Jim Blanchard (1)

A neat social history of Winnipeg, which places Winnipeg's First World War times into the context of the War itself. Pretty balanced history, I would say, and well written. The one flag I would raise concerns the treatment of the "non-British". While there is no doubt that by our standards the ruling elites and the middle class, such as it was, of Winnipeg wore their many prejudices on their sleeves; and while it is obvious that there was a Winnipeg General Strike in 1919 that had class and political overtones; it is not so clear to me that if the clash was so severe, why aren't the scars worse than they appear. Maybe, just maybe, there was a real problem with communism and extreme forms of socialism, these were nipped in the bud, and we are better off for it. So in other words, maybe Mr. Blanchard overstates some of the class war issues. But for all that a great piece of historical writing.… (altro)