Coast to Coast: Hockey in Canada to the Second World War

by John Chi-Kit Wong (Editor)

As an institution that helps bind Canadians to an imagined community, hockey has long been associated with an essential Canadian identity. However, this reductionism ignores the ways Canadians consume hockey differently based on their socio-economic background, gender, ethnicity, and location. Moreover, Canadian culture is not static, and hockey's place in it has evolved and changed.

In Coast to Coast, a wide range of contributors examine the historical development of hockey across Canada, in both rural and urban settings, to ask how ideas about hockey have changed. Conceptually broad, the essays explore identity formation by investigating what hockey meant to Canadians from the nineteenth century to the Second World War, as well as the role of government, entrepreneurs, and voluntary associations in supporting and promoting the game. Coast to Coast is an intriguing look at the development of a national sport, a must-read for hockey fans and historians alike.

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2009

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a collection of essays written by sports academics. The topics all relate to hockey between roughly 1900 and 1945. many have been previously published in academic journals, and have largely retained their format, complete with citations. For anyone who is interested in a formal look at hockey in this time period, it makes a great read. However do note that it is written at a high level, and can be quite dull at times, even if it is informative. Even so, it is a great book that examines issues relating to the development of hockey in the early 20th century