Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Years, 1891-1924 - Hardcover

Martynowych, Orest; Manoly R. Lupul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0920862764 ISBN 13: 9780920862766

Publisher: University of Alberta Press, 1991

Synopsis

Covering the initial phase of Ukrainian immigration, settlement and community-building in Canada, this history goes beyond existing accounts in three important respects. First, the Ukrainian experience in Canada is placed firmly within the context of Canadian history, as well as the history of immigrants and immigration. The social and economic forces that "pushed" Ukrainian peasants out of eastern Galicia and northern Bukovyna and "pulled" them to Canada are examined. The efforts of French-Canadian Roman Catholic primates in western Canada to subordinate the immigrants to their authority are analyzed. Attempts by Anglo-Protestant social reformers to "Canadianize" the immigrants through the medium of Protestant missions and the public school system are also discussed. The book's second major subject is the impact of the Ukrainian national movement, which penetrated the villages of eastern Galicia and northern Bukovyna during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and shaped the outlook of the men who assumed leadership within the Canadian immigrant community. In particular, it demonstrates how the national movement's radical, secular and populist precepts fueled anticlericalism, sustained opposition to machine politics and heavy-handed methods of "Canadianization," and promoted self-reliance and resistance to economic exploitation. Ukrainian Canadian attitudes to the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the struggle for independence are also considered. Martynowych's account also delves into the everyday lives of ordinary Ukrainian immigrants in rural bloc settlements, urban colonies, frontier construction camps and one-industry towns from coast to coast. An attempt has been made to survey material conditions of life, to examine occupational structures and entrepreneurial activity, and to consider social differentiation and the emergence of class divisions. The formation, proliferation and activities of local institutions such as parishes, reading clubs, drama groups, co-operatives, national homes, socialist circles and labour temples are also analyzed, as are the efforts of Ukrainian nationalists and socialists to transmit their ideologies and mobilize popular support through such institutions.

About this title

About the Author:

Orest T. Martynowych studied history at the University of Manitoba (BA Hons., MA) and at the University of Toronto. He was Research Associate at CIUS Press, University of Alberta, from 1985 to 1989.

Review:

"... intended primarily for Ukrainian Canadians in search of their roots. It will provide them a great beginning." M.M.Stolarik -- Histoire Sociale-Social History, Vol. XXV, No. 50 (November 1992)

"... the best study yet to appear recently in Ukrainian-Canadian studies..." Franca Iacovetta -- Labour/Le Travail (Fall 1995), pg. 239

"In all probability it will become the standard work on Ukrainian Canadians in the English language." Bohdan P. Procko -- American Historical Review, June 1993

"This is... a highly readable narrative which draws on a vast secondary literature in Canadian history and immigration studies." C.D.Worobec -- Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2 (January 1993)

"Well grounded in Canadian social a labour history, particularly in the literature dealing eith western Canada..." L.Luciuk -- Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 74, No. 1 (March 1993)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Alberta Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0920862764
• ISBN 13: 9780920862766
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 564