Review: Karen Hughes on Gender, Family and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression

Lara Campbell. Respectable Citizens: Gender, Family and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009, 304 pp. $29.95 paper (978-0-8020-9669-2), $65.00 hardcover (978-0-8020-9974-7)

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse, there has been a surge of interest in the Great Depression, with several economic history books vaulting to the top of bestseller lists. While Lara Campbell likely never anticipated such keen interest in her chosen subject, her book is certainly a welcome addition, appearing when public and scholarly interest in the events of the Great Depression is at an all time high. Campbell’s account is highly engaging and readable, offering new insights into the gendered dynamics of economic crisis as it played out in the lives of women and men living in Ontario in the 1930s. Focusing on the economic hardship faced by families, and the role of individual protest and collective action in redefining welfare and citizenship, Respectable Citizens offers a vivid, perceptive analysis of a unique period in Canadian history … Read more