Columbia Reviews

The subject matter is covered really well. The author clearly knows what he is writing about. Highly recommended.

This well organized mile by mile guide to a wonderful historic highway is well worth its small cost. The writer has done a fine job of researching and presenting brief, but very interesting, highlights of the important events and sites along the old road.

If you plan to drive the historic Columbia River Highway, be sure you take this book along.

Designed as a local supplement to what is now 'Trees_in_Canada' (aka 'Trees of the Northern United States and Canada') this book went through five editions before being extensively revised by the present author. This work goes deeply into the shrubs and subshrubs of BC and although it is not in the same league as 'Trees in Canada' it does look good.

It is a handy size, perhaps a trifle large for use in the field, but its nicely rounded corners compensate significantly. All the species treated are illustrated by a line drawing, which tries to keep a balance between giving botanical detail and giving an all-over morphological image and succeeds fairly well at this. In addition a section of color half tones is provided, which (as so often in this sort of book) gives the impression of having been added as an afterthought. These pictures would have benefitted from being printed at a, say, 30% higher magnification and against a lighter colored background: as it is these tend to drown in the all black pages. Nevertheless occasionally these color pictures do contribute.

This book is organized for the beginner (by color) but it is one of the most acurate field guides I have found. The evergreen and broadleaf keys are worth the price of the book.

I am restoring 72 acres of wetlands on South Whidbey Island, WA... We have just put in over 4,800 plants, 59 species, as part of a 500-year plan to restore the property to mature old growth and promote maximum biodiversity. This is our guide for identifying and learning all the trees, shrubs, and flowers.

This book is a straightforward and concise survey of the United States economy during the World War II era (1939-1945). At times it is too superficial, but overall it is an excellent introduction to the topic. The primary theme is that the war accelerated and definitively established the mixed economy seen in the U.S. today. (A mixed economy is one where some goods and services are provided by private enterprise and others, usually basic infrastructure goods and services, are supplied by the government.)

Particularly good is Vatter's description of the transition from a civilian to a military economy. This began in March 1941 with the passage of the Lend-Lease Act. Military expenditures in the United States went from $1.8 billion in 1940 to $6.3 billion in 1941. One year later they were a whopping $22.9 billion. During this same period, military personnel on active duty increased from half a million people in 1940 to four million in 1942.

The immediate result of this war economy, and the concomitant explosion in total federal expenditures, was the end of the Great Depression. Expenditures increased so rapidly that the federal deficit more than doubled as a percentage of GNP from 1939 to 1941. This Keynesian "anti-depression medicine" finally ended twelve years of mass unemployment. Only the onset of war was sufficient to bring into operation Keynesian deficit spending of sufficient magnitude to accomplish this.

The war years saw a boom in the United States economy of remarkable proportions. From 1940 to 1942 industrial production increased by 58 percent. Total productivity increased by 16.5 percent from 1941-1945. The number of unemployed, which stood at over eight million in 1940, dropped to only one million in 1943. The number of women employed increased by a third (5.2 million individuals), to the point where they comprised approximately one third of the civilian labor force and enjoyed a 36.3 percent participation rate, at the time a historic high.

This huge upturn in the economy was accompanied by (some would argue, caused by) the creation of a huge, bureaucratic administration designed to oversee various sectors of the economy. The focus of the new bureaucracy was on production, distribution, pricing, and labor. Towards that end, an alphabet soup of 165 new agencies was created, among them the WPB (War Production Board), OPA (Office of Price Administration), OPM (Office of Production Management), and WMC (War Manpower Commission). Many of these agencies had overlapping and even competing functions, and their record was certainly mixed, but Vatter believes that their performance was crucial to the functioning of the economy. Somewhat amazingly, after the war ended virtually all of these bureaucracies were dissolved. However-and this is the most important part-the success of the wartime economic planning provided the justification for a new, ongoing role for Big Government in the economic affairs of the nation. The United States was never to return to the laissez-faire policies of the pre-depression era. From this point on, the federal government was to assume a crucial role in the supply and distribution of goods and services, hence the creation of the mixed economy.

Along with this crucial change, the war had several other consequences as well: full employment; technological innovation (e.g., radar, nuclear power, new pharmaceuticals); population growth (the "Baby Boom"); and the increased labor force participation of women. None of these, however, were nearly so important as the result mentioned above.

An intelligent, enjoyable work on the development of the Chinatown district in Vancouver, focusing on how the dominant European class worked to shape and control the Chinese community through political, legal, social, and cultural means. Anderson's writing is thoroughly readable, academically rigorous but free from the dry, heavy dialogue that plagues so many other scholarly works. My only criticism is her decision to exclude the Chinese immigrants' perspective on the development of their district, instead opting to focus only on how the Europeans perceived the Asian 'intruders'. Providing the opposing view would have given the work better balance and a greater level of depth. Nevertheless, an excellent book for those interested in Canadian history or ethnic/urban politics.

This book contains a wealth of pictures and lots of helpful information to plan a trip to Victoria.

Roy Minter's The White Pass: a Gateway to the Klondike involves the development of a railway from Skagway, up the White Pass, and through to Whitehorse, connecting the Pacific to the Klondike gold rush. Competing with the Chilkoot Pass at Dyea, both routes came up with innovative methods to transport people and goods, trying to be the most efficient and profitable route. In fact, the White Pass Railway was 175 km from start to finish when completed, which defied all odds that such a venture could even be completed, a railway connecting the Pacific to the Klondike. His book does an excellent job of explaining the difficulties and methodical process of building the railroad. Roy Minter, the author, has done an excellent job considering that this is his literary debut, his first published book.

In addition, the author uses a great variety of sources, which are easily identifiable by numerical notation. Each excerpt comes from separate parties, which means that there are minimal amounts of bias in the book. Any bias would have to come from some of the speculations the author makes about the excerpts, which is very unlikely.

The book was enjoyable, and I would recommend this book to anyone who has the interest in the history of the gold rush in the Klondike, and, of course, the transportation to get there. It was very interesting and informative, and taught me more than I would ever need to know about building the railway to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.
Since this is Roy Minter's first book, there is not much credibility, for not many people have heard his name before. However, the foreword by Pierre Burton helps a great deal, for he is a well-known historian and author of many great historic books. The name of a great historian draws extra attention and makes some of the content to be more credible, because of the approval of a brilliant historian.

The book generally stays on topic, going into a great amount of detail, more than what would be expected. The author explores areas not even thought of in other books, showing thorough research, everything based on the quality, speed and integrity of the railroad and its integrity, including many measurements. The meetings, rallies for funds, surveyors, competition with Dyea, and long winters, and many more things are all explained in colossal detail unimaginable to someone new to the subject.

In a few places, there are clear, legible and legitimate maps, which give an idea of the distance and the situation faced by the people building and organizing the railroad, like the distance covered. The maps also help to give a picture in the reader's mind of the problems at hand of the people trying to get to Whitehorse, with up to or more than one ton of goods.

In various sections, there are several pages together of pictures, which are captioned to the side or below. The pictures also aid the reader to visualize the scene of the railroad, the daily processes of many workers, and the difficulties, such as Tunnel Mountain. They also help in showing the monumental size of certain problems, such as the steepness of the grade, up the mountain, and some of the seemingly impregnable rock faces.

While this book is now somewhat dated (published in 1984) and out of print, it still remains the classic comprehensive guide to whitewater paddling opportunities on Vancouver Island. This book does not describe the creek runs that have been discovered in the last few years and some of the drops mentioned as unrunnable are now routinely paddled. It does however provide a comprehensive guide to all the classic runs that were originally pioneered in long fiberglass boats. These are still great rivers. The guide covers 22 different runs and ocean surfing sites. These include runs on the following rivers: Koksilah, Cowichan, Chemainus, Nanaimo, Campbell, White, Adam, Eve, Davie-Nimpkish, Nimpkish, Marble, and Gold. Also included are logistics for ocean surfing at the Jordan River mouth, beaches near Tofino (Wickaninnish Beach, Long Beach, Cox Bay), and San Josef Bay. While the book is old, the rivers maps are excellent and as long as you can calibrate your frame of reference appropriately the guide will give you a good idea of what each river is like.