Synopses & Reviews
In the North American imagination, the rodeo cowboy is one of the
most evocative images of the Wild West. A frontier master, he is
renowned for his masculinity, toughness, and skill. A WilderWest
returns to rodeo's small-town roots to explore how,
beneath its showman's surface, rodeo represents a way of life that
simultaneously embodies and subverts our traditional understandings of
power relations between man and nature, women and men, settlers and
Aboriginal peoples.
Historian Mary-Ellen Kelm demonstrates that 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 divides, creating
friendships, rivalries, and unexpected intimacies. It was a place where
competency was celebrated as much in the victories of cowgirls as
cowboys. At the rodeo, if nowhere else, Aboriginal riders became local
heroes, and rodeo queens spoke their minds.
A Wilder West complicates the idea of western Canada as a
"white man's country" and shows how rural rodeos have
carved out communities where different rules applied. Lavishly
illustrated, this creative history will change the way we think about
the West's most controversial sport.
Mary-Ellen Kelm is a Canada Research Chair in the Department of History
at Simon Fraser University. Her previous books include ColonizingBodies: Aboriginal Health and Healing in British Columbia
. She is
an avid animal trainer, competing in agility and obedience with her
dog, Rusty. She lives in North Vancouver with her husband, Don, and
spends her summers outdoors, hiking and paddling in British Columbia.
Review
"I
love this book. It is wonderfully written and, while clearly an academic look at the sport, always accessible and engaging. It documents an important part of our western tradition in a way that will captivate academics, rodeo devotees, and casual observers alike. From Nora Gladstone's poem to the in-depth look at the Williams Lakes and Lethbridges of the rodeo world, I finally lost track of the 'aha' moments in the book."
- David A. Poulsen, rodeo announcer and award-winning author
Synopsis
A controversial sport, rodeo is often seen as emblematic of the
West's reputation as a "white man's country." AWilder 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 unexpected intimacies. Fans made hometown
cowboys, cowgirls, and Aboriginal riders local heroes. Lavishly
illustrated and based on cowboy/cowgirl biographies and memoirs, 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 frontier.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 An Old-Timers' Town: Western Communities, Performance, and
Contact Zones
2 Truly Western in Its Character: Identities, Affinities, and
Intimacies at Western Canadian Rodeo
3 A Sport, Not a Carnival Act: Transforming Rodeo from Performance
to Sport
4 Heavens No! Let's Keep It Rodeo! Pro Rodeo and the Making of
the Modern Cowboy
5 Going Pro: Community Rodeo in the Era of Professionalization
6 Where the Cowboys Are Indians: Indian and Reserve Rodeo in the
Canadian West
Conclusion
Glossary; Notes; Index