Noted historian J.L. Granatstein once argued that labour history and other forms of social history were killing our national history. His Who Killed Canadian History? unleashed a storm of controversy about the importance of examining our past from many angles, including the history of working people and their organizations.
This special edition of BC History explores some of the neglected corners of work life in British Columbia with an eye to proving Granatstein wrong and enlightening our readers about what some historians have called history from below.
BC labour historian Mark Leier notes that the labour movement in BC began when the Hudson's Bay Company arrived in the 1800s. “Those early employees of the HBC did not form unions,” Leier writes in the Encyclopedia of British Columbia, “but they did…
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British Columbia History (Digital) - 1 Issue, 56.4 Winter 2023