In the course of a century, Vancouver rose from being a clearing in the forest to one of the most beautiful and cosmpolitan cities on the continent. This book shows how.
In 1862 John Morton, an English potter, established a brickyard on the south shore of Burrard Inlet, near present-day Stanley Park. The business was not a success. Twenty-five years later the CPR's William Van Horne determined that Vancouver was the ideal site for western railway terminus: the city boomed, and by 1900 was the undisputed metropolitan centre for Canada's Pacific coast, shipping Prairie wheat to world markets and B.C. lumber via rail to western Canada. At the end of the First World War its economy collapsed, a profound slump that would last until 1939. In this bookm, Patricia Roy traces Vancouver's cycles of boom and bust, the men and women thrust up or down by them, the cultural movements and social tensions they provoked.
Vancouver: An Illustrated History is a vivid chronicle of one of Canada's largest and liveliest cities, accompanied by over 100 historical photographs that handsomely illustrate the city's life from its early beginnings to the present.

PATRICIA ROY is a professor of history at the University of Victoria. She is co-author of The Writing on the Wall.

Patricia Roy's profile page