A compelling story of Vietnam-era American migrants to the West Kootenays and of the idealistic society they inspired.
Description
Between 1965 and 1975, thousands of American migrants traded their established lives for a new beginning in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. Some were non-violent resisters who opposed the war in Vietnam. But a larger group was inspired by the ideals of the 1960s counterculture and, hoping to flee the restrictive demands of their parents’ world, they set out to build a peaceful, egalitarian society in the Canadian wilderness. Even today, their success is evident, as these impassioned ideals still define community life. Welcome to Resisterville is both a look at an untold chapter in Canadian history and a compelling story of enduring idealism.
Reviews
Deftly combining interviews, local newspaper reports, and archival and personal documents, Welcome to Resisterville is an exciting, original book that will appeal to a broad audience. It tells the intriguing story of the migration of American war resisters to BC, the welcome they received, and the vibrant counterculture that they helped form.
- Jim Conley, co-editor of Car Troubles: Critical Studies of Automobility and Auto-mobility
Kathleen Rodgers’s sociological study of the impact of American Vietnam-era exiles on the creation of a countercultural haven in the West Kootenay Valley is a fascinating account of modern immigration history...Rodgers’s study provides future scholars with a rich and complex body of material to better understand a whole range of changes to Canadian society that ensued in the aftermath of yet another American invasion.
- Kevin Brushett, Royal Military College of Canada