"On the night of August 22, 1935, as Canadians listened to their radios, they heard, with amazement and incredulity, that the first Social Credit government in the world had been elected that day in the province of Alberta. . . . Before the tabulation of votes was completed, telephone calls from New York and London, headlines in newspapers, spot news in broadcasts, had confirmed the slogan of Social Crediters, 'The Eyes of the World are on Alberta.' The morning after the election a number of people lined up at the city hall in Calgary to collect the first installment of the Social Credit dividend of $25 monthly, which, they confidently believed, would be immediately forthcoming from their new government."

This quotation from Professor Irving's book indicates how the apparent suddenness of the Social Credit rise to power and the magnitude of the victory aroused world-wide comment. Why had the doctrines of Social Credit, promoted unsuccessfully in the British Commonwealth and the United States for nearly twenty years, achieved political acceptance in Alberta? Why had the people of Alberta elected to public office persons so little experienced in the economic and political world as William Aberhart and his Social Credit colleagues? Professor Iving answers these questions and analyses systematically and comprehensively the rise of the movement as a phenomenon of mass psychology. His study, based mainly on interviews, supplemented with references to private papers, newspapers, and government sources provides a truly fascinating record.

John Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. His first novel, "Setting Free the Bears", was published in 1968, when he was twenty-six. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, and coached wrestling until he was forty-seven. Mr. Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times--winning once, in 1980, for his novel "The World According to Garp". He received an O. Henry Award in 1981 for his short story "Interior Space." In 2000, Mr. Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Cider House Rules". In 2013, he won a Lambda Literary Award for his novel "In One Person". An international writer--his novels have been translated into more than thirty-five languages--John Irving lives in Toronto. His all-time bestselling novel, in every language, is "A Prayer for Owen Meany".

John Irving's profile page

"With commendable clarity, insight and attention to detail Professor Irving has described and analysed the rise of Social Credit in Alberta from the time that William Aberhart became converted to the cause of monetary reform in the summer in 1932, and began to introduce Social Credit doctrines into his Sunday afternoon religious broadcasts the next fall, until the accession of the movement to power on August 22, 1935 . . . a valuable contribution to the literature of Canadian social science."

Queen's Quarterly

"Carefully documented and interestingly written, this book is of value not only to the student of Social Credit but to the researcher on the political process and techniques of mass persuasion."

Western Political Quarterly