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Theatre as we know it started in Manitoba almost a century and a half ago. During that time it has produced some shining moments, some unforgettable characters, and some great stories: how two visionaries, Tom Hendry and John Hirsch, convinced Manitoba to embrace a theatre centre that became a model for the rest of the world, how Prairie Theatre Exchange inspired Manitobans to create their own theatre, how Nellie McClung used theatre to help women get the vote, and how a fire at the first theatre event in Winnipeg almost destroyed the whole town.

From Fire to Flood explores how Manitoba theatre got to where it is today, and why it didn’t go somewhere else. It examines Manitoba theatre from its beginnings, placing theatre in its social and historical context. A key question is how our theatrical past can help us complete the final piece of the puzzle: a unified, indigenous theatre that explains us to ourselves and to the rest of the world. ... Read more

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This study of the Manitoba judiciary is not only the first biographical history to examine an entire provincial bench, it is also one of the first studies to offer an internal view of the political nature of the judicial appointment process.Dale Brawn has penned the biographies of the first thirty-three men appointed to Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench.The relative youth of Manitoba as a province and the small size of its legal profession makes possible an exceptionally detailed investigation of the background of those appointed to the province’s highest trial court.

The biographical data that Brawn has collected for this book highlights the extent to which judicial candidates underwent a socialization process designed to produce a legal elite whose members shared remarkably similar views and ways of thinking. In addition, these biographies suggest that until at least 1950, seats on provincial benches were rewards for political services rendered.Many lawyers became judges not because of their legal ability, but because they had made themselves known in the communities in which they practiced.This fascinating study offers an intimate look at personalities ranging from prime ministers to members of the bench and both senior levels of government.

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IMPACT COVERS THE MAJOR floods of the Red River in 1950, 1997, and 2009. The book also reports on many other disasters and near-disasters: summer tornados, severe winter storms, the 1947 Dugald train wreck, the ‘Gimli glider’ of 1984, and large forest fires going back to 1920. Impact concludes with a portrait of emerging threats related to terrorism. ... Read more

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EVERY STONE A STORY II contains more stories gleaned from Manitoba’s buried history. Illustrated with black and white photographs, each story describes the life, death, and experiences of someone buried in a particular cemetery. The stories are often about the famous or infamous, but equally often they are about people little known outside their communities, but who have done something extraordinary. ... Read more

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For many Canadians, the state of our health care and medical system is at the top of the public agenda. By following the growth and development of modern medicine in one Canadian province, Manitoba Medicine provides an insight into where our present medical system came from and how it developed.

Beginning with a description of some early Aboriginal healing practices and of the physicians of the Red River Settlement, Manitoba Medicine follows the struggles in the 1870s to establish what would become the first medical college and the first major hospitals in Western Canada. It chronicles the fight for public health in the 1920s, the development of health insurance and medicare after WWII, and medicine's role in fighting the 1950 Winnipeg Flood and the polio epidemic of the late 1950s.

Manitoba Medicine also provides vivid accounts of many of the individuals who built Manitoba's medical system, including early educators like Swale Vincent, pioneering women physicians such as Charlotte Ross, important researchers like Bruce Chown, and colourful private practitioners such as Murrough O'Brien. ... Read more

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The essays in this volume examine a variety of themes: the public construction of the Common School; the building of pedagogical spaces for the working classes and ethnic minorities such as Mennonites and Ukrainians; the establishment of teacher education and teacher's organizations; and case studies of native education. ... Read more

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The first economic, military, and diplomatic history of the Plains Cree from contact with the Europeans in the 1670s to the disappearance of the buffalo from Cree lands by the 1870s, focussing on military and trade relations between 1790 and 1870.

Milloy describes three distinct eras, each characterized by a paramount motive for waróthe wars of migration and territory, the horse wars during the 'golden years' of Plains Indian life, and buffalo wars, which mark the trail to the reserves. Intimately linked to each era was a particular trade pattern and a military system that linked the Cree with other Plains tribes and non-Natives. By tracing these themes, Milloy charts the ability of the Cree to serve their economic interests by forging alliances or undertaking military or diplomatic offensives. ... Read more

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The prairies are a focal point for momentous events in Canadian history, a place where two visions of Canada have often clashed: Louis Riel, the Manitoba School Question, French language rights, the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, and the dramatic collapse of the Meech Lake Accord when MLA Elijah Harper voted "No."

Gerald Friesen believes that it is the responsibility of the historian to "tell local stories in terms and concepts that make plain their intrinsic value and worth, that explain the relationship between the past and the present." For local experiences to have any relevant meaning, they must be put into the context of the wider world.

These essays were written for the general reader and the academic historian. They include previously published works (many of them revised and updated) from a wide variety of sources, and new pieces written specifically for River Road, examining aspects of prairie and Manitoba history from many different perspectives. They offer portraits of representatives from different sides of the prairie experience, such as Bob Russell, radical socialist and leader of the 1919 General Strike, and J.H. Riddell, conservative Methodist minister who represented "sane and safe" stewardship in the 1920s and 1930s. They explore the changing relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the "dominant" society, from the prosperous MÈtis community that flourished along the Red River in the 19th century (and produced Manitoba's first MÈtis premier) to the events that led to the Manitoba Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in the 1980s.

Other essays consider new viewpoints of the prairie past, using the perspectives of ethnic and cultural history, women's history, regional history, and labour history to raise questions of interpretation and context. The time frame considered is equally wide-ranging, from the Aboriginal and Red River society to the political arena of current constitutional debates. ... Read more

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Established in 1877, just seven years after the founding of the province itself, the University of Manitoba has grown to become an international centre of research and study. It is the birthplace of discoveries such as the cure for Rh disease of newborns and the development of Canola, and its alumni include Marshal McLuhan, Margaret Laurence, Monty Hall, Israel Asper and Ovide Mercredi.

Historian J.M. Bumsted looks at how the university was forged out of the assembly of several, small, denominational colleges, and how it survived and even thrived during challenges such as the 1932 defalcation and the 1950 Manitoba flood. He gives special attention to student life at the university, tracing the changes, from Freshie initiations in the 1920s and student musicals in the 1950s to the activism of the 1960s and 1970s.

The University of Manitoba: An Illustrated History is an entertaining and lively social history of an institution whose development has reflected the changes of society at large. ... Read more

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For over 100 years, thousands of Aboriginal children passed through the Canadian residential school system. Although the system was meant to bring Aboriginal children into the "circle of civilization," the actual results were far different. More commonly, it provided an inferior education in an atmosphere of neglect, disease, and often - abuse.

Using access to previously unreleased government documents, Milloy provides a full picture of the ideological roots of the system, and follows the paper trails of internal memorandams, reports from field inspectors, and letters of complaint. In the early decades, the system grew without planning or restraint. Despite numerous critical commissions and reports, it persisted into the 1970s, when it transformed itself into a social welfare system without improving conditions for its thousands of wards.

A National Crime shows how the residential system was chronically underfunded and mismanaged, and how this affected the health, education, and well-being of entire generations of Aboriginal children. ... Read more