Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier famously declared that the 20th century belonged to Canada. This heady prediction seemed to be coming true in the rapid economic growth of the early 20th century. Industry and agriculture boomed, and immigrants arrived in droves, although often to toil in the mines, factories and fields rather than on their own homesteads and family farms. The crescendo of this boom witnessed a major wave of business consolidation, and by 1914 the joint-stock company and monopoly capital were coming into their own. If the 20th century was supposed to belong to Canada, it often seemed that Canada belonged to the rich.
This was the historical context that Stephen Leacock’s Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich addressed when it was published 100 years ago in 1914. Generally considered among his best works, Arcadian Adventures offers a satirical...
Don Nerbas is a professor of history at Cape Breton University and the author of Dominion of Capital: The Politics of Big Business and the Crisis of the Canadian Bourgeoisie, 1914–1947 (University of Toronto Press, 2013).
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