“‘Remittance man’ was meant to be a disparaging term. It reflected the fact that these young men had been sent to the colonies to spare their families continuing embarrassment or shame. At home they had been scoundrels, dreamers, and second sons without future prospects. Perhaps in…the Canadian West they would make something of themselves. If they didn't, at least they would be far enough away that little disgrace would fall upon their families.” —Mark Zuehlke Beginning in 1880, thousands of young, upper-class British men with few prospects were sent to the Canadian West to distance them from British society. Still supported by their families, thus earning them the title “remittance men,” these men set out to continue their lives of leisure in this new land. With education, respectable breeding and the belief “from birth that they were superior beings,” the remittance men descended upon Western Canada with expectations of accomplishing something great and increasing their wealth. In reality, they hunted, played games, courted women, and enjoyed distinguished pursuits that squandered their parents' money and made hard-working Canadians raise their eyebrows. Though their era in Western Canada was short, 1880–1914, “they left an indelible mark perpetuated by the stories and legends that sprung up around them.” In Scoundrels, Dreamers & Second Sons, first published fifteen years ago, Mark Zuehlke traces the path of the remittance men through Western Canada, highlighting their adventures, limited successes and glorious failures.

As questions concerning nationhood and national identity continue to preoccupy both Canada and Australia, Shaping Nations brings together the work of Australian and Canadian scholars around five core themes: constitutionalism, colonialism, republicanism, national identity, and governance.

In her third and final book in the English in Canada series, Lucille Campey provides an overview of the great exodus from England to Canada which peaked in the early twentieth century. Drawing on wide-ranging documentary and statistical sources, Campey traces this major population movement on a region-by-region basis.

In Metis Pioneers, Doris Jeanne MacKinnon compares the survival strategies of two Metis women born during the fur trade—one from the French-speaking free trade tradition and one from the English-speaking Hudson’s Bay Company tradition—who settled in southern Alberta as the Canadian West transitioned to a sedentary agricultural and industrial economy. MacKinnon provides rare insight into their lives, demonstrating the contributions Metis women made to the building of the Prairie West. This is a compelling tale of two women’s acts of quiet resistance in the final days of the British Empire.

"Scots trappers dominated the fur trade, often proving more loyal to clan than to trading company or nation. Relying on centuries of experience raising livestock for British markets, Scottish investors and managers became highly visible in the post-Civil War western cattle industry with thriving outfits such as the Swan Land and Cattle Company in Wyoming. They introduced new breeds to western ranching, such as the Aberdeen Angus, that remain popular today. Similarly, Scots herders dominated the western sheep industry, running herds of over 100,000 animals. Andrew Little's sheep ranch in Idaho was so famous that a letter addressed simply "Andy Little, USA" found its intended recipient.

When Native and Métis unrest escalated into the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, white settlers in southern Alberta`s cattle country were terrified. Three major First Nations bordered their range, and war seemed certain. In anticipation, 114 men mustered to form the Rocky Mountain Rangers, a volunteer militia charged with ensuring the safety of the open range between the Rocky Mountains and the Cypress Hills. The Rangers were a motley crew, from ex-Mounties and ex-cons to retired, high-ranking military officials and working ranch hands. Membership qualifications were scant: ability to ride a horse, knowledge of the prairies, and preparedness to die. The Rangers were resolutely prepared to fight, as mounted cavalry, should the rebellion spread. This is their story, inextricably linked to the dissensions of the day, rife with skirmishes, corruption, jealousies, rumour, innuendo and gross media sensationalizing . . . all bound together with what author Gordon Tolton terms "a generous helping of gunpowder."

In Frontier Cattle Ranching in the Land and Times of Charlie Russell, Warren Elofson debunks the myth of the American "wild west" and the Canadian "mild west" by demonstrating that cattlemen on both sides of the forty-ninth parallel shared a common experience. Focusing on Montana, Southern Alberta, Southern Saskatchewan, and the well-known figure of Charlie Russell - an artist and storyteller from that era who spent time on both sides of the border - Elofson examines the lives of cowboys and ranch owners, looking closely at the prevalence of drunkenness, prostitution, gunplay, rustling, and vigilante justice in both Canada and the United States.

Marie Rose Delorme Smith was a woman of French-Métis ancestry who was born during the fur trade era and who spent her adult years as a pioneer rancher in the Pincher Creek district of southern Alberta. The Identities of Marie Rose Delorme Smith examines how Marie Rose negotiates her identities--as mother, boarding house owner, homesteader, medicine woman, midwife, and writer--during the changing environment of the western plains during the late nineteenth century.

In 1906, Nello Vernon-Wood (1882-1978) reinvented himself as Tex Wood, Banff hunting guide and writer of "yarns of the wilderness by a competent outdoorsman." His homespun stories of a vanishing world, in such periodicals as The Sportsman, Hunting and Fishing, and the Canadian Alpine Journal, have much to tell us about the west as envisioned by those who wanted to leave the early 20th century behind - or at least read about others who had done so. In the writings of his persona "Tex," Vernon-Wood created an image of the frontier that blended the West of his guiding experiences with the West as a literary object. Editors Gow and Rak guide the reader with a framing introduction to the work, as well as to each article.

In 1885, Vancouver Island’s E&N rail service carried coal to smelters and ships, and the towns in the railway’s path prospered as the tracks expanded. Along the E&N celebrates the historic and still-surviving hotels and roadhouses that sprung up near the E&N. Within this carefully researched historical narrative, you’ll find stories of the halfway house in the Esquimalt District, the murder and suicide at the Mt Sicker Hotel, and the iconic Quinsam Hotel in Campbell River, burned down in 2017. Peppered with stories of patrons and proprietors alike, this book chronicles the history of sixty hotels—most long gone, destroyed by fire, or simply demolished. Featuring some of the old hotels remodelled into modern-day neighbourhood pubs—such as the Rod & Gun, the Fanny Bay Inn, the Shady Rest, the Cumberland Pub, and the Waverley Pub—Along the E&N resonates with the haunting echoes of the train’s iconic whistle.