National Network for Equitable Library Service

A GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER Had there been no Sam Steele, it has been observed, Hollywood would have had to invent him. Born into the comparative stability of the Victorian era's Pax Britannica, Steele lived to witness the postwar turmoil of the Lost Generation.

2017 Gertrude H. Dyke Award — Nominated The history of Lake Nipigon, where the Great Lakes begin. The name Nipigon is evocative of storied brook trout, cold clear waters, elusive woodland caribou, sweeping vistas, and spectacular scenery. Situated in the heart of Northwestern Ontario, almost every map of North America shows Lake Nipigon as a significant geographic feature, yet few people know its story. As the primary watershed that flows into Lake Superior, Nipigon is the headwaters of the Great Lakes.

In the early years after Confederation in Canada, the rising nation needed workers that could take advantage of the abundant resources. Until the time of the Depression, 100,000 impoverished children from the British Isles were sent overseas by well-meaning philanthropists to solve the colony’s farm-labour shortage. They were known as the "home children," and they were lonely and frightened youngsters to whom a new life in Canada meant only hardship and abuse.

This special bundle contains seven books that detail Canada’s long and storied history in the performing arts. We learn about Canada’s early Hollywood celebrity movie stars; Canadians’ vast contributions to successful international stage musicals; the story of The Grand, a famous theatre in London, Ontario; reminiscences from the early days of radio; the history of the renowned Stratford Festival; and a lavish history of the famous National Ballet of Canada. Canada’s performing artists blossomed in the twentieth century, and you can learn all about it here.

Brown celebrates the survival of our railway heritage in stations that have been saved or remain in use. Despite the "green" benefits of rail travel, Canada has lost much of its railway heritage. Across the country stations have been bulldozed and rails ripped up. Once the heart of communities large and small, stations and tracks have left little more than a gaping hole in Canada’s landscapes. This book revisits the times when railways were the country’s economic lifelines, and the station the social centre.

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction — Shortlisted On April 5, 1999, Serbian police found a truck half-submerged in the Danube River. When they looked inside, they found it filled with human bodies. Following orders, they hid the truck and its contents. Two weeks later, on the other side of Serbia, the same thing happened. The full picture would only emerge years later, when the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia investigated and prosecuted the chief architects of the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.

2016 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award — Shortlisted 2015 Speaker's Book Award — Shortlisted Explore the history of tourism in the Nipissing Passageway, from Mattawa to Georgian Bay, beginning with Champlain’s voyage in 1615. In the nineteenth century, while the hope of building a Georgian Bay Ship Canal remained elusive, promotional efforts were made by the railways to market the area as a “sportsman’s paradise.” In the early twentieth century, Ontario began to build roads to lure American motorists to the area.

A provocative account of the 78th Fraser’s Highlanders and its crucial place in history. The remarkable story of the men of the 78th Fraser’s Highlanders moves from the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, through the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution, to the War of 1812. Simon Fraser, chief of the Clan Fraser of Lovat, raised the 78th Highlanders, a regiment that played a major role in defeating the French on the Plains of Abraham.

The end of the War of 1812 brought with it great political, economic, and social upheaval. The sixth and final book of the Upper Canada Preserved — War of 1812 series, The Ashes of War examines in detail the closing stages of the war on the Northern Frontier, including the two-month siege of Fort Erie, the engagement at Cook’s Mills, the American attempt to recapture Michilimackinac (Mackinac), the tale of the Nancy, and the American raids into southwestern Upper Canada.

The story of the complex relationship between two world leaders during one of the greatest crises in human history. Born just two weeks apart in 1874, Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King had much in common. Both forged long parliamentary careers, and each led his country to victory in World War II. A BBC poll deemed Winston Churchill the greatest Briton of all time, and Mackenzie King has been judged by a group of historians as the greatest Canadian prime minister.  Their parallel careers fostered a working relationship that lasted almost fifty years.