The York Factory Express: Fort Vancouver to Hudson Bay, 1826-1849 by Nancy Marguerite Anderson Vancouver: Ronsdale Books, 2021 $24.95 / 9781553805786 Reviewed by Walter Volovsek * The York Factory Express was an enterprise for transporting Hudson’s Bay Company records, correspondence, and external mail along a water-based route that spanned the continent. This aquatic highway linked…
Read more 1278 Across the continent before GPS
Mining Country: A History of Canada’s Mines and Miners by John Sandlos and Arn Keeling Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2021 $29.95 / 9781459413535 Reviewed by Robert G. McCandless * The introduction to this attractive book says Canada’s mining history is “curiously neglected,” then steps into that gap to present two hundred years of history….
Read more 1273 Ancient craft, long history
Lost Kootenays: A History in Pictures by Greg Nesteroff and Eric Brighton Lunenburg, NS: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing, 2021 $29.95 / 9781772761641 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh Editor’s note: the full photo captions below are taken directly from Lost Kootenays. * Kootenay Home: A prize collection of historic images shares the Kootenays’ rugged past Growing up in…
Read more 1269 A choice Kootenay collection
ESSAY: An “Odd-Man” at Government House, Victoria by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor * For most people, reading another person’s diary is a furtive and shameful act. For historians, however, studying the private journal of a long-dead person can be a valuable and exciting, if occasionally puzzling, endeavour. In 1870, Robert Colston was both the official government…
Read more 1267 Footman at Government House
The Day the World Stops Shopping: How ending consumerism saves the environment and ourselves by J.B. MacKinnon Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Vintage Canada), 2021 $32.95 / 9780735275539 Reviewed by Brian Harvey * On October 14, 2021, The Day the World Stops Shopping: How ending consumerism saves the environment and ourselves, by J.B. MacKinnon, reviewed here…
Read more 1247 The less, the merrier
The Professor and the Plumber: Conversations About Equality and Inequality by Eric W. Sager, with illustrations by Hanna Melin Victoria: FriesenPress, 2021 $22.99 / 9781039105553 Reviewed by Jak King * Many would argue that inequality is a defining characteristic of life in the early 2000s. More specifically — since some form of inequality has been…
Read more 1246 Two cousins meet for dinner
Icebergs, Zombies and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century by Matthew Soules Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2021 $26.95 (U.S.) / 9781616899462 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Everyone says many of the same things about real estate. “That view is worth a million dollars.” “If you want to make money, real…
Read more 1242 Architecture, investment, & greed
David Brownstein reviews two books: Highballer: True Tales from a Treeplanting Life by Greg Nolan Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $26.95 / 9781550178685 * Slashburner: Hot Times in the British Columbia Woods by Nicholas Raeside Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2020 $24.95 / 9781550178982 * After a brief eclipse by pipelines, British Columbia’s forests are again…
Read more 1239 Fire and seedlings
Wagon Road North: The Saga of the Cariboo Gold Rush by Art Downs, edited by Ken Mather Victoria: Heritage House, 2021 (revised and expanded edition; first published 1960) $26.95 / 9781772033601 Reviewed by Robin Fisher * The cover of this book features an iconic gold rush photo. It is worth a thousand words, and yet…
Read more 1230 Freight wagons & Cornish wheels
No Compromise: A Memoir by John Jensen, edited by Rod Link, foreword by George Heyman Vancouver: Walhachin Press, 2021. This book is for sale at Munro’s Books (Victoria), People’s Co-op Bookstore (Vancouver), and Misty River Books (Terrace) — Ed. $20.00 / 9781777582302 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Northern Socialist. Tracing the life of a B.C….
Read more 1227 John Jensen, northern socialist
Not on My Watch: How a Renegade Whale Biologist Took on Governments and Industry to Save Wild Salmon by Alexandra Morton Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Vintage Canada), 2021 $35.00 / 9780735279667 Reviewed by Stephen Bocking * In the late 1980s Alexandra Morton encountered the first signs that salmon farms, newcomers to the Broughton Archipelago, were…
Read more 1199 Settler viruses & wild salmon
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline Toronto: Penguin Random House (Vintage Canada), 2019 $21.00 / 9780735277205 Reviewed by David Milward * Cherie Dimaline, a member of the Georgian Bay Metis community in Ontario, has emerged as a leading writer of Indigenous fiction. One of her novels, The Marrow Thieves, has won multiple awards including the…
Read more 1198 Land, colonialism, & temptation
Able to Lead: Disablement, Radicalism, and the Political Life of E.T. Kingsley by Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $34.95 / 9780774865777 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * “Impossibilist” Crusader: E.T. Kingsley led the Socialist Party of Canada and edited the Western Clarion Eugene Thornton “E.T.” Kingsley (1856-1929) was a sharp-tongued orator in…
Read more 1195 A serious thinker of the labour left
Deep and Sheltered Waters: The History of Tod Inlet by David R. Gray, with a foreword by Nancy J. Turner and Robert D. Turner Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2020 $29.95 / 9780772672568 Reviewed by Matthew Downey * With Deep and Sheltered Waters: The History of Tod Inlet, David Gray provides an account, both…
Read more 1192 The histories of Tod Inlet
The Object’s the Thing: The Writings of Yorke Edwards, A Pioneer of Heritage Interpretation in Canada by Richard Kool and Robert A. Cannings (editors) Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9780772678515 * Craigdarroch Castle in 21 Treasures by Moira Dann, with an afterword by Bruce Davies Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2021 $20.00 /…
Read more 1179 History galleries & robber barons
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard Toronto: Penguin Random House (Allen Lane), 2021 $34.95 / 9780735237759 Reviewed by Luanne Armstrong * What a truly brilliant book. What a gift to the world both the book and its writer are. I came out of this book so happy it…
Read more 1175 Communication not competition
Inequality in Canada: The History and Politics of an Idea by Eric W. Sager Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021 $37.95 / 9780228005803 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Political economists from the 1770s to the 21st century analyze Canadian inequality and ponder how to address it. Most of us know Stephen Leacock as Canada’s foremost humorist…
Read more 1159 Fighting Canadian inequality
Food Floor: My Woodward’s Days by Margaret Cadwaladr Langley: Madrona Books & Publishing, 2020 $15.95 / 9871999546519 Reviewed by Mary Gale Smith * Margaret Cadwaladr has created a little book of stories that will be of interest to anyone who worked at Woodward’s or in a grocery store, or who buys groceries. It is a…
Read more 1136 Dollar 49 day, Woodward’s
The Reporter and the Winnipeg General Strike by Michael Dupuis (text) and Michael Kluckner (illustrations) Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2020 $24.95 / 9781989467282 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Winnipeg 1919: A unique retelling of the historical general strike may reach new and younger audiences We’ve heard many versions of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike story….
Read more 1134 Winnipeg’s historic moment
Mountain Man: The Life of a Guide Outfitter by Hiram Cody Tegart with Andrew Bruce Richards Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781773860060 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * Mountain Man: The Life of a Guide Outfitter by Hiram Cody Tegart with Andrew Bruce Richards takes us to another place and time. The East Kootenays…
Read more 1120 East Kootenay guide outfitter