National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Roaring Twenties is the only decade in American history with a widely applied nickname, and our fascination with this era continues. From prohibition to immigration, the birth of jazz, and the rise of expatriate literature, 1920 was truly a year like no other.

Waldman narrates the real story of how our nation's founders forged a new approach to religious liberty, a revolutionary formula that promoted faith by leaving it alone. The spiritual custody battle over the Founding Fathers and the role of religion in America continues today. Waldman provocatively argues that neither side in the culture war has accurately depicted the true origins of the First Amendment. He sets the record straight, revealing the real history of religious freedom to be dramatic, unexpected, paradoxical, and inspiring.

Ehrenreich presents a fascinating look at one of humanity's oldest traditions: the celebration of communal joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing.

High finance, wilderness adventures, violence, and questionable legal tactics all played important roles in the history of the North West Company. William McGillivray, head of the company from 1804 until 1821, was arguably the most powerful businessman in Canada in the early nineteenth century. William McGillivray emigrated from the Scottish Highlands to work for his uncle Simon McTavish when he was twenty years old and became head of the NWC in 1804 upon McTavish’s death.

Daggers Unsheathed: The Political Assassination of Glen Clark is the story of the Glen Clark era in British Columbia politics. From the 1995 announcement of his NDP leadership aspirations to the day in 2002 when he was acquitted of criminal charges in a BC court, Glen Clark was the dominant personality in West Coast politics. Clark's style and politics as premier of BC ensured that everyone had a reaction to him. Opinions varied widely and emotions ran high, not only among opposition politicos, but also within his own party, the media, the public, and even, some say, the RCMP.

They endured the torments of scurvy and the vagaries of deep fogs, adverse winds, and contrary currents. They suffered through appalling quarters and rotting food. They spent years away from their homes and families, never knowing whether they would return. Their orders from Spain might well arrive long after they were needed, six months or longer into the journey. For more than two centuries, Spaniards ranged the coast of the Americas, penetrating almost to the Bering Strait from their bases in Mexico and charting the convoluted coastline of the Pacific Northwest.

Read all about it: Hikers to Walk From East Coast to Vancouver Canadians have long been fascinated with trekkers who conquered this country sea to sea, from John Hugh Gillis in 1906 to Terry Fox in 1980 to Rick Hansen in 1985. This adventure tale celebrates five Canadians who hiked from Halifax to Vancouver in 1921. For a nation struggling with post-war inflation, labour unrest and unemployment, the prospect of the 3,645-mile hike was a welcome distraction.

The years from the fall of New France in 1763 to the amalgamation of the Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company in 1821 were marked by fierce competition in the fur trade. Traders from the warring companies pushed west, undertaking incredible voyages in their search for new sources of furs.

Remembered in Broze and Stone evokes the years immediately following the First World War, when grief was still freshly felt in communities from one end of Canada to the other. This book tells the story of the nation’s war memorials—particularly bronze or stone sculptures depicting Canadian soldiers—through the artists who conceived them, the communities that built them, and, above all, those who died in the war and were immortalized in these stunning sculptures raised in their honour.

A century of dealmaking and government misdeeds forms the backdrop of this entertaining account of sternwheelers, iron horses and mountain roads. Battling factions of rail builders crossed many a line in the sand as they carved up both the land and the spoils of industry. Did both federal and provincial politicians wittingly sabotage road-construction programs to the benefit of the rail barons? Were Cornelius Van Horne, Major A.B. Rogers and Andrew McCulloch fully deserving of the accolades bestowed on them? Was railway man J.J. Hill a genius or an opportunist? R.G.