Icon, Brand and Myth: The Calgary Stampede by Max Foran

June 25, 2008

Calgary –Athabasca University and AU Press are pleased to announce the publication of Icon, Brand and Myth: the Calgary Stampede edited by noted Calgary historian Max Foran.

The book is an investigation of the Stampede, a tradition that takes over the city for 10 days each July. Each essay in the collection examines a facet of the Stampede experience; from the midway carnival, to the Indian Village to the spectacle of the chuckwagon races.

“The collection goes beyond a superficial understanding of the Stampede to an in-depth analysis,” said Walter Hildebrandt, director of AU Press. “Its importance as an exhibition, fair and carnival is being analyzed and being brought into prominence from a distinguished list of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines.”

Max Foran, who is originally from Australia, is a Professor in the faculty of Communication and History at the University of Calgary. His interest in the event goes back decades.

“When I donned Western garb to attend my first Stampede in 1964, feeling strange and out of place, I had already been ingrained with the notion that I was now part of something special,” said Foran, “one did not simply attend the Stampede; one experienced it.”

Icon, Brand and Myth: The Calgary Stampede is published by AU Press, Canada’s only open-access scholarly press. All AU Press publications are available free on the internet at www.aupress.ca

For more information contact:

John O'Brien
Media Relations, Athabasca University

Email: jobrien@athabascau.ca
Phone: 403.298.2931
Fax: 403.990.1131

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Updated August 21, 2012