Hired Hands : Labour And The Development Of Prairie Agriculture

A social and labour history of prairie agriculture, this study examines the role of hired farm workers in Western Canada from the opening of large-scale grain production in the late nineteenth century to the collapse of the wheat economy in 1929. Danysk traces how hired hands moved from being seen as near-equals and future landowners to becoming long-term wage labourers as free homesteads disappeared. Using workers’ experiences as her lens, the book explores changing work practices, rural community life, labour relations, and the impact of the First World War, including failed efforts at farm-labour organization and the strategies workers used to assert control over their working lives.

Notes adapted from the publishers information.