Dominion - by Stephen Bown (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Named Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail, History Today and The Hill Times

A gripping and eye-opening account of the building of the engineering triumph that created a nation: the Canadian Pacific Railway

The sharp decline of the demand for fur in the late nineteenth century could have spelled economic disaster for the venerable Hudson's Bay Company, but an idea emerged in political and business circles in Ottawa and Montreal to connect the disparate British colonies. With over 3,000 kilometres of track, much of it driven through wildly inhospitable terrain, the Canadian Pacific Railway would be the longest railway in the world and the most difficult to build. Its construction was the defining event of its era and a catalyst for powerful global forces.

The times were marked by greed, hubris, blatant empire building, oppression, corruption and theft. They were good for some, hard for most, disastrous for others. The CPR enabled a new country, but it came at a terrible price. In Dominion, Stephen R. Bown widens our view of the past to include the adventures and hardships of explorers and surveyors, the resistance of Indigenous peoples, and the terrific and horrific work of many thousands of labourers. His portrayal of the powerful forces that were moulding the world during this time provides a revelatory new picture of modern Canada's creation as an independent state.

Review Quotes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Named 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

About the Author

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, 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.