In Cantwells’ Way, James E. Candow examines the relationship between people, place and technology at the Cape Spear Lightstation in Newfoundland and Labrador. Modern lighthouses and fog alarms were products of the new understandings of light and sound that emerged from the Scientific Revolution, so lightkeepers and their families were therefore in the vanguard of technological change in their communities. Despite this, they continued to practise traditional activities such as gardening and berry picking, which were part of the informal economy of rural Newfoundland. Life at the Cape Spear Lightstation reflected the underlying duality of Newfoundland society in the period.

James E. Candow is from Gander, NL, and is a graduate of both Memorial and Dalhousie universities. He has written numerous articles, book chapters, and reviews and is the author of five books, including Cantwells’ Way: A Natural History of the Cape Spear Lightstation and The Lookout: A History of Signal Hill, which was shortlisted for the Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing. He lives in Dartmouth, NS.

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"This is the most concise history of early lightstations in Newfoundland and Labrador, not just Cape Spear, that I have read so far … Most books about lighthouses are either too sweet, sentimental narratives, or as dry as a box of crackers. This one is as sumptuous and filling as one of Mrs. Cantwell’s Jiggs dinners, with dumplings and all. Readers anywhere in Canada and beyond will find the story of the Cape Spear lightstation has relevance to the lightstations in their particular region, whether on the east coast, the Great Lakes or the west coast."
-- Don Johnson, author of Smoke and Mirrors: A Look at Reflectors in Lighthouses