Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1992
Abstract
A product of a conference sponsored by the history department of the University of Calgary and the Historical Society of Alberta in 1987, this set of ten papers treats aspects of the history of winter pastimes in western Canada. No single theme binds the collection together, though several authors try to assay the importance of the harsh climate and the rugged prairie/mountain terrain to western Canada's winter recreations. Their conclusions are not surprising. Climate and terrain prevented white settlers from replicating the rich village-centered pastimes of Europe. Instead, the settlers either had to abandon or adapt the traditional games or invent new ones. Such a process helps to explain both the relative impoverishment-a conclusion denied by most of the authors of this volume--of western Canada's recreational life as well as the relative popularity of such sports as basketball, speed skating, hockey, curling, and skiing in western Canada.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 12:3 (Summer 1992). Copyright © 1992 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.