Share BC’s complex and intriguing history with everyone on your list. Do you have an armchair historian or researcher in the family? A friend with some very niche interests such as jazz music or trains? Covering a wide range of genres—from biography and historical fiction to highly illustrated books with vintage photographs and maps—these 12 BC books let you give a bit of local history to every reader.
Social activists and union workers past and present will be interested in On the Line: A History of the British Columbia Labour Movement (Harbour Publishing), an accessible and engaging collection with more than two hundred archival photos. Rod Mickleburgh shares how BC’s labour organizations have shaped the economic, political and social fabric of the province—at a cost of much blood, sweat, toil, and tears.
Winner of the British Columbia History Federation’s Community History Award in 2018, Fernie at War: 1914-1919 (Caitlin Press) by Wayne Norton is the story of a small BC resource town located in the Kootenay region during the Great War. Fernie at War would be an especially apt gift for those interested in community history, Canadian home front experiences, or for current or former Fernie residents.
In the early 1900s, many Witsuwit’en Indigenous peoples went to live in an enclave of Smithers after they were pushed off their traditional territories. In Shared Histories: Witsuwit’en–Settler Relations in Smithers, British Columbia, 1913–1973 (Creekstone Press), former Smithereen Tyler McCreary reveals how generations of Witsuwit’en made a place for themselves in the town despite government efforts push them, and indeed all Indigenous peoples, to the fringes. A refreshing gift book for individuals from Smithers and the Bulkley Valley, or anyone with an interest in reconciliation.
From and about the East Prairie Métis community comes Memories of a Metis Settlement: Eighty Years of East Prairie Métis Settlement (Theytus Books). The book shares firsthand accounts of Elders and settlers, personal photographs, and family recipes. Fry up some Bachelor Bannock while learning fascinating details about the East Prairie Métis community. Edited by Constance Brissenden, Memories of a Metis Settlement is an important addition to the historical accounts often overlooked by general Canadian history texts.
Against the Current: The Remarkable Life of Agnes Deans Cameron (TouchWood Editions) by Cathy Converse is the first book ever about BC’s first female principal. A verifiable trailblazer, Agnes Deans Cameron was also a world traveller and journalist. She worked tirelessly to achieve work equality and voting rights for women. Against the Current will appealing to feminist historians, woke banshees interested in badass women, or any reader who desires strong female role models.
Two alternative communities on Vancouver’s waterfront—Maplewood Mudflats and Bridgeview—were caught in long battles with local city councils for basic rights and amenities during the 1970s. A teenager at the time, Jean Walton tells the story of these two communities in Mudflat Dreaming: Waterfront Battles and the Squatters Who Fought Them in 1970s Vancouver (New Star Books). Mudflat Dreaming will appeal to readers nostalgic for the 1970s, those interested in waterfront environmentalism and urban land use, and modern homesteaders curious about utopian communes.
For the young history buff, The King’s Shilling (Ronsdale) is David Starr‘s thrilling sequel to The Nor’Wester. The books follow the trials and adventures of Duncan Scott as he searching for his long-lost sister in Canada and England during the early nineteenth century. This pair of novels is filled with action and will be a treat for readers young and old.
Acclaimed historian and artist Michael Kluckner has turned his hand to graphic novels. His third graphic novel, Julia (Midtown Press) is the fictionalized life story of Julia Henshaw, a Vancouver-based journalist and novelist who was also a botanist, mountain climber, ambulance driver, mother, photographer, and lecturer. Julia would appeal to readers of historical fiction interested in graphic novels, or could introduce diehard graphic novel readers to historical tales.
Live at the Cellar: Vancouver’s Iconic Jazz Club and the Canadian Co-operative Jazz Scene in the 1950s and ‘60s (UBC Press) by Marian Jago shines a light on the fascinating musical lives and social interactions of the Canadian jazz musicians who performed at the Vancouver’s legendary Cellar club as well as co-ops in four other cities. Live at the Cellar would make an immersive gift for the jazz aficionado or scenester parent interested in the beginnings of pan-Canadian jazz.
For readers of historical fiction, Anna, Like Thunder (TouchWood Editions) by Peggy Herring blends fact and fiction from 1808 when the Russian ship St. Nikolai ran aground off the Olympic Peninsula. The novel explores the early days of contact between Indigenous people and Europeans off the west coast of North America and the narrator, 18-year-old Anna Petrovna, is based on a real woman aboard the ship.
An apt choice for any collectors or archivists themselves is The Collectors: A History of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives (Royal BC Museum) by history professor Patricia E. Roy. The Collectors presents a reflective view of the 130+ years the Royal BC Museum and Archives has preserved and presented the province. Not just navel-gazing, the book presents a history of continuity and transformation, addressing society’s changing perspectives when documenting the province’s history.
Iron Road West: An Illustrated History of British Columbia’s Railways (Harbour Publishing) may seem like a niche topic for ferroequinologists (aka rail fans), but it illuminates much more about the early development of the province. An atlas expert and local historian, Derek Hayes depicts how the railways helped establish communities and trade throughout BC. Iron Road West is Hayes’ sixteenth book about BC history and his third about railways in particular, so you can tell he knows his stuff.
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