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Pierre Berton

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The Great Depression: 1929-1939 Kindle Edition

by Pierre Berton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 66 ratings

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Over 1.5 million Canadians were on relief, one in five was a public dependant, and 70,000 young men travelled like hoboes. Ordinary citizens were rioting in the streets, but their demonstrations met with indifference, and dissidents were jailed. Canada emerged from the Great Depression a different nation.

The most searing decade in Canada's history began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ended with the Second World War. With formidable story-telling powers, Berton reconstructs its engrossing events vividly: the Regina Riot, the Great Birth Control Trial, the black blizzards of the dust bowl and the rise of Social Credit. The extraordinary cast of characters includes Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who praised Hitler and Mussolini but thought Winston Churchill "one of the most dangerous men I have ever known"; Maurice Duplessis, who padlocked the homes of private citizens for their political opinions; and Tim Buck, the Communist leader who narrowly escaped murder in Kingston Penitentiary.

In this #1 best-selling book, Berton proves that Canada's political leaders failed to take the bold steps necessary to deal with the mass unemployment, drought and despair. A child of the era, he writes passionately of people starving in the midst of plenty.

Review

"The Great Depression is the definitive work that will carry our collective memory with us into the next century." —Calgary Herald

"Berton's chilling magnum opus… [He] has produced something very near perfect. It's clearly written, fast-moving…and so well drafted it reads like a novel." —The Times Colonist, Victoria

"a scalding indictment of the law, big business, the bigots, the police and politicians." —Canadian Press

From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Over 1.5 million Canadians were on relief, one in five was a public dependant, and 70,000 young men travelled like hoboes. Ordinary citizens were rioting in the streets, but their demonstrations met with indifference, and dissidents were jailed. Canada emerged from the Great Depression a different nation.
The most searing decade in Canada's history began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ended with the Second World War. With formidable story-telling powers, Berton reconstructs its engrossing events vividly: the Regina Riot, the Great Birth Control Trial, the black blizzards of the dust bowl and the rise of Social Credit. The extraordinary cast of characters includes Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who praised Hitler and Mussolini but thought Winston Churchill "one of the most dangerous men I have ever known"; Maurice Duplessis, who padlocked the homes of private citizens for their political opinions; and Tim Buck, the Communist leader who narrowly escaped murder in Kingston Penitentiary.
In this #1 best-selling book, Berton proves that Canada's political leaders failed to take the bold steps necessary to deal with the mass unemployment, drought and despair. A child of the era, he writes passionately of people starving in the midst of plenty. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

Over 1.5 million Canadians were on relief, one in five was a public dependant, and 70,000 young men travelled like hoboes. Ordinary citizens were rioting in the streets, but their demonstrations met with indifference, and dissidents were jailed. Canada emerged from the Great Depression a different nation.
The most searing decade in Canada's history began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ended with the Second World War. With formidable story-telling powers, Berton reconstructs its engrossing events vividly: the Regina Riot, the Great Birth Control Trial, the black blizzards of the dust bowl and the rise of Social Credit. The extraordinary cast of characters includes Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who praised Hitler and Mussolini but thought Winston Churchill "one of the most dangerous men I have ever known"; Maurice Duplessis, who padlocked the homes of private citizens for their political opinions; and Tim Buck, the Communist leader who narrowly escaped murder in Kingston Penitentiary.
In this #1 best-selling book, Berton proves that Canada's political leaders failed to take the bold steps necessary to deal with the mass unemployment, drought and despair. A child of the era, he writes passionately of people starving in the midst of plenty. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Pierre Berton was one of Canada’s most popular and prolific authors.From narrative histories and popular culture, to picture and coffee table books to anthologies, to stories for children to readable, historical works for youth, many of his fifty books are now Canadian classics.

Born in 1920 and raised in the Yukon, Pierre Berton worked in Klondike mining camps during his university years. He spent four years in the army, rising from private to captain/instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston. He spent his early newspaper career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily. He wrote columns for and was editor of Maclean’s magazine, appeared on CBC’s public affairs program “Close-Up” and was a permanent fixture on “Front Page Challenge” for 39 years. He was a columnist and editor for the Toronto Star and was a writer and host of a series of CBC programs.

Pierre Berton received over 30 literary awards including the Governor-General’s Award for Creative Non-Fiction (three times), the Stephen Leacock Medal of Humour, and the Gabrielle Leger National Heritage Award. He received two Nellies for his work in broadcasting, two National Newspaper awards, and the National History Society’s first award for “distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history.” For his immense contribution to Canadian literature and history, he was awarded more than a dozen honourary degrees, is a member of the Newsman’s Hall of Fame, and is a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Pierre Berton passed away in Toronto on November 30, 2004. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Print length

562 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Anchor Canada
Publication date

February 21, 2012
File size

1822 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004HW6GQY
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor Canada (February 21, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 21, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1822 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 562 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,076,935 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #430 in 20th Century Canadian History
- #558 in History of Canada
- #941 in Canadian Politics

Customer Reviews:
4.5 66 ratings

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Vincent Poirier

Of Mice and Mice

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2006

Verified Purchase

Like the rest of the world, Canada experienced great hardship in the 1930s. Unlike our southern neighbours, we floundered through the times completely lost in a maze of choices blinded by a fog of misapplied moral principles.

Berton paints a picture of the whole of Canada, from the Atlantic provinces, to the Pacific coast while going through Quebec. He tells heart breaking stories of a lost decade. Why did Canadians go hungry in the midst of plenty? Why weren't food and clothes distributed to the needy? Why did a little girl in Saskatchewan come to school every other day, only when it was her turn to wear the dress she had to share with her sister? Why did a father too poor to buy wood for the stove have to wake up to find his baby frozen to death? Why didn't the government do anything? It could easily have: as soon as war was declared in 1939, resources to clothe, feed, and pay hundreds of thousands of young men magically appeared.

Berton's answer is simple: Canada had no leadership. Our two prime ministers of the thirties, R. B. Bennett and William Lyon Mackenzie King, were two gentlemen stuck in classical economics mode. They saw people starving and balanced the budget. They saved the Dollar instead of saving lives. Bennett and King weren't heartless; they were just blind to what the government could do and should have done. When they did set themselves to action, it was to repress "agitators" and "revolutionaries".

Berton's narrative isn't wholly bleak. Among the tragedies shine a few bright spots: a young couple falling in love here, children playing there. We get a picture of Canada in the 1930s, and I personally learned a thing or two of "l'ancien temps" as my mom and dad have always called their childhood.

Compare Berton's history of the Great Depression in Canada against Conrad Black's excellent biography of Franklin Roosevelt and one thing will be clear: where the United States had a man leading it through the Great Depression, Canada had a couple of mousey prime-ministers.

As a Canadian, I'm happy that we've learned our lesson. Sure our leaders are still often mousey (think Lester Pearson, Joe Clark, and even Stephen Harper) but at least they've shown a commitment to leadership and responsibility. Pierre Berton's magnificent book hopefully ensures that this lesson will be remembered a long time.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

9 people found this helpful

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jerry thompson

Pandemic depression

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2020

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I picked up this book because I had read several Berton books . Always curious how people lived through a depression. Here we are in the midst of the pandemic and a real world crisis. The threat of the conditions of a depression seem very real today. One wonders if we could be as steely about living as these people . Back then it was the Jews now it will be Latinos. Will we allow their migration?

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Shing Kwong Lee

A must read for Canadian, especially students.

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2013

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The book captures an important period of the country which played a key role in shaping today's Canada. Apart from recounting the history, it is also a great story telling book. It is easy to take it for granted our current relatively comfortable living standard, this book reminds us the hardship most Canadian had to endure, not that far back in time.

2 people found this helpful

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patty bartlett

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2014

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great Canadian writer!

One person found this helpful

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Kiwiwriter

Whoever reads this book will understand the pain, resilience, humor, endurance, and nostalgia of Canada's "10 lost years"

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2016

Having collected Canadian postage stamps for more than 35 years, I am more than casually aware that the land north of the 49th parallel is not the "51st through 57th States," unlike many of my fellow United States citizens. The United States was founded to achieve "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," while Canada was founded to achieve "peace, order, and good government," which are two totally different theories.

However, both suffered from a common disaster -- the staggering impact of the 1929 Wall Street stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed, which put the world on breadlines, shattered the lives of millions, and enabled the rise of dictators across the globe, who created a second World War.

Canada's suffering echoed that of the United States, of course -- at the grand scale: industrial collapses, the Dust Bowl and agricultural famine, paranoia about left-wing coups, right-wing and left-wing panaceas, labor strife. At the bottom end were the personal horrors: starving children, families bankrupted (and in some cases annihilated by the paterfamilias), youth riding freight cars to find hope elsewhere and instead suffering violence and violation, religious and ethnic prejudice. There was some leavening -- Canadians pawed through exciting newspaper and magazine stories of adventurers, listened closely to radio serials and comedians, tut-tutted at the foibles of King Edward VIII, and turned out in thousands to welcome King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

The biggest difference was that while the United States enjoyed the charismatic, energetic, and optimistic leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Canada endured the timorous, ineffectual, and weak stewardship of Richard Bradford "Not a five-cent piece" Bennett and the bizarre William Lyon McKenzie King, who spent most of his time with fake mediums trying to connect with his late mother, and trying to read the future in the whirls of shaving cream on his mirror. Neither rose to the occasion, as Bennett is remembered for "Bennett buggies" -- cars towed by horses -- and King is remembered for coldness and spiritualism.

Ultimately, Canada was saved from both the Great Depression and incipient revolution by the nation's long-running adherence to its own Anglo-French traditions, the resilience of its people, and the Second World War, which energized her economy at the expense of her young men and women.

Pierre Berton chronicles all this in what is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read on the Great Depression about any country -- he combines the large picture (government and business leadership) with the medium ones (labor unions, political and social movements) and the small ones (individual stories about Canadian families or individuals caught in or coping with the tides of history). There is the tragic story of a Canadian woman who is bankrupted and commits suicide, a Canadian Communist sent to prison who narrowly escapes official murder, descriptions of the slave-like living conditions of Canadian coal miners, close-up descriptions of Bennett and King -- we find Bennett privately making donations out of his own pocket to people who write to him in anguish and King kissing busts of his mother good night. He even compares prices of ordinary items -- Campbell's soup, movie tickets, hamburgers, Coca-Cola, a haircut, Maclean's magazine, the Toronto Star -- of 1933 with the book's publishing date of 1990.

Any person, Canadian or otherwise, who reads this book will gain a great understanding of the pain, the resilience, the humor, the endurance, and yes, even nostalgia of Canada's "10 lost years" of the Great Depression.

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Michael Jones

More sad Canadian history

Reviewed in Canada on August 21, 2023

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So many things that I did not know about Canada and the Great Depression. It’s still hard to believe what our political perspective was in the recent past. Made me want to cry for all the unfortunate people that were just left to their own devices. Definitely a good read and we as Canadians should learn from this. Would recommend to all historians.

clauwau

Amazing historical story

Reviewed in Canada on April 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

We hear of the Great Depression but seldom pounder about its true impact on Canadians. This book provides a most vivid insight of the decade between 1929 and 1939. A must read for anyone interested in Canadian history.

Kindle Customer

An accurate history of a difficult time

Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2009

Verified Purchase

This is a well researched and consisely written book of a very difficult era in Canadaian history. Berton exposed both King and Bennett for their short sightedness over their impulsive and misdirected need to balance the federal budget instead of dealing with the needs of its 1.5M unemployed workers. Tales of hardship and horror serve as a tragic background to a nation that struggled with the hatred of racism, a misplaced Puritanical work ethic and an ongoing political single mindedness. Ironically the depression only came to a halt when the country was forced into a governmental spending frenzy. WWII shrank the unemployment lines, emptied the work camps and drew a unity between the people and its government. All this could have been accomplished a decade earlier and without the ensuing bloodshed.

3 people found this helpful

Daffy Bibliophile

Starving in a Land of Plenty

Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2011

Verified Purchase

Deportations of "political undesirables", fascist rallies protected by the police, internment camps disguised as work camps, shantytowns - sound like Canada? Well, it was Canada during the "Dirty Thirties".

Pierre Berton has written a very readable account of our nation during this lost decade. Each chapter in the book covers a year, starting with the stock market crash of 1929 and ending with the first Canadian troops arriving in Britain in 1939. In between, he covers the founding of the CCF and the Regina Manifesto, the trek to Ottawa, the Regina Riot, the political crackpots and opportunists who sprang up in the 1930s (in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec) and the reluctance of the federal government to provide adequate relief to the urban unemployed and to those scratching out a living in the Prairie dust bowl. Rather than help the people who elected them, the politicians insisted on balancing the budget regardless of the social cost. Sound familiar?

This book is a real eye-opener, especially in these dire economic times when it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Highly recommended!

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