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 there 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

Product Description
This book draws the author's "Hudson's Bay" saga to its conclusion. Here, the great fur-trading enterprise expands from its original western Canadian base to "conquer" the Arctic, leaving its influence on Inuit culture and lifestyle. How different would Canada's northern territories be now, had there been no Hudson's Bay Company to transform them from a hunting culture into a trapping and trading one? Peter Newman details the life and times of one of the Hudson's Bay Company's great governors, Donald Smith (he served for a record 44 years), who became one of his generation's leading business powers, concurrently heading the Bank of Montreal, and being the dominant financier behind the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. During World War I, the Hudson's Bay Company acquired the world's third-largest merchant ship fleet which enabled them to undertake secret missions for Winston Churchill and the Allies during World War II. The author reveals the extent of the boardroom backstabbing and conflicts of the 1970s when the Company was involved in a controversial takeover by Toronto billionaire Ken Thomson.The author's history of the Hudson's Bay Company began with "Company of Adventurers" and continued with "Caesars of the Wilderness". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A most extraordinary book!
This is, without question, the best historical book that I have read in many years!It is part of a three-book trilogy on how the Hudson's Bay COmpany (HBC) shaped Canada.This second book is the strongest of the three, and focuses on the period from the 1600's to the early 1800's when the HBC was primarily engaged in the fur trade in Canada and essentially providing the civil, social and political structure to Canada west of Ontario.The descriptions of the Northwest Company and the struggles between them and the HBC are fascinating.As an American with French-Canadian and Cree ancestors who paddled for both the Northwest Company and the HBC, it was as if I found where I have come from.I gave this book to my mother's companion of 27 years as a Christmas present.He died in hospice in mid-March, but not before finishing this volume.He was a history buff, with no Canadian or British heritage, yet it fascinated him enough that he looked forward to reading it each day when he had enough strength.In his last days, I read to him out loud some of the passages that he particularly liked, such as the description of the goings-on at the Beaver Club in Montreal.A book that can give you something to look forward each day while you are dying of lung cancer has much to be said for it.Thank you, Peter, for this book!

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.

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

Product 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".



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Product Description
Formerly Empire of the Bay ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pre-Enron Integrity
I loved this book because it had soul, heart and wisdom. Sam Bronfman was an immigrant that took advatage of what NA and in this case Canada had to offer. From selling frozen fish and firewood he "made" one of the largest corporations in the world and had fun doing it. "It's not the money, he said, it's the making of the money". The game, the fun. "The best thing ever invented is compound interest. You make money while you sleep".
It is great reading. Americans might have some problems with the British and Canadian references but ignore them or look up the appedndices that are quite complete. A throwback to the likes of Mellon, Carnegie and Heinz. When a deal was made by men that cared about other people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A gem of jazz, journalism and politics
When anyone mixes journalism, the most fractious and introspective of all professions, with the ego of business and the freedom of jazz, the result is a superb and always surprising story.

In Canada, where deference defines the national character in politics and business--just as brashness defines American attitudes--anyone with the ego of Izzy Asper is as rare as a humble Yank.Add Newman to this equation and the result is an insightful story about a remarkable media baron in the mold of Citizen Kane.Ho hum, so it's a biography of success?No, it's much more.Newman has an intense sense of Canadian nationalism, based on pride in what Canadians accomplish without fear, antagonism or deference to others.

Any book about Asper would be interesting;this one is superb because it adds the perpetual introspection of good journalists who criticize politicians, business leaders and quidnuncs.Newman blends personal experience with his story of Asper to illustrate and question the loyalties to objectivity versus a publisher with different goals.

For example:Antigone by Sophocles is a classic Greek play questioning loyalty to family versus the laws of society.Likewise, Newman examines divided loyalty between a publisher and an editor's conscience.In a time when the media is often criticized for much of what it does and everything it doesn't do, these elements of Asper's life are some of the most interesting reading.

A most revealing section covers the firing of Ottawa Citizen editor Russell Mills after he called on Prime Minister Jean Chretien to resign.It's an example of how two men--in this case an editor and the newspaper owner--with opposing viewpoints can both be absolutely right even though poles apart in their conclusions.

"Proprietors do have rights," writes Newman, citing his time as editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star.Any journalist who denies this needs to get a job flipping hamburgers and learn the "rights" of what it takes to make a good burger, let alone a good editor or publisher.

It makes this a gem for every journalist, politician and business leader who feels offended by something in the paper, and for readers who want to understand the media.Anyone who combines jazz, journalism, politics and Canadian nationalism into a paragraph, let alone a book, deserves to be read, remembered and quoted.

A good book is more than an interesting story;it is also a learning experience which gives the reader a new insight.As a former journalist who now looks after several hundred thousand discarded books, it's a pleasure to find, read and recommend books of this quality.



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Product Description

Although they committed separate crimes, Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin met their deaths on the same scaffold at Toronto's Don Jail on December 11, 1962.They were the last two people executed in Canada, but surprisingly little was known about them until now.This is the first book to uncover the lives and deaths of Turpin, a Canadian criminal, and Lucas, a Detroit gangster.The result of more than five years of research, The Last to Die is based on original interviews, hidden documents, trial transcripts, and newspaper accounts.

Featuring crime scene photos and never-before-published documents, this riveting book also reveals the heroic efforts of lawyer Ross MacKay, who defended both men, and Chaplain Cyril Everitt, who remained with them to the end.What actually happened the night of the hangings is shrouded by myth and rumour.This book finally confirms the truth and reveals the gruesome mistake that cost Arthur Lucas not only his life but also his head.

Product Description
A history of the world's most famous trading company based on Peter Newman's history. In 1838 Sir George Simpson, the governor of the HBC, was toasted at a dinner as the "Head of the most extended dominion in the known world - the Emperor of Russia, the Queen of England and the President of the United States excepted". It was an astonishing but appropriate tribute to a commercial enterprise of unique scope and character, with trading houses that once stretched from the Arctic Ocean to Hawaii. Yet the history of the HBC is less the story of a company than of a people - its self-proclaimed gentlemen-adventurers mapped a continent and built a nation. The exciting story of the company and the people is told in this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent history of how the HBC shaped Canada into a country
I have read all three of Newman's Hudson's Bay Trilogy, and enjoyed all three.This, the first volume, has the best illustrations but is more of a summary overview of the other two books.I do not know the history of how the three were written, but this first book seems like it was originally intended to be a coffee table book on the HBC.It has nowhere the depth that the other two have.If you want an overview of how the HBC began and how its actions and its competition with the Northwest Company shaped much of the essence of modern Canada, read this volume.If you want to read a truly extraordinary book, read the second volume entitled "Caesars of the Wilderness", which focuses on the fur trade period of the HBC's history.I gave this latter volume as a Christmas present to my mother's companion of 27 years who was dying of lung cancer.It kept him company in the weeks leading up to his death. ... Read more

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Word count: 1241. ... Read more

Product Description
The Secret Mulroney Tapes is an outrageous and intimate portrait of a Canadian prime minister, as told in his own words. There has never been a political book like this, and there will almost certainly never be another.

Peter C. Newman, the author of books about John Diefenbaker, Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, as well as 2004’s number-one bestselling memoir, Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power, has done it again. He has written twenty-two books that have sold two million copies, and earned him the title of Canada’s “most cussed and discussed” political commentator. Here, his no-holds-barred profile of Canada’s most controversial – and most reviled – prime minister breaks new ground.

Compiled from years of candid, taped conversations with Mulroney and the people closest to him while he was in power, the sometimes uproarious and often disturbing interviews – 7,400 pages of transcripts totalling 1.8 million words – have been sealed until now. Stunningly indiscreet and savagely frank, Mulroney is the first prime minister to be so nakedly outspoken. Yet he is also revealed as a witty Irish charmer, ready with a quick line to raise a laugh, no matter how impudent or profane, a man as warm in private as he was defensive in the public eye.

Mulroney names the names and spills the beans about what really goes on in Ottawa, which he describes as a “sick” city that runs on “goddamned incest”: “They’re all married to one another. They’re shacked up with one another. Their wives are on the payroll of the CBC. It’s just awful.” Lucien Bouchard, his one-time soulmate, he calls “bitter and profane” and “extraordinarily vain.” He writes off his constitutional foe, former Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells, as an “unprincipled son of a bitch.” His disgust for the press is as monumental as his sense of being misunderstood, and in his eyes the Ottawa press corps are “a phony bunch of bastards” who don’t give him credit even when the world applauds him for being “one of the three men who played the most important role in the collapse of the Berlin Wall.”

Out of The Secret Mulroney Tapes emerges a startling picture of the politician whose reign shocked and appalled and yet also revolutionized this country. No other prime minister in Canadian history aroused a stronger emotional response than Brian Mulroney. This book provides Canadians with a unique insight into the bold politician who changed their country like no other. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

How 'Lyin' Brian' destroyed the Conservatives in Canada
If Brian Mulroney has any sense of gratitude at all, he will profusely thank Peter Newman for the bad language in this book because it will deftly divert public attention from Mulroney's amazing ineptitude.

"I've been manoeuvering this thing for two years, to be succeeded by Campbell," Mulroney said of Kim Campbell, who led the Conservatives from 169 seats in Parliament to 2 in the 1993 election.That, more than any four letter words, is the absolute worst language in the book.It shows Mulroney's total incompetence as a leader, and may well seal his fate as the worst prime minister in Canadian history.

Politics is all about how you treat other people.

Mulroney knew Campbell was incompetent but said she would improve because, "If you're smart, you'll grow into it.Some prime ministers have not.Dief, I think it's fair to say, did not.Dief was too old."

Well, I lived in Canada when Dief was prime minister.I voted for Dief.I agonized over his indecisions.But I don't remember The Chief leading the Conservatives from 169 seats in parliament to 2.I do remember Dief fought for his vision of Canada until the day he died.Dief never walked away from the land he loved.

Dief was indomitable.Mulroney was inept.Political biography is less about "great deeds" than the personality to succeed or fail.

The personal image of Mulroney in this book is that of someone with less rapport than a McDonald's clerk who dismisses a customer with the mandatory "thank-you-have-a-nice-day-come-again" mantra while walking away from the counter.Mulroney knew all the right words, but I couldn't find any sense of empathy.There was no inner passion about doing what is best for Canada.It's a "Me-Me-Me Generation" book about a man who seems utterly befuddled to learn that no one likes him as much as he loves himself.

Reading it reminds me of the interminable accounts of the last days of Hitler or Hussein, trapped in an underground bunker with no chance of escape.However, there's two differences:Hitler knew the end was near, and everyone was trying to escape.Mulroney, in comparison, seems clueless.

It's shattering, because I like a lot of things Mulroney tried and on occasion did, such as Meech Lake and NAFTA.His assessments of Trudeau and Chretien are right on the mark;but, as incisive as he is in assessing his antagonists, he was incapable of understanding his own strengths, weaknesses, foibles and faults.

It's rare that any journalist gets such a penetrating insight to the character of a politician.Newman had a choice of saying Mulroney was an insensitive clod with less personal charm than a dead codfish, or letting Mulroney say it in his own words.He chose the wiser course of just quoting Mulroney justly.After all, there's an old saying in politics, "Never murder a man who's committing suicide."

In Mulroney's own words, this book depicts a political career as a fatal plunge into the Politics of Me which produced the mass suicide of the Conservative Party.Mulroney made Jean Chretien look good enough to be prime minister, and Canada may never recover. ... Read more