Customer Reviews (4)

Great Insights in to Northern Canadian history.
As a Canadian and living in the Arctic I found this book to be very informative and giving more insight to historic events than what are normally taught in our schools.Peter Newman was able to write this without the typical constraints associated with being "politically correct".

If you're interested in true Canadian History, albeit one small part of it, definitely read this book.If you want an exciting and riveting book and don't have much of an interest in northen Canada then don't read it.

Its amazing that the Bay, and to a greater extent the British, were able to be successful.They seem to be more like a bunch of bumbling bafoons.

Read this book!
Lovers of adventure, I implore you. Read this book! I picked this one up on a whim several years ago and was completely awestruck! I could not put this one down to save my soul! Believe me, my friends, I would not steer you wrong on this one.

Not Very Exciting
This book is a review of a very successful real estate company in Canada. My more then exciting introduction is about how I felt about the book.There were facts, lots of them but overall no real excitement or much to get the normal reader interested in the book. I got through about 175 pages before I gave up. The author tried to punch up the book, but the subject matter did not lend its self to it, there is just noting scandalous or exciting about a well-run company. This is more of a 400-page case study best left to a university class on management.Unless you work here or are related to some on that does I doubt you would find much value in this book.

An exciting story of adventure, exploration and human folly.
This is the unvarnished history of the Hudsons Bay Company. Extremely well researched and a pleasure to read this is the story of the founding of the company that opened up Canada and the Artic to trade. Filled with stories of exploration, adventure, hard headed business and hardship on the frontier. This isn't just the story of the founders, but the nuts and bolts of survival at the edge of the known world. If you enjoy history and adventure this will be hard to put down. Vol. 2 is Caesers of the Wildnerness. ... Read more

Book Description
Peter C. Newman's series on The Canadian Establishment has made publishing history, its two previous volumes having sold more than half a million copies. In this new book, Titans: How the New Canadian Establishment Seized Power, Newman takes a daring look at Canada's mega-wealthy, all powerful gunslingers, who will define the way we live and work in the 21st century. For the first time we get an intimate look into the lives and careers of these men and women who are true inhabitants of the global village, creatures more of their time than their place. They dictate the agenda of Canada's politicians, and gain legitimacy by donating surprisingly large gobs of cash to anyone willing to name buildings after them-what they call "f_ _ k-you money with a social conscience."

As well as tackling the great Titans whose greed and influence straddles the nation, Newman details regional and local establishments that rule the roost in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver.

Like all of Newman's books, Titans is an explosive mixture of good humour ("New Money regards waiters as their buddies; Old Money treats them as self-propelled furniture") and tough comments (The Titans have reduced the idea of Canada to a flag of convenience-or occasionally, inconvenience-to be used or discarded, like a moth-eaten T-shirt.")

Titans is sure to be the most cussed and discussed book of the year. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 1241. ... Read more

Book Description
The #1 national bestseller now revised and updated with a new Epilogue.

Now aged 75, Peter C. Newman at last tells the story of his stranger-than-fiction life. Try to keep up as we follow his many lives: as a pampered child in a Czech chateau; a Jewish kid in short pants being machine-gunned by Nazi fighter planes on the beach at Biarritz, en route to the last ship to escape from France in 1940; as a refugee on an Ontario farm; as an outsider on a scholarship at Upper Canada College; as a Financial Post journalist, then an author whose Renegade in Power made Canadian politics dramatic and disrespectfully exciting for the first time; as the man who revealed the secrets of the rulers of the Canadian business world in The Canadian Establishment, and other huge business success stories, including The Establishment Man, on Conrad Black; or the millionaire who turned his back on business books and tackled Canadian history (Company of Adventurers and other triumphs), in a career where his work has dominated the bestseller lists in politics, business, history, and current affairs.

In the midst of all this were his years at the Toronto Star and Maclean’s where, as editor, he took the magazine weekly – a huge accomplishment. He is still a legend there, where his columns continue to run.

He knew and wrote about every prime minister from Louis St. Laurent to Paul Martin and every prominent Canadian – hero or villain – in between. Yet his most interesting character is – Peter C. Newman. Incredibly, this central figure known to millions of Canadians sees himself as a perennial outsider. In personal terms, the rich little Czech boy whose nannies never stayed talks frankly about his marriages and the women he has known before his ultimate marriage to his beloved Alvy. His enthusiasms – from jazz to the Canadian Navy, not to mention his adventures on his beloved sailboat – make for a rich portrait of an astonishingcharacter, one who never stops being controversial. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

I never felt so Canadian...
What better way to exprience a nationthan through the lives of it's people.This ultra-connected Canadian and incredibly entertaining writer tells stories that can't be forgotten.A must-read!

Interesting to read
Peter Newman is probably Canada's best-known journalist, an editor of MacClean's Magazine and the Toronto Star, and the author of many books about the Canadian establishment. In this autobiography, he tells us how he came to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1939 as an eleven-year old, and worked his way steadily upward. He has plenty of interesting stories to tell about prominent people in the Canadian establishment that he has personally known in his lifetime, people like Pierre Trudeau and Conrad Black. He is an excellent writer, and I found the book interesting to read.

Peter C. Newman is truly a great Canadian !
Peter C. Newman is truly a very remarkable and great Canadian. He is by far the greatest non-fiction writer in Canadian history. Newman is a very remarkable and extraordinary person -- I admire the man !

'Here be Dragons' by Peter C. Newman is without a doubt a very very excellent book -- and that is why it is a Canadian best seller. Mr. Newman has led a very outstanding life and his memoirs speak volumes about the greatness of this man.

As a Canadian I am proud I got a copy of this great book by a great man for Christmas. Peter C. Newman's life life story is one to
admire and at the end of the day I recommend this book because
Mr. Newman is truly a great Canadian !

Peter C. Newman is truly a great Canadian !
Peter C. Newman is truly a very remarkable and great Canadian. He is by far the greatest non-fiction writer in Canadian history. Newman is a very remarkable and extraordinary person -- I admire the man !

'Here be Dragons' by Peter C. Newman is without a doubt a very very excellent book -- and that is why it is a Canadian best seller. Mr. Newman has led a very outstanding life and his memoirs speak volumes about the greatness of this man.

As a Canadian I am proud I got a copy of this great book by a great man for Christmas. Peter C. Newman's life life story is one to
admire and at the end of the day I recommend this book because
Mr. Newman is truly a great Canadian !

A book that will infuriate some and delight many Canadians
Biographies are usually dull, because they implicitly brag about the achievements of the rich and powerful and famous and glamorous rather than dealing with a topic that's really important and interesting--ME !

This book is an exception to the rule.

It's a fascinating story of a once super-privileged Jewish boy whose family escaped pre-war Czechoslovakia because a Roman Catholic priest gave them certificates to slip past the Holocaust.Being Catholics enabled his family to emigrate to Canada, where he became the leading political analyst in newspapers, magazines and books.Like many immigrants, he is more Canadian than most people born in the country;the result is a book written with humour, kindness and a sense of shattering disappointment and disillusion.

Political journalism is a slash-and-burn war in the US, anchored by the pure hatred of right-wing zealots such as Rush Limbaugh and his ilk;or the pompous twits who debate whether dissent to erudite liberal wisdom ranks above or below the grunts of orangutans.In Canada, journalism proves "the emperor has no clothes" by laughing at the foibles, faults, fears and follies of politicians.Newman is a 'Mack the Knife' artist, he doesn't use the blunt force trauma of a California Terminator.Newman wielded the best scalpel in Canadian journalism for decades, and he did so with such skill that his victims never felt obliged to drop him from their Christmas card list.In this book, he provides the delicious details of how it was done,.

But it's much more.

Think of Newman as an intelligent Garrison Keillor, who talks for 20-minutes every week about the inanities of ordinary folks in Lake Woebegone.Newman tells even better stories about the motivations of the rich and powerful leaders of America's largest trading partner (the single largest source of foreign oil, for example).Newman's harshest criticism is of his own shortcomings, not the faults of the unworthy villains writhing on the point of his pen.But he also portrays the absolute perfidy of some Canadian politicians, the devils who make any US president look saintly by comparison.It's the approach many wish they could have used against newman 40 years ago.

A few years ago, Newman visited the Theresienstadt concentration camp where most of his relatives died.He also saw10 names the same as his--Peta Neumann--ranging in age from 10 months to 10 years.This is what he escaped in a series of events that would put the film world to shame.But this is not another Holocaust book;it is a story of a life that soared to greatness when nourished by the freedom of Canada.Instead of the "scorched earth" journalism of the US which I favoured, he used humour to puncture the hubris of the high and haughty.In the US, humour is often acerbic.Newman embodies the definition by Stephen Leacock, "the essence of humour is human kindliness", but he accompanies it all with his penetrating analysis of Canadian politics.

To understand the soul of Canada today, this is the prime guidebook.

It's written by a man who knows how to love;a combination of pure exhilaration and crushing despair that creates true passion.Instead of the polls and poltroons of modern politics, Newman's focus is on the feelings and meanings of public service.I've known him since the 1970s, and we've been in the like sport for decades,though I've never worked with or for him (he does quote me briefly in the book).Based on my career, I can honestly say this is the book of a master craftsman gifted with a rare insight, sensitivity and acumen.

It's liable to infuriate many Canadians, who tend to be very sensitive about having their political idols described as emperors without clothes.For that reason, it's probably the best book about Canada written within the last 50 years.Newman reflects the finest principle of honest journalism, "Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable".



... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

An incredible story
This is a tremendous history. Its scope isn't limited to Canada, but spans 400 years of North American history and touches nearly every corner of the world. No other corporation — and certainly none of the great military conquerors — ever controlled more of the earth's land area than the Hudson Bay Company.

Anyone half-awake these days must be aware of the rise of incredibly powerful, international corporations operating seemingly beyond law, yet for greed, ruthlessness, and singular pursuit of profit it's hard to imagine many businesses will ever out do this grand-daddy of them all, the HBC.

The HBC story is really appalling and enthralling, and Newman is an excellent writer in the style of Barbara Tuchmanm and Alan Moorehead. It's all an incredible adventure story, probably not much known outside of Canada, yet full of unbelievable characters and events. (Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" is based on the journey of an HBC executive, and other company men were the first to cross North America to reach the Pacific and Arctic oceans, beating Lewis and Clark by decades — and doing it pretty much alone since the HBC was more interested in pinching pennies than exploring new worlds.)

A really great book. I'd give it six stars if I could.

Incredible!

Hudson's Bay Company is quite simply the most successful commercial enterprise ever known to capitalism. Imagine a company that controlled one twelfth of the earth's surface, whose domain was 10 times larger than the Holy Roman Empire, a company whose beginnings date from 1682, that developed its own Army, its own Navy and whose stock is still reputed to be owned by Britain's Royal Family.

In the forward, the author claims this book is about the impact of Hudson's Bay Company on the development Canada over the past three centuries. But it is really not. The author is being too modest. It is really about the impact of Hudson's Bay Company on the development of North America and how HBC actually was responsible for the formation of Canada and the United States as we know them today.

Everything you read in this book is the result of the primary economic force of its time, fur. The fur business was the primary employer for the inhabitants of eighteenth century North America. As such, it was the primary driver for the continuing exploration of the North American continent.

This then is not just a book about corporate wealth accumulation but of territorial exploration and definition, of competing, overlapping claims at a time in which their simply was no law. HBC was the fur business in Canada and in a very real sense it was HBC that defined the northern territorial limits of the United States.

Read and enjoy this excellently written and well documented book. It is really a treasure. You will learn the amazing history of Canada and an incredible amount about the United States as well.

Prince Rupert's Men
This is a splendid account of the three hundred and fifty year institution that is Hudson's Bay Company, and even incorporates a number of chapters that chronicle its great rival, the North West Company.Newman traces the origins of the Hudson's Bay Company back to those great explorers Raddison and Groseilliers, Frenchmen sponsored by the English, and then traces it through the many eras of economic and geographic expansion.This was a company that dealt primarily in furs, and as such, Newman begins by paying homage to the Canadian beaver.(If you want to learn a lot of fascinating things about beavers, this is the book for you).The great explorers of Canada's arctic and Western frontiers, Kelsey, Hearne and Fraser, are suitably honored, and the company's great arch-enemy, John Jacob Astor, is suitably reviled.Newman doesn't shy away from pointing out that the HBC was a rather cheap enterprise that kept its best people chronicly underpaid, and occasionally lapses into fond remembrance of the comparatively hedonistic - but less successful - Northwest Company. Ultimately, however, he pays tribute to the long-term impact of the HBC on Canadian culture and values; thrift, modesty, a preference for the collective over the needs of the individual.A masterpiece of narrative history.

A lifeless read...
Trudging through this book was a task, and not something I rather enjoyed. I believe if you are going to read something, you should enjoy it. And this... did nothing for me. If you want to know about Canada, or better yet, the Hudson Bay Company; the Canadian Government offers great links and information that was far more enticing then this novel.

Phenomenal
Should be mandatory reading for all highschool and undergraduate history courses.There is absolutely no better account of the founding of North America by Europeans than this.I can't believe that I was unable to find availability of this book in Canada. ... Read more