Customer Reviews (1)

A Canadian historical and popular classic
Pierre Berton's two volume history of the building of the Canadian railway is a tour-de-force.It is not only history but a narrative filled with colourful characters from the early days of Canadian Confederation.Thepoliticians, the builders, the labourers, the surveyors, the boom towns andnative unrest, it is a rich depiction of the building of the railroad. This is not strictly of interest to Canadians, it is of interest to all whoenjoy such topics as the 19th century, the settlement of the west, and thesocial conditions and the mindset of the 1870's and 1880's.Highlyrecommended, it stands up well almost 30 years after print.Also highlyrecommended by Pierre Berton, My Country, Vimy and The Arctic Grail ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pierre Berton's Very Readable Autobiography
My wife and I were traveling in Canada last year.....I asked several Canadians, if there was one author to read to get a sense of the culture and history of Canada, who would it be ?Unanimously, the answer was "Pierre Berton". I picked this book up in a used book store near Toronto last summer, and it was one of the best books I have ever read. Starting with Berton's childhood in the Klondike country, the book is sprinkled with humor, especially Berton's early days as newpaper reporter. If you like to read about Canada, this is an excellent book by an excellent author. ... Read more

Product Description

The monarchy, the movies, and everything in between is lampooned in this humorous retrospective of twentieth-century follies, foibles and fads from Canada's preeminent popular historian. Berton even ventures a look into the future, when in 2021, Chicago and New York launch the first 22-lane highways: they are designed for a speed limit of 100 mph, but traffic is so congested the limit has to be readjusted - to 15 mph.

Following the success of A Farewell to the Twentieth Century, this new volume reflects Pierre Berton's knack for knowing just what will tickle the funny bones of his diehard fans.

Product Description
Few Canadians over the age of forty can forget the feeling of joy and celebration that washed over the country during Canada's centennial year.We were, Pierre Berton reminds us, a nation in love with itself, basking in the warm glow of international applause brought on by the unexpected success of Expo 67 and pumped up by the year-long birthday party that had us all warbling Ca-na-da, as Bobby Gimby and his gaggle of small children pranced down the byways of the nation.

It was a turning-point year, a watershed year--a year of beginnings as well as endings.One royal commission finally came to a close with a warning about the need for a new approach to Quebec.Another was launched to investigate, for the first time, the status of Canadian women.New attitudes to divorce and homosexuality were enshrined in law.A charismatic figure, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, made clear that the state had no place in the bedrooms of the nation.The seeds of Women's Lib, Gay Pride, and even Red Power, were sown in the centennial year.(Of all the pavilions on the Expo site, Berton singles out the Indian pavilion as having the greatest impact.)

The country was in a ferment that year.Canadians worried about the Americanization of every institution fromthe political convention to Hockey Night in Canada.People talked about the Generation Gap as thousands of flower children held love-ins in city parks.The government tried to respond by launching the Company of Young Canadians, a project that was less than successful.

The most significant event of 1967 was Charles de Gaulle's notorious "Vive le Quebec libre!" speech in Montreal.It gave the burgeoning separatist movement a new legitimacy, enhanced by Rene Levesque's departure from the Liberal party later that year.

Throughout the book, the author gives us insightful profiles of some of the significant figures of 1967: the centennial activists Judy LaMarsh and John Fisher; the Expo entrepreneurs, Philippe de Gaspe Beaubien and Edward Churchill; Walter Gordon, the fervent nationalist, and his rival, Mitchell Sharp; Lester Pearson and his bete noire, John Diefenbaker; the three "men of the world" who helped make Canada internationally famous:Marshall McLuhan, Glenn Gould, and Roy Thomson; hippie leaders like David dePoe, American draft dodgers like Mark Satin, women's activists like Doris Anderson and Laura Sabia, youth workers like Barbara Hall, radicals like Pierre Vallieres (author of White Niggers of America) and such dedicated nationalists as Madame Chaput Rolland and Andre Laurendeau.

In spite of the feeling of exultation that marked the centennial year, an opposite sentiment runs through the book like dark thread: the growing fear that the country was facing its gravest crisis.Berton points out that we are far better off today than we were in 1967."Then why all the hand wringing?"he asks.Because of "the very real fear that the country we celebrated so joyously thirty years ago is in the process of falling apart.

"In that sense, 1967 was the last good year before all Canadians began to be concerned about the future of our country." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

I'm not Canadian--liked the book
I've learned more North American history from Berton's books than from any other writer. War of 1812, Great Depression, and here, a portrait of the 1960's.Is it my imagination... or was this book once titled "1967-- the Last Good Year"?? Glad they dropped that.Thinking Canada has lots of good years in its future, which I hope includes more Berton books.

Evocative and Memorable
I wasn't born until after 1967, but I felt transported back to it anyway.Originally having bought it just for the portion concerning Expo '67 (which I regret missing), I found myself reading cover-to-cover.The centennialcelebrations, the last year of the pre-expansion NHL, societal trends,politics - everything was interesting.

Pierre Berton has shown awonderful knack in the past for capturing the essence of an era by givingoverviews of the big news stories, while illustrating mood with quirky,memorable personal stories he adds to the mix. It's no less present here,although I think you need to be Canadian to appreciate this particular rideback through time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a biased opinion
i guess i am biased on this book becuase i am related to the author but i found this book very enjoyable. I'm usually not one for war stories, when i picked up this book I did not put it down untill i was done reading the whole thing. i was mesmerized, this is an amazing read

An unusually haunting and vividly written account
Because We Are Canadians is a battlefield memoir of Charles D. Kipp, revealing a Canadian soldier's harrowing struggle to survive on the World War II battlefields of Europe after D-Day. Deftly edited by Lunda Sykes, Because We Are Canadians is strongly recommended as being an unusually haunting and vividly written account, with all the visceral feelings of terrible risk and bloodshed, as well as offering one man's view of both the minute details of everyday life and the unfolding battlefield journal of World War II history. ... Read more