he pre-history of the province of Alberta is theme of Volume 1, The Great West Before 1900. It tells the story of the Plains Indians and their ancient bond with the buffalo, and charts the evolution of prairie aboriginal societies from the primitive Stone Age "dog days" to the "golden age" that began with the arrival of the horses and the metal tools and weapons introduced by the Europeans in the 1700s. The era ends in defeat, starvation and disease in the late 1800s with the near-eradication of the great buffalo herds and the irresistible onslaught of settlers, whisky traders and missionaries.
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"His appointment was a calamity, his administration a crime, its results a disaster and his retirement his most acceptable act."
--Edmonton Bulletin editor and Liberal MP Frank Oliver reflects on the administration of Edgar "Dirty" Dewdney, Ottawa's appointed lieutenant-governor of the North West Territories in the 1880s.
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Volume 1 also presents the Alberta perspective on the early explorers, the western fur trade, the American Civil War, Confederation, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Riel Rebellion, which was the seminal event in the long struggle of the North West Territories to achieve province-hood.
But the full picture province's of early days emerges from the chapters about ordinary life in Calgary, Edmonton and other communities in the District of Alberta on the eve of the 20th century. The cow strolling on Stephen Avenue, Edmonton's fraudulent self-promotion as gateway to the Klondike, the violent lacrosse match in Medicine Hat, the indelicate arguments over prostitution in Lethbridge—these are the stories that bring the province's history to life.
