Title: A wilder West : rodeo in Western Canada /
Authors: Kelm, Mary-Ellen, 1964-
Publisher: UBC Press,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Rodeos Alberta History.; Rodeos British Columbia History.; Rodeos Social aspects Alberta History.; Rodeos Social aspects British Columbia History.; Cowboys Canada History.; Rodéos Alberta Histoire.; Rodéos Colombie-Britannique Histoire.; Rodéos Aspect social Alberta Histoire.; Rodéos Aspect social Colombie-Britannique Histoire.; Cow-boys Canada Histoire.
Abstract: "A controversial sport, rodeo is often seen as emblematic of the West's reputation as a "white man's country." A Wilder West complicates this view, showing how rodeo has been an important contact zone - a chaotic and unpredictable place of encounter that challenged expected social hierarchies. Rodeo has brought people together across racial and gender divides, creating friendships, rivalries, and unexpcted intimacies. Fans made hometown cowboys, cowgirls, and Aboriginal riders local heroes. Lavishly illustrated and based on cowboy/cowgirl biographies and memiors, press coverage, archival records, and dozens of interviews with former and current rodeo contestants, promoters, and audience members, this creative history returns to rodeo's small-town roots to shed light on the history of social relations in Canada's western fromtier." -- from publisher.
Contents: An old-timers' town: western communities, performance, and contact zones -- Truly western in its character: identities, affinities, and intimacies at Western Canadian Rodeo -- A sport, not a carnival act: transforming rodeo from performance to sport -- Heavens no? Let's keep it rodeo? Pro rodeo and the making of the modern cowboy -- Going pro: community rodeo in the era of professionalization -- Where the cowboys are Indians: Indian and reserve rodeo in the Canadian west.