Dominion

NATIONAL BESTSELLERNamed Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail, History Today and The Hill Times“Enlivened by vivid portraits of characters … Dominion reminds us that Canadian history is nothing to be afraid of. Bown gives us a clear picture of the winners and losers in one particularly consequential episode.” —Literary Review of Canada“Readers are carried along in comfort by the author’s effortless prose, marvelling at the people, places and events that make up the story of Canada’s transcontinental railway.” —Canada’s History“This model popular history offers Canadians a coherent but unillusioned narrative about how their state came to be, which emphasises the ruthlessness as well as the ambition of its architects.” —History Today“The development of the railway has been celebrated for decades, but it’s essential to note that while many people gained because of it, many others lost. This reckoning is overdue. Bown’s work will ensure that the birth of the CPR will be seen in a new light.” —Victoria Times Colonist“In Dominion, Bown … [gives] readers an expanded social context for the period as well as other new revelations… . While there were gains which must be acknowledged, the losses fell on those least able to bear them.” —Winnipeg Free Press“With impeccable detail and captivating narrative, Bown tells of the technological advances and the dark deals that were instrumental in the CPR’s construction, as well as the famine and disease that traveled across the country as the rails were laid.” —Tony Chapman, Chatter that Matters

Stephen R. Bown writes on the history of exploration, science, and ideas. His subjects include the medical mystery of scurvy, the Treaty of Tordesillas, and the lives of Captain George Vancouver and Roald Amundsen. His books have been published in multiple English-speaking territories, translated into nine languages, and shortlisted for many awards. He has won the BC Book Prize, the Alberta Book Award, and the William Mills Prize for Polar Books, among others. His 2020 book, The Company - The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire, won the J.W. Defoe Book Prize and the National Business Book Award. Born in Ottawa, Bown now lives near Banff in the Canadian Rockies.

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