The Final Voyage of the Valencia by Michael C. Neitzel Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 (first published 1995) $9.95 / 9781772033151 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * SS Valencia Remembered: More than 100 women and children died needlessly in this tragic event off Vancouver Island in 1906 It wasn’t as world stopping as the sinking of the…
Read more 1440 SS Valencia remembered
Bill Holm (1925-2020) An obituary by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa * Think of a slow, gentle, deep-water earthquake. You may have missed it, but think how its waves reverberate for a long long time, repeatedly coming ashore and changing entire landscapes over time. That was American art historian Bill Holm. Bill Holm died in December 2020 at…
Read more 1438 Bill Holm (1925-2020)
A Long Way to Paradise: A New History of British Columbia Politics by Robert A.J. McDonald Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $39.95 / 9780774864718 Reviewed by Forrest Pass * British Columbia politics is — and has always been — wacky, right? No other province can boast a premier so eccentric that he legally changed his name…
Read more 1437 Liberals & populists in paradise
Lewis & Clark Reframed: Examining Ties to Cook, Vancouver and Mackenzie by David L. Nicandri, with a foreword by Clay S. Jenkinson Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2020 $32.95 (US) / 9780874223804 Reviewed by Barry M. Gough * Long before the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with all its patronizing by Steven…
Read more 1436 The northern precedent
Silver Rush: British Columbia’s Silvery Slocan, 1891-1900 by Peter J. Smith Ladysmith: Two Daughters Publications, 2020. Also available at many BC bookstores. $39.95 / 9781999045906 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Kootenay Mother Lode: Mammoth Tome offers Detailed Account of Mining History in BC’s Colourful Slocan District A book the size of the old Eaton’s Catalogue…
Read more 1434 Kootenay mother lode
Social media update by Richard Mackie * As most of you will know, we changed our name to The British Columbia Review from The Ormsby Review less than two months ago, on February 10th, and since then we’ve never been busier: we’ve posted 52 book reviews, two essays, one photo essay, and one docuseries review….
Read more 1433 Social media update
Dutchy’s Diaries: Life as a Canadian Naval Officer in His Own Words, 1916-1929 by John Crispo Inglis “Dutchy” Edwards, edited by Helen Edwards [Victoria]: Helen Edwards, 2020 $29.50 / 9780969728252 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Helen Edwards, a well-known heritage professional researcher in Victoria, has achieved a work of immense importance to naval history in…
Read more 1431 A naval labour of love
Hampton Court: A History by Allen Specht Victoria: Privately Published, 2021 $15.00 / 9781778350450 Available at Books & Shenanigans (347 Cook Street) and Ivy’s Bookshop on Oak Bay Avenue, Victoria, or by contacting the author at <awspecht2@gmail.com> Reviewed by Martin Segger * The domestic arrangements that distinguish a ménage à trois from a ménage à deux…
Read more 1429 A fine Edwardian melodrama
To Share, Not Surrender: Indigenous and Settler Views of Treaty Making in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia by Peter Cook, Neil Vallance, John Lutz, Graham Brazier, and Hamar Foster (editors) Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $37.95 / 9780774863834 Reviewed by Robin Fisher * The Douglas Treaties on Vancouver Island that were “negotiated” in…
Read more 1428 Unfinished treaty business
Deadly Neighbours: Colonialism, Cattle Feuds, Murder and Vigilantes in a Far West Valley by Chad Reimer Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022 $26.00 / 9781773860732 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * White settler injustice: racial tensions fuelled by two sets of laws, one white and the other First Nations I’m a sucker for old dusters. The westerns…
Read more 1421 A border outrage, 1884
Sky Wolf’s Call: The Gift of Indigenous Knowledge by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger Toronto: Annick Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781773216300 Reviewed by Kristina Hannis * We call upon the Federal, provincial, and territorial governments in consultation with Survivors, Aboriginal peoples, and educators to: Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical…
Read more 1420 Answering the TRC call
ESSAY: Letter from Victoria by Larry Hannant * If I were a baseball player, I’d be rated as a respectable batter if I had an average equal to the percentage of my letters to the Times Colonist in Victoria that get printed. About one in three bypasses the editor’s bullshit filter and appears in the…
Read more 1419 Letter from Victoria
Smelter Wars: A Rebellious Trade Union Fights for Its Life in Wartime Western Canada by Ron Verzuh Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022 $34.95 / 9781487541125 Reviewed by Bryan D. Palmer * Old Time Labour History; or About Underwear as the Subject of Working-Class Politics Labour history was once all the rage. Less so now….
Read more 1418 Old time labour history
Vancouver’s Women in Blue: Trailblazers of the Vancouver Police Department, 1904-1975 by Carolyn J. Daley, with a foreword by Bev Busson Maple Bay: Ruddy Duck Press, 2020 $49.95 / 9781999279202 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * “I don’t remember the first time I drew my gun.” That’s one way to grab the reader’s attention. It’s the…
Read more 1411 A constabulary of women
Tales of B.C.: 50 Years of Wacky, Wild, & Thought-provoking Adventures by Daniel Wood Vancouver: OP Media Group, 2021 $24.95 / 9781777876401 Reviewed by Bill Engleson * I was delighted when Richard Mackie offered me the opportunity to write a review of the late Daniel Wood’s last book, an anthology of essays that captures several…
Read more 1409 Fifty years of Daniel Wood
TELEVISION DOCUSERIES REVIEW: British Columbia: An Untold History by Kevin Eastwood, Writer and Director Burnaby: British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, 2022 Reviewed by Patrick A. Dunae * Knowledge Network, ‘British Columbia’s public educational broadcaster,’ has produced a compelling documentary series entitled British Columbia: An Untold History. The production qualities are superb. Each episode of the four-part…
Read more 1405 Colonialism corrective
Black Canada: A History. Fiftieth Anniversary Edition by Robin W. Winks, with a foreword by George Elliott Clarke Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021 (second edition; first published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and Yale University Press, 1971) $32.95 / 9780773516328 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Black Canada: What I should have learned in high…
Read more 1390 Black Canada revisited
…And So…That’s How it Happened: Recollections of Stanley-Barkerville, 1900-1975 by W.M. (Bill) Hong. Originally edited by J.R.S. Hambly, updated by Gordon Lee, edited by Gary and Eileen Seale Quesnel: Spartan Printing, 1978; fifth Printing January 2018 by Blueline Graphics, Coquitlam [price to follow] / 9780987365004 Available at Frog on the Bog Gifts, Wells, BC Review…
Read more 1379 Bill Hong & the Cariboo Mountains
The new British Columbia Review by Richard Mackie * As of today, February 10th 2022, The Ormsby Review will be known as The British Columbia Review. This change comes with the strong endorsement of the two Boards that have guided The Ormsby Review through the last several years. Named after Margaret Anchoretta Ormsby (1909-1996), a…
Read more 1376 The new British Columbia Review
Rez Rules: My Indictment of Canada’s and America’s Systemic Racism Against Indigenous Peoples by Chief Clarence Louie, with a foreword by Paul Martin Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2021 $34.95 / 9780771048333 Reviewed by Ken Favrholdt * When I first met Chief Clarence Louie at the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) office in…
Read more 1374 Chief Clarence Louie of Osoyoos