This book offers a short, comprehensive history of post-war Canada. All the major events and developments in Canadian history are discussed: the evolution of the welfare state; the growth of economic domination by the United States; the halcyon days as a Middle Power; the Quiet Revolution; the First Nations' quest for autonomy; the flowering of English-Canadian nationalism; Quebec nationalism; the women's movement; neo-conservatism; and globalization. Finkel covers political, economic, social, and cultural history in this volume.

This second edition includes a substantial new chapter that discusses the people, events, and developments that have dominated the period from 1995 to 2012. This chapter looks at the growing social inequality within Canadian society; the effects of globalization on Canada's industries, economy, and workers; and the increasing environmental challenges that we face.

Extensively illustrated, Our Lives: Canada after 1945 is a uniquely accessible and comprehensive overview of a period only beginning to attract the attention of historians.

ALVIN FINKEL is a founding member of the Alberta Labour History Institute, an emeritus professor of History at Athabasca University where he taught for 36 years and the past president of the Canadian Committee on Labour History.

He was the book review editor for the journal Labour/Le Travail for 11 years and is still a member of that journal’s editorial board. A prolific author, Alvin’s 13 books have sold over 150,000 copies. They include textbooks on Canadian history and the history of social policy as well as labour history and the history of the events leading to World War II. On the latter topic, he co-wrote The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion with Clement Leibovitz (Lorimer 2011). He lives in Edmonton Alberta.

Alvin Finkel's profile page

"...a wonderful, rollicking read."

Canadian Book Review Annual

"This book is the first to look at the people, forces and events that have shaped post-war Canada. All the major themes of our history are covered, such as the evolution of the welfare state, our domination by the United States, our days of importance as a Middle Power, the quiet Revolution, the growth of First Nations' Power, the flowering of English-Canadian Nationalism, the women's movement, Quebec Nationalism, and globalization. An excellent read."

Fredericton Daily Gleaner

"In a series of lucid chapters he divides the story into three parts that add up to a meaningful narrative on the making of contemporary Canada... it [provokes] readers into a reconsideration of the key events that have shaped the country."

Saint John Telegraph-Journal

"Our Lives will greatly interest general readers as well as the academic community. Finkel's excellent work should certainly be considered by teachers as a text on post-war Canada."

Canadian Social Studies

"Finkel's wide-ranging and coherent history begins before World War II... Finkel's account of Quebec's Quiet Revolution and the complicated skein of personalities and events that created the Quebec/Canada imbroglio, including the impact of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, is both detailed and concise."

Literary Review of Canada

"Finkel...offers a detailed social panorama of the shaping of post-Second World War Canada. This is a useful and, more important, concerned illustrated survey."

Globe and Mail

"History prof Finkel examines the watershed events and trends that have influenced Canada's history in the past 50 years - among them the evolution of the welfare state, U.S. domination, Quebec's Quiet Revolution and the women's movement."

Vancouver Sun