Ontario county in the second half of the nineteenth century changed the societal environment in which farmers operated.
The Social and Economic Development of Settlers in two Quebec Townships, 1851-1870
by J.I. Little, pp. 89-113.
Professor Little presents findings from his intensive study of two Quebec townships: findings which reveal that the differences between French Canadian and English Canadian settlers were not merely linguistic, but cultural in the broadest sense, involving markedly different systems of land usage, contrasting levels of agricultural efficiency, and differing economic expectations.