- May 15, 2014
Please join UMP in welcoming Merle Massie to Saskatoon for the launch of Forest Prairie Edge.
When: Thursday, May 15, 7:00 pm
Where: McNally Robinson Booksellers (3130 8th Street East)
Cost: FREE
Featuring Merle Massie and special guest Bill Waiser. Light refreshments will be served.
About the Author
Merle Massie is a Saskatchewan writer, editor, and farmer specializing in local, rural, and environmental history.
Bill Waiser has been a member of the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan since 1984. He has published over a dozen books, including his award-winning centennial history, Saskatchewan: A New History. Bill was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, the province’s highest honour, in 2006. The following year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was recently appointed the A.S. Morton Chair in History (2010-2015) and granted a D.Litt. Most recently, Bill was named a University of Saskatchewan Distinguished Chair for the period 2011-2014. He is a specialist in western and northern Canadian history and in his down time, he is a recreational runner and likes to hike, garden, and canoe.
About the Book
Saskatchewan is the epitome of the “prairie” provinces, even though half of the province is covered by boreal forest. The Canadian penchant for dividing this vast country into easily-understood “regions” has reduced the Saskatchewan identity to its southern prairie denominator and has distorted cultural and historical interpretations to favor the prairie south.
Forest Prairie Edge is a deep-time investigation of the edge land, or ecotone, between the open prairies and boreal forest of Saskatchewan. Ecotones are transitions from one landscape to another, where social, economic, and cultural practices of different landscapes are blended. Focusing on the Prince Albert region ecotone, Merle Massie delves deeply into the varied uses of the land over the centuries, from Indigenous meeting place to mixed farming community, from transportation hub to industrial resource extraction site. Along the way we meet fascinating area residents, some just travelling through and others whose presence had lasting impacts on the land through political and commercial enterprises.
By studying what other historians have commonly dismissed as “scrub land,” Massie shows how the edge ecotone has repeatedly offered refuge from the economic and environmental instability of the southern prairie landscape. Her lively and engaging book overturns long-held assumptions about settlement patterns, economic development, and what it means to be from the “prairies.”
