Winnipeg 1912
“A fascinating portrait ... superb.” —Winnipeg Free Press
“A lively account of Winnipeg’s ‘high noon,’ a moment of great confidence that took place just as the balance was about to tip against the booming city.” – Christopher Dafoe, author of Winnipeg: Heart of the Continent
"Winnipeg 1912 was a pleasure and occasionally an inspiration." – Desmond Morton, University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 76.1, 2007
1912 was a red-letter year for Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dubbed the “Chicago of the North,” Winnipeg was the boom town of boom towns. Overwhelmingly a commercial city, Winnipeg became for a time the metropolis of the west until the rumblings of the First World War ended the flow of investments, and immigration, construction, and economic activity ground to a halt.
Although a great deal of the physical city of 1912 has survived in the Exchange district and in certain residential neighbourhoods, the people who lived there, their beliefs and attitudes, are gone and forgotten. Winnipeg 1912 takes readers on a tour of Winnipeg, introducing its citizens and inviting us into their parlours for an intimate look at the way they lived, how they worked, and how they enjoyed themselves. Modern readers will be surprised to meet these people and discover how different they were from the Winnipeggers of today.
Beautifully illustrated with period photographs, Winnipeg 1912 is a lively and entertaining account of a vibrant and prosperous city unaware of its impending demise.
Jim Blanchard is the Head of Reference Services at Elizabeth Dafoe Library at the University of Manitoba. He is a former president of the Manitoba Historical Society and is the editor of A Thousand Miles of Prairie: The Manitoba Historical Society and the History of Western Canada.
Winnipeg 1912
Jim Blanchard
Paper • 0-88755-684-1 • $24.95
278 pp • 6 x 9 • 60+ b/w Photographs
2005
