Rough Work: Labourers on the Public Works of British North America and Canada, 1841–1882

"Rough Work is an exhaustive social history of public works projects, the men who labored on them, and the men who tried to keep these laborer’s in line. Bleasdale has made a vital contribution by diligently documenting this time and place."

Dan Horner, Ryerson University, University of Toronto Quarterly: Letters in Canada 2018

"Rough Work combines exhaustive research with sophisticated analysis, informed by wide-ranging, up-to-date historiographical and comparative literature. It is, in fact, one of the best pieces of scholarship on nineteenth-century Canadian social history that I have read in many years."

Craig Heron, Department of History, York University

"Targeted at academic researchers interested in nineteenth-century Canada, Rough Work weaves together an incredibly impressive array of primary source materials, gathered over a considerable time period, into a well-constructed and convincing narrative. Shedding light on issues including wage rates and health and safety experiences, Rough Work covers so much ground, and over such an extended sweep of time, that the end result impressively captures the experiences of labourers on the public works of British North America over an approximately forty year period in the mid-nineteenth century."

Rob Kristofferson, Department of History, Wilfrid Laurier University