About the Series



THE HISTORY OF
ALBERTA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

the summer of 1991, Ted Byfield, the award-winning journalist, author, magazine publisher and founder of the St. John's School of Alberta, conceived the most daring publishing project of his career—a multi-volume popular history of Alberta. Modelled on the hugely successful Time-Life formula for producing and marketing history books, Byfield's project would be rooted in "journalistic" style, primarily written by contemporary Alberta journalists and based on research obtained mostly from archived Alberta newspapers. His goal was to complete the series in time for the province's centennial in 2005.

Each large-format, cloth-bound volume would run to at least 300 pages covering roughly a decade of the province's first century. The narrative structure would be chronological, but all volumes would be divided into several sections encompassing major themes such as economics, politics and social development. Each section, in turn, would be subdivided into chapters and sidebars. The emphasis was on telling interesting stories, as accurately as possible, but just as important was the research, selection and reproduction of archival photographs, maps, drawings, cartoons and other illustrations. No effort was spared in getting the best possible illustrations from provincial, municipal and national archival sources, and at least a third of the space in each volume was allocated for 300-400 photographs, graphics and art.

Volume 1, The Great West Before 1900, was the stage-setter for the series. It told the story of the prairie Indian tribes before and after the arrival of the Europeans, tracked the early explorers, fur traders and missionaries, and recounted the arrival of the railroad as well as the first ranchers and farmers. The Riel Rebellion was vividly recalled, as part of the larger story of the fight for self-government in the North West Territories, while other chapters detailed the daily lives of people in Calgary, Edmonton and other parts of the District of Alberta on the eve of the Twentieth Century.

In keeping with the Time-Life model, The Great West Before 1900 was sold via direct marketing. Within a decade, more than 50,000 copies would be sold. As subsequent volumes were published, the series developed a subscriber base of roughly 7,200 people. As a result, by late 2003 total book sales were approaching 225,000.

Byfield retained editorship of the series up to and including the 2001 publication of Volume 9, Manning and the Age of Prosperity. Then he undertook an even more ambitious multi-volume book project, a popular history of Christianity titled The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years. He asked Paul Bunner, a long-time editor with Byfield's Report family of newsmagazines, to take over the editorship of Alberta in the Twentieth Century. Bunner oversaw production of the last three volumes, which chronicled the evolution of the province from the 1960s through the end of the century.

In the fall of 2002, United Western Communications (UWC), the company which had published the first ten volumes, transferred ownership of Alberta in the Twentieth Century to History Book Publications Ltd. HBP was owned by Calgary businessmen Donald Graves and John Scrymgeour, who had given life to the series when they invested in UWC in 1991. When Scrymgeour died in the fall of 2003, Graves became sole owner of History Book Publications and the series. Mr Graves then sold the series to Alberta Business Report Ltd.in 2004.

With the November 2003 publication of Alberta Takes the Lead, the twelfth and final volume in the series, Byfield's original dream of completing the series in time for the Alberta's centennial celebrations was finally realized. Plans for the future of the series include centennial retail sales campaigns, converting the books into other text or electronic formats, inviting the Alberta government to purchase complete sets for every school and public library in the province, and obtaining approval from provincial education authorities for the series to be approved as a supplementary resource for Alberta Social Studies and Language Arts teachers.

For more information on the series, call 780-486-6740 or by email at info@canmediapublishing.com. To purchase individual volumes or complete sets phone the toll-free order desk at