Aden protectorate

This study chronicles the course of an important but little known Canadian war: the war between people and weeds in Western Canada. Arising from intense competition between two groups of immigrants, this conflict started in Europe, spread to Eastern North America and reached a climax on the broad expanses of the Canadian Prairies. By the early 1940s weeds had gained the upper hand on their human competitors and many predicted the end to extensive grain production in the West. This did not occur, however, because of the timely development of 2,4-D and other selective herbicides immediately following the close of World War II. These potent chemical weapons gave prairie farmers new hope at a time when defeat seemed all but certain and they are largely responsible for the expensive standoff between farmers and weeds that persists to this day. Recounting the history of weeds and weed control in Western Canada between 1800 and 1950 serves a number of functions. One is to provide weed scientists with some historical background and an object lesson in the consequences of seeking simple solutions to complex, long-standing problems. Another is to remind historians that we cannot truly understand the history of western settlement and agriculture without understanding the practical issues that dominated the daily lives of past generations of farmers. Yet a third function is to introduce a specific environmental history approach to Canadian historians while, at the same time, encouraging them to pay more attention to recent developments in this American-dominated field. A fourth and final reason for investigating the historical relationship between people and weeds is that it can be used to symbolize something far larger: the relationship between culture and nature in general. An exploration of this issue is made possible by the curious relationship between people and weeds, a relationship summed up by the thesis that weeds are both the the products of and participants in culture. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of recent trends in weed science and, in particular, of the merits of the "new" doctrine of weed management. Canadian historians are lectured on the danger of ignoring nature when writing about history and readers are asked to consider what the terms "nature" and "culture" mean. Do they represent discrete subjects, separate spheres of existence, a dichotomy? Or, are they just different aspects of a larger, more complex whole?

In this thesis, the development of a Dominion government telegraph on a portion of the Canadian frontier is analyzed as a formative moment of socialization and cultural expression. It utilizes a socio-cultural framework for understanding the 'experience of space'; notably how changes in presence or access to one another--facilitated by this new mode of communication--are central to this experience. / The thesis argues that the telegraph is crucially related to issues of public confidence. Its approach draws upon recent social and cultural treatments of communication technologies which stress the ways that the material reality of such technologies become part of a larger social and symbolic order. The thesis refers to indicators such as reliability, public works, public interest, competence, and trust to investigate a social apprehension of confidence. 'Confidence', in this case, is not treated as fixed and equally understood, but as something that is invested, shared, built-up and worn down. Thus concerns for and with 'public confidence' help to reveal changes in socio-cultural development.

This study chronicles the course of an important but little known Canadian war: the war between people and weeds in Western Canada. Arising from intense competition between two groups of immigrants, this conflict started in Europe, spread to Eastern North America and reached a climax on the broad expanses of the Canadian Prairies. By the early 1940s weeds had gained the upper hand on their human competitors and many predicted the end to extensive grain production in the West. This did not occur, however, because of the timely development of 2,4-D and other selective herbicides immediately following the close of World War II. These potent chemical weapons gave prairie farmers new hope at a time when defeat seemed all but certain and they are largely responsible for the expensive standoff between farmers and weeds that persists to this day. Recounting the history of weeds and weed control in Western Canada between 1800 and 1950 serves a number of functions. One is to provide weed scientists with some historical background and an object lesson in the consequences of seeking simple solutions to complex, long-standing problems. Another is to remind historians that we cannot truly understand the history of western settlement and agriculture without understanding the practical issues that dominated the daily lives of past generations of farmers. Yet a third function is to introduce a specific environmental history approach to Canadian historians while, at the same time, encouraging them to pay more attention to recent developments in this American-dominated field. A fourth and final reason for investigating the historical relationship between people and weeds is that it can be used to symbolize something far larger: the relationship between culture and nature in general. An exploration of this issue is made possible by the curious relationship between people and weeds, a relationship summed up by the thesis that weeds are both the the products of and participants in culture. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of recent trends in weed science and, in particular, of the merits of the "new" doctrine of weed management. Canadian historians are lectured on the danger of ignoring nature when writing about history and readers are asked to consider what the terms "nature" and "culture" mean. Do they represent discrete subjects, separate spheres of existence, a dichotomy? Or, are they just different aspects of a larger, more complex whole? / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

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If the psychiatrist's belief that childhood determines adult behaviour is true, then historians should be able to ascertain much about the fabric of past cultures by examining the way in which children were raised. Indeed, it may be argued that the roots of new cultures are to be found in the growing up experiences of the first generation. Such is the premise adopted in this thesis, which explores the emergence of the Metis in the Pacific Northwest by tracing the lives of fur trade youngsters from childbirth to old age. Specifically, the study focuses on the children at Fort Vancouver, the Hudson's Bay Company headguarters for the region, during the first half of the nineteenth century — a period of rapid social change. While breaking new ground in childhood history, the thesis also provides a social history of fur trade society west of the Rocky Mountains. Central to the study is the conviction that the fur trade constituted a viable culture. While the parents in this culture came from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, their mixed-blood youngsters were raised in the 'wilderness' of Oregon in a fusion of fur trade capitalism, Euro-American ideology and native values — a milieu which forged and shaped their identities. This thesis advances the interpretation that, despite much variation in the children's growing up experience, most fur trade youngsters' lives were conditioned and contoured by the persistent and sometimes contrary forces of race, class and gender. In large measure, the interplay of these forces denoted much about the children's roles as adults. Rather than making them victims of 'higher civilization,' however, the education of fur trade children allowed them access to both native and white communities. Only a few were 'marginalized'. The majority eventually became members of the dominant culture, while a few consciously rejected the white experience in favour of native lifestyles. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation explores the origins of, and the developments among, the approximately one hundred Bible schools that existed in western Canada prior to 1960. Although these schools influenced thousands of people, they have been almost entirely ignored by scholars, thereby leaving a significant lacuna within Canadian religious historiography. This study demonstrates the vital role played by the Bible schools in the development of evangelical Protestantism in western Canada. / The numerous Bible schools in the region are divided into six clusters based on denominational or theological similarities. A representative school (or schools) is selected from each cluster to serve as the focus of an institutional biography. These biographies explore the circumstances surrounding the origin, and subsequent developments (up to 1960) within, each school. The multiple institutional biographies create a collage that is both comprehensive enough to provide an understanding of the movement as a composite whole, and sufficiently varied to illustrate the movement's dynamic diversity. / This dissertation, therefore, presents a more multi-faceted explanation of the movement than previous characterizations that have generally depicted it as a part of an American fundamentalist reaction to Protestant liberalism. Although fundamentalism was a significant influence within some, particularly the transdenominational, Bible schools, at least as important in understanding the movement in western Canada were the particular ethnic, theological and denominational concerns that were prominent within the denominational clusters. The Bible schools typically offered a Bible-centred, intensely practical, lay-oriented program of post-secondary theological training. They were an innovative and practical response to the many challenges, created by massive immigration, rugged frontier conditions, geographical isolation, economic hardship, ethnicity and cultural assimilation, facing evangelical Protestants during the first half of the twentieth century. The Bible schools represent an institutional embodiment of the ethos and emphases of their respective constituencies. They served the multiple denominational and transdenominational constituencies, which made up the larger evangelical Protestant network, as centres of influence by preparing future generations for church leadership and participation in Canadian society. The Bible school movement offers a unique window into the diversity, complexity, dynamism and flexibility that characterized the development of evangelical Protestantism in western Canada.