Randy William Widdis
Biographic Data
| ID | 5232986 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Randy William Widdis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Randy William |
| FAMILY NAME | Widdis |
| SIGNATURE | WIDDIS R W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Regina |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5318-6406 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Space, Time and Borderlands History
Back to the Future
Winnipeg's location at almost the geographical center of the North American continent has historically made it an important transportation focal point with connections that have integrated the city with places and regions beyond its southern Manitoba boundaries. Winnipeg is also both a borderland city, with historically important links to American centers to the south, and a regional gateway and hub, with strong connections to the rest of Canada.…
The evolution of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as a maritime borderland
New Directions at the Border
This essay has two goals: the first is to illustrate what borders have been, how they have been viewed, and where they are headed; and the second is to argue that a historical perspective is necessary to the understanding of borders in a post-global world. Underlying this discussion is the contention that any consideration of new directions in border studies must attempt to unravel the entanglements that connect globalization and borders. This ar…
Railways and borderland spaces
Transportation has played a decisive role in transforming the economic and social geography of both the United States and Canada and in this context, railways have been prominent. Their extension in both the American and Canadian hinterlands was designed to organize territory, increase the number of settlements, support resource exploitation, and facilitate the development of regional and national markets. While geopolitical protectionism played …
On globalization, borders, and borderlands
Under current dialectical conditions of globalization and increased demands for security, borders are no longer just symbols of sovereignty and national histories; they are evolving into new forms and as such are taking on new functions. Yet while borders continue to exist and are arguably more fluid and dynamic than ever before, despite the once robust but now contested rhetoric of “a world without borders,” this doesn't mean that borders prior …
Looking Through the Mirror
Canada's collective biography since 1784 has had one consistent theme addressed in each of its chapters, and that is its relationship with the United States. The country has been profoundly affected by this connection, and any attempt to understand the development of Canada and its constituent regions must recognize this factor. This paper has four goals: to reflect briefly on the relative importance of the border in Canadian and American society…
North American Borderlands
Although the field of borderlands history and the transnational perspective which informs it is well established, there is still considerable room for further theoretical reflection and empirical i
Across the Boundary in a Hundred Torrents”
This article relies primarily on customhouse records to chart the changing geography of cross-border marine commerce taking place within the Great Lakes borderland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early on, cross-border marine trade was much more important in the lower than upper lakes, and much of this traffic was local in nature, although a few centers on both sides developed strong gravitational pulls that translated into w…
Crossing an Intellectual and Geographic Border
The Canadian-American borderlands have been configured and reconfigured by dynamic flows of trade, investment, migration, family connection, cooperation, and community across the border. One can view this and other borderlands as a dynamic spatiotemporal network with flows, gateways, corridors, and places or as a matrix: a complex web of interactions and dependencies that can in many places at different times be seen to be embedded in unequal eco…
Stairway to Empire
The Finnish Immigrant Experience in North America, 1880–2000
With Scarcely a Ripple
Using a prosopographical approach that combines descriptive exposition, quantitative tabulation, and structural analysis, Randy Widdis determines the geographical and social origins of migrants, the distance and direction of migration corridors, and geographical destinations in both the United States and Canada. The study provides a new view of the invisible Anglo-Canadian, one of the largest and least understood immigrant groups in the United St…
Scale and Context
With scarcely a ripple
Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte
The movement of people, goods, and ideas into new frontiers is one of the most important and prevalent themes in Canadian historiography. 1 For all that emphasis, however, the literature on the historical demography of the Canadian frontier does little to address the dynamics of frontier migration at the family level or to draw out the contributions of successive generations of pioneer families to the movement of the frontier itself. The difficul…
Motivation and Scale
Land speculation played a major role in the settlement of Ontario. Its impact has been discussed in great detail but there always remained the problem of identifying individual speculators. Previous studies have identified land speculators solely on the basis of the amount of land held. This paper presents an alternative method of identifying speculators by calling attention to the motivations behind speculation and manifestations of these motiva…
Looking Through the Mirror
Canada's collective biography since 1784 has had one consistent theme addressed in each of its chapters, and that is its relationship with the United States. The country has been profoundly affected by this connection, and any attempt to understand the development of Canada and its constituent regions must recognize this factor. This paper has four goals: to reflect briefly on the relative importance of the border in Canadian and American society…
With scarcely a ripple
Motivation and Scale
Land speculation played a major role in the settlement of Ontario. Its impact has been discussed in great detail but there always remained the problem of identifying individual speculators. Previous studies have identified land speculators solely on the basis of the amount of land held. This paper presents an alternative method of identifying speculators by calling attention to the motivations behind speculation and manifestations of these motiva…
Railways and borderland spaces
Transportation has played a decisive role in transforming the economic and social geography of both the United States and Canada and in this context, railways have been prominent. Their extension in both the American and Canadian hinterlands was designed to organize territory, increase the number of settlements, support resource exploitation, and facilitate the development of regional and national markets. While geopolitical protectionism played …
On globalization, borders, and borderlands
Under current dialectical conditions of globalization and increased demands for security, borders are no longer just symbols of sovereignty and national histories; they are evolving into new forms and as such are taking on new functions. Yet while borders continue to exist and are arguably more fluid and dynamic than ever before, despite the once robust but now contested rhetoric of “a world without borders,” this doesn't mean that borders prior …
North American Borderlands
Although the field of borderlands history and the transnational perspective which informs it is well established, there is still considerable room for further theoretical reflection and empirical i
Across the Boundary in a Hundred Torrents”
This article relies primarily on customhouse records to chart the changing geography of cross-border marine commerce taking place within the Great Lakes borderland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early on, cross-border marine trade was much more important in the lower than upper lakes, and much of this traffic was local in nature, although a few centers on both sides developed strong gravitational pulls that translated into w…
Crossing an Intellectual and Geographic Border
The Canadian-American borderlands have been configured and reconfigured by dynamic flows of trade, investment, migration, family connection, cooperation, and community across the border. One can view this and other borderlands as a dynamic spatiotemporal network with flows, gateways, corridors, and places or as a matrix: a complex web of interactions and dependencies that can in many places at different times be seen to be embedded in unequal eco…
Motivation and Scale
Land speculation played a major role in the settlement of Ontario. Its impact has been discussed in great detail but there always remained the problem of identifying individual speculators. Previous studies have identified land speculators solely on the basis of the amount of land held. This paper presents an alternative method of identifying speculators by calling attention to the motivations behind speculation and manifestations of these motiva…
Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte
The movement of people, goods, and ideas into new frontiers is one of the most important and prevalent themes in Canadian historiography. 1 For all that emphasis, however, the literature on the historical demography of the Canadian frontier does little to address the dynamics of frontier migration at the family level or to draw out the contributions of successive generations of pioneer families to the movement of the frontier itself. The difficul…
With scarcely a ripple
Scale and Context
With Scarcely a Ripple
Using a prosopographical approach that combines descriptive exposition, quantitative tabulation, and structural analysis, Randy Widdis determines the geographical and social origins of migrants, the distance and direction of migration corridors, and geographical destinations in both the United States and Canada. The study provides a new view of the invisible Anglo-Canadian, one of the largest and least understood immigrant groups in the United St…
The Finnish Immigrant Experience in North America, 1880–2000
Crossing an Intellectual and Geographic Border
The Canadian-American borderlands have been configured and reconfigured by dynamic flows of trade, investment, migration, family connection, cooperation, and community across the border. One can view this and other borderlands as a dynamic spatiotemporal network with flows, gateways, corridors, and places or as a matrix: a complex web of interactions and dependencies that can in many places at different times be seen to be embedded in unequal eco…
Stairway to Empire
Across the Boundary in a Hundred Torrents”
This article relies primarily on customhouse records to chart the changing geography of cross-border marine commerce taking place within the Great Lakes borderland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early on, cross-border marine trade was much more important in the lower than upper lakes, and much of this traffic was local in nature, although a few centers on both sides developed strong gravitational pulls that translated into w…
North American Borderlands
Although the field of borderlands history and the transnational perspective which informs it is well established, there is still considerable room for further theoretical reflection and empirical i
Looking Through the Mirror
Canada's collective biography since 1784 has had one consistent theme addressed in each of its chapters, and that is its relationship with the United States. The country has been profoundly affected by this connection, and any attempt to understand the development of Canada and its constituent regions must recognize this factor. This paper has four goals: to reflect briefly on the relative importance of the border in Canadian and American society…
Railways and borderland spaces
Transportation has played a decisive role in transforming the economic and social geography of both the United States and Canada and in this context, railways have been prominent. Their extension in both the American and Canadian hinterlands was designed to organize territory, increase the number of settlements, support resource exploitation, and facilitate the development of regional and national markets. While geopolitical protectionism played …
On globalization, borders, and borderlands
Under current dialectical conditions of globalization and increased demands for security, borders are no longer just symbols of sovereignty and national histories; they are evolving into new forms and as such are taking on new functions. Yet while borders continue to exist and are arguably more fluid and dynamic than ever before, despite the once robust but now contested rhetoric of “a world without borders,” this doesn't mean that borders prior …
New Directions at the Border
This essay has two goals: the first is to illustrate what borders have been, how they have been viewed, and where they are headed; and the second is to argue that a historical perspective is necessary to the understanding of borders in a post-global world. Underlying this discussion is the contention that any consideration of new directions in border studies must attempt to unravel the entanglements that connect globalization and borders. This ar…
The evolution of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as a maritime borderland
Back to the Future
Winnipeg's location at almost the geographical center of the North American continent has historically made it an important transportation focal point with connections that have integrated the city with places and regions beyond its southern Manitoba boundaries. Winnipeg is also both a borderland city, with historically important links to American centers to the south, and a regional gateway and hub, with strong connections to the rest of Canada.…
Space, Time and Borderlands History
Political science (11 works) · Geography (9 works) · History (9 works) · Canadian Identity and History (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Archaeology (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · History (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Economic geography (5 works)