Thinking about Prairie Capitalism: Interviews with John Richards and Larry Pratt

Interview by Jeremy Mouat

In 1979, John Richards and Larry Pratt published Prairie Capitalism: Power and Influence in the New West.  The book’s discussion of the political and economic development of two western provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, attracted a good deal of attention and it was subsequently adopted by many academics as an undergraduate text.¹  Twenty-five years later I was using the text in a class and I was struck by two things.  The book still seemed relevant as a way to understand developments in western Canada, but at the same time few scholars had continued to ask the sorts of questions that Richards and Pratt had posed at the end of the 1970s.  This led me to wonder what the authors might have to say today about their book and how they came to write it.  Both men kindly consented to meet with me, and the following two interviews are the result.

Interviews

Interview with Larry Pratt

Interview with John Richards

¹  Prairie Capitalism was also one of three Finalists for the Governor-General’s Award for Non-fiction in 1979.  Scholarly assessments of the book when it first appeared include the following four reviews: Donald Smiley, in Canadian Public Administration, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring 1980): 175-78; Garth Stevenson, in This Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 4 (July-August 1980): 33-37; Christopher Armstrong, in Canadian Forum, (April 1980): 37; and James McCrorie, in Prairie Forum, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 1979): 292-95.

Articles published April 2005

Jeremy Mouat was professor of History with the Centre for Global and Social Analysis at Athabasca University. He has since moved on, and is now working at Augustana University, Alberta. Send him an email if you have any questions about this article.

Aurora Online

Citation Format

Mouat, Jeremy (2005) Thinking about Prairie Capitalism: Interviews with Larry Pratt and John Richards Aurora Online