Happyland : A History Of The "Dirty Thirties" in Saskatchewan, 1914-1937

McManus examines the history of drought, agricultural failure, and rural depopulation in the drylands of southern Saskatchewan between 1914 and 1937. Challenging the conventional view that the “Dirty Thirties” were principally a product of the Great Depression, he argues that environmental and economic instability had afflicted the region since the first large-scale settlement of the south plains in the early twentieth century. Drawing extensively on rural municipal records, government correspondence, newspapers, and local histories, the study traces recurring cycles of crop failure, land abandonment, municipal debt, and migration, together with the effects of government relief policies and farming practices that intensified soil depletion.