McManus has mined the rarely consulted records of Rural Municipalities in Saskatchewan, as well as government documents, ministerial correspondence, local community histories, newspapers, and publications of relevant government departments, to tell a story of a quarter-century of stubborn persistence but also of absurdity, despair, social dislocation, moral corrosion, and inconsistent and often inept government policy. Thanks to McManus's rare and welcome blend of sound scholarship and living breathing prose, it is a gripping and evocative story as well.

Prizes

Winner of Nonfiction Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2012,Winner of Saskatchewan Book Awards - Nonfiction 2012,Short-listed for First Book Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2012,Short-listed for Book of the Year, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2012,Short-listed for Saskatchewan Book Awards - Scholarly Writing 2012,Short-listed for Scholarly Writing Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2012

"Though McManus is happy to join a fraternity of popular historians like James Gray (the last historian to break the silence on the tragedy), his lively, trenchant and well-researched monograph contains all the necessary scholarly paraphernalia demanded by academia, including 11 pages of black and white photographs and 24 pages of tables. It would surely get senior undergraduate and postgraduate students talking." - Coral Ann Howells, University of London, British Journal of Canadian Studies, vol.27 No.1 2014
McManus makes effective use of the records of ten (of the ninety) rural municipalities in this region, as well as local newspapers and community history books, to document the economic, social, and psychological consequences of the recurring droughts J. William Brennan, The Canadian Historical Review
Happyland is a joy to read. Margaret DH, GoodReads
Happyland is written with verve and confidence. McManus is deeply engaged with the subject and his enthusiasm is contagious . . . Happyland tells a story that needs to be told, a great human tragedy that we have not yet fully fathomed. James M. Pitsula, Literary Review of Canada

Curtis McManus is a writer and historian. He teaches history at Lakeland College in Lloydminster, Alberta.