Univ. of Calgary Press

Cultural memories and imagined futures; the art of Jane Ash Poitras.

Part of a series that highlights the work of contemporary Canadian artists, this volume showcases the art of Native American painter and collage artist Jane Ash Poitras. The volume explores various stages in the artist's development and personal history and discusses her place in the world of contemporary Canadian indigenous art. The work includes numerous full color glossy reproductions of Poitras' work. McCallum is a professor of English at the University of Calgary. Distributed by Michigan State U. Press. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Happyland; a history of the "dirty thirties" in Saskatchewan, 1914-1937.

Based on records of rural municipalities, government documents, ministerial correspondence, local community histories, newspapers, and publications of relevant government departments, McManus (history, Lakeland College, Lloydminster, Alberta) offers a unique account of the "Dirty Thirties" agricultural crisis in the drylands of southern Saskatchewan. McManus' treatment of the period is unusual in that he examines the region's dry years — and subsequent land abandonment — as a separate happening from the economic collapse of the Great Depression. His text enables readers to understand the Dirty Thirties as a clear and distinct occurrence with its own peculiar history, trajectory, nature, origin, and course, beginning with the initial settlement of the south plains in 1908 through the long period of droughts, misery, and starvation that led to the eventual desertion of the region. Distributed by Michigan State U Press. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The politics of access; university education and nation-building in Nigeria, 1948-2000.

This study of the history of higher education in Nigeria examines public policy surrounding the development of institutions and programs designed to provide widely available education to all citizens as one facet of post-colonial nation building. The volume is divided into chronological periods of education development and examines the relationship of the state to outside development organizations as well as internal programs for education "massification." The work explores specific pieces of legislation, institutions and political trends in detail and provides a comprehensive overview of higher education in the nation. Distributed by Michigan State U. Press. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Promoters, planters, and pioneers; the course and context of Belgian settlement in Western Canada.

Jaenen (history, U of Ottawa) has written extensively about Canadian ethnic and religious history and on the history of New France. He is himself a child of Belgian immigrants — one of many factors that motivated him to produce this history of the Belgian experience in Western Canada. Coming to Canada not to flee poverty or oppression, but rather with the support of the Belgian government to try new opportunities, the Belgians were perceived as being in a "preferred" category for their resourcefulness and adaptability, their identification with both the English and French sociocultural communities, and the image of a brave, independent, democratic, civilized Belgium emerging from foreign occupation during two world wars. Jaenen's account demonstrates the instructive and unique Belgian bi-ethnic experience in the context of and comparison to the experiences of other immigrant groups in the region. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)