$8 · The Pacific Province: A History of British Columbia

The Pacific Province: A History of British Columbia by Hugh J. M. Johnston (editor) Paperback, 1996, 398 pages The 11 essays in this volume are the by-product of a cooperative venture involving members of Simon Fraser University’s History Department—past and present—and graduate students. Together, they constitute a comprehensive survey of the major developments taking place in historical scholarship on British Columbia. R.L. Carson surveys the province’s prehistory, and essays on the foundations of government (J.I. Little) and the nature of the colonial society and economy (Sharon Meen) round out the discussion of the pre-Confederation period. The editor, Hugh Johnston, discusses the settlement period while Allan Seager examines the economy to the end of World War I. A similar pattern follows for the period after the Great War, with essays by Robin Fisher and David Mitchell (politics), Mitchell and John Belshaw (the economy), and Veronica Strong-Boag (20th-century B.C. society). Another SFU veteran historian, Doug Cole, contributes an eclectic piece entitled “Leisure, Taste and Tradition in British Columbia” to close out the collection. See pictures Pickup in Langford Cross posted