Book & Film Reviews
Results (1775)
Review
Russian America: An Overseas Colony of a Continental Empire, 1804-1867
In this important book, Ilya Vinkovetsky of Simon Fraser University places the story of Russia’s American experiment fully within the history of colonialism. Russian America was a unique colonial adventure, he argues, in which the...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 127-128
Review
Backspin: 120 Years of Golf in British Columbia
Arv Olson’s second edition of Backspin expands readers’ acquaintance “with accounts of some of the people, places, and events” that shaped the 120 year history of golf in British Columbia (11). A journalist and golf...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 148-149
Review
Train Master: The Railway Art of Max Jacquiard
Train Master: The Railway Art of Max Jacquiard, the new book by the noted transportation historian Barry Sanford, looks at British Columbian railways from 1925 to 1955, as depicted in ninety-nine paintings by Jacquiard. The...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 147-148
Review
The Art of the Impossible: Dave Barrett and the NDP in Power, 1972-1975
This book is splendid work of popular political history, biography, and related media study that co-authors Geoff Meggs (a former communications director to Premier Glen Clark) and Rod Mickleburgh (a veteran of the west coast...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 151-154
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Ghost Dancing with Colonialism: Decolonization and Indigenous Rights at the Supreme Court of Canada
In this book, Grace Li Xiu Woo, a retired member of the BC Bar, steps away from a standard case law analysis and instead analyzes Supreme Court decisions related to Aboriginal and treaty rights based...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 159-164
Review
People’s Citizenship Guide: A Response to Conservative Canada
People’s Citizenship Guide: A Response to Conservative Canada is just that. It uses Discover Canada, the new Canadian Citizenship Guide, as a launch pad for critiquing the current federal government’s ideological leanings, leanings expressed in...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 156-157
Review
In Flux: Transnational Shifts in Asian Canadian Writing
The twelfth and most recent volume in NeWest Press’s Writer as Critic series, Roy Miki’s In Flux: Transnational Shifts in Asian Canadian Writing, like others in the series, approaches writing as praxical intervention. Beginning with...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 154-155
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Wrong Highway: The Misadventures of a Misplaced Society Girl
Wrong Highway is the memoir of Stella Jenkins, a middle-class mother of four from Victoria, who in 1948, recently divorced, formed a relationship with Bob Smith, a trapper and labourer. Stella left Victoria with her...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 136-137
Review
Hearts and Minds: Canadian Romance at the Dawn of the Modern Era, 1900-1930
In Hearts and Minds, Dan Azoulay includes part of a 1913 letter from a young woman lamenting her lack of companionship: “although I like Vancouver very much I am not acquainted with many people, and...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 144-145
Review
Dalton’s Gold Rush Trail: Exploring the Route of the Klondike Cattle Drives
Although the Chilkoot Trail is the most famous trail to the Klondike, there were a wide variety of other routes that gold seekers used to reach the interior of the Yukon between 1896 and 1900....
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 142-143
Review
Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921
The Canadian Scottish (Princess Mary’s) regiment recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. Popularly known as the Can Scots, it is the only militia unit on Vancouver Island. The regiment had previously been honoured with the freedom...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 145-147
Review
Raising the Workers’ Flag: The Workers’ Unity League in Canada, 1930-1936
The struggle to build trade unions in the extractive and manufacturing industries of Canada — mining, forestry, fishing, clothing, furniture, and others — was meteoric and its demise equally rapid. Raising the Workers’ Flag provides...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 149-151
Review
Selwyn Pullan: Photographing Mid-Century West Coast Modernism
Architecture has been a key site in the evolution of cultural Modernism; the elevator is often cited as an important early Modernist manifestation, and the idea that function creates its own form is a key...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 141-142
Review
Making Headlines: 100 Years of the Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun turned one hundred in 2012. To mark this event, reporter Shelley Fralic compiled a (roughly) chronological account of goings-on in the city and at the paper itself. It is not so much...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 139-141
Review
Ceramic Makers’ Marks
This slim and well-designed identification guide focuses primarily on nineteenth century American and European manufacturers of ceramics for those working to identify ceramic shards. Despite the back cover’s reference to “North American sites,” it draws...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 125-127
Review
Why Canadian Forestry and Mining Towns are Organized Differently: The Role of Staples in Shaping Community, Class, and Consciousness
Canada’s single industry towns (SITs), especially resource towns, continue to be the focus of considerable academic and policy attention. Canada’s population may be highly urbanized, indeed urbane, with the major metropolitan and even medium-sized urban...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 124-125
Review
Tse-loh-ne (The People at the End of the Rocks): Journey Down the Davie Trail
Keith Billington has had a long career as a nurse in British Columbia and the Yukon as well as being Band Manager for the Fort Ware Sekani/Kaska band (later known as Kwadacha Nation). The first part...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 143-144
Review
The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff
Like many female artists of her generation, Ina D.D. Uhtoff, née Campbell, had a difficult time sustaining a career as a professional artist. The daughter of middle-class Scottish parents, she did not lack opportunity. In...
BC Studies no. 178 Summer 2013 | Page(s) 134-135
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