Nature’s Past Episode 12 – click to play | right click, ‘save as’ to download

Between 1920 and 1960, Canada’s northwest subarctic region experienced late-stage rapid industrialization along its large lakes. These included Lake Winnipeg, Lake Athabasca, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake. Powered by high-energy fossil fuels, the natural resources of the northwest were integrated into international commodity markets and distributed throughout the world. Whitefish from the large lakes found their way onto dinner plates in New York while uranium from Canada’s northwest fueled the world’s most destructive weapons, atomic bombs.

Professor Liza Piper joins us this month to discuss her new book The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada from UBC Press. This book explores a region unfamiliar to most Canadians and how that space was transformed through industrial processes in the twentieth century. Rather than finding industrial technologies dominating the landscape of the northwest, Professor Piper found that humans used those technologies to assimilate nature.

Please be sure to take a moment and review this podcast on our iTunes page.

Works Cited:

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Sean Kheraj

Associate Professor at York University, Department of History

Sean Kheraj is the director of the Network in Canadian History and Environment. He's an associate professor in the Department of History and associate dean of programs in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University. His research and teaching focuses on environmental and Canadian history. He is also the host and producer of Nature's Past, NiCHE's audio podcast series and he blogs at http://seankheraj.com.

Latest posts by Sean Kheraj (see all)

• ASEH 2020: A Listener’s Guide to Canadian #EnvHist - January 20, 2020
• Top 5 Posts of 2019 - January 1, 2020
• Canada Has Never Had a Leak-Proof Oil Pipeline - December 16, 2019
• Nature’s Past Episode 66: Communicating Toxic Legacies - October 16, 2019
• Nature’s Past Episode 65: 3rd World Congress of Environmental History - August 15, 2019
• How to Build the World’s Largest Oil Pipeline System - July 18, 2019
• Nature’s Past Episode 64: Environment and Alibi - May 22, 2019
• From Field Trip to Walking Tour: Animals in the City - April 30, 2019
• What Role Should History Play in Canadian Oil Pipeline Politics? - April 16, 2019
• Building Environmental History Networks Around the World - April 12, 2019