The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871-1881

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Authors: Pierre Berton

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The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871-1881

Pierre Berton

Anchor Canada (2011)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Tags: History, Canada, General
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In 1871, a tiny nation, just four years old — it's population well below the 4 million mark — determined that it would build the world's longest railroad across empty country, much of it unexplored. This decision — bold to the point of recklessness — was to change the lives of every man, woman and child in Canada and alter the shape of the nation.

Using primary sources — diaries, letters, unpublished manuscripts, public documents and newspapers — Pierre Berton has reconstructed the incredible decade of the 1870s, when Canadians of every stripe — contractors, politicians, financiers, surveyors, workingmen, journalists and entrepreneurs — fought for the railway, or against it.

The National Dream
is above all else the story of people. It is the story of George McMullen, the brash young promoter who tried to blackmail the Prime Minister; of Marcus Smith, the crusty surveyor, so suspicious of authority he thought the Governor General was speculating in railway lands; of Sanford Fleming, the great engineer who invented Standard Time but who couldn't make up his mind about the best route for the railway. All these figures, and dozens more, including the political leaders of the era, come to life with all their human ambitions and failings.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Review

"Pierre Berton is a chronicler of the first order who has brought photographic clarity to the great and the corrupt, to the zealots and the dreamers associated with Canada's first great vision of linking steel threads to the nation's fabric."
—
Montreal Star

From the Inside Flap

In 1871, a tiny nation, just four years old ? it's population well below the 4 million mark ? determined that it would build the world's longest railroad across empty country, much of it unexplored. This decision ? bold to the point of recklessness ? was to change the lives of every man, woman and child in Canada and alter the shape of the nation.

Using primary sources ? diaries, letters, unpublished manuscripts, public documents and newspapers ? Pierre Berton has reconstructed the incredible decade of the 1870s, when Canadians of every stripe ? contractors, politicians, financiers, surveyors, workingmen, journalists and entrepreneurs ? fought for the railway, or against it.

The National Dream
is above all else the story of people. It is the story of George McMullen, the brash young promoter who tried to backmail the Prime Minister; of Marcus Smith, the crusty surveyor, so suspicious of authority he thought the Governor General was speculating in railway lands; of Sanford Fleming, the great engineer who invented Standard Time but who couldn't make up his mind about the best route for the railway. All these figures, and dozens more, including the political leaders of the era, cmoe to life with all their human ambitions and failings.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher — or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency — is an infringement of the copyright law.

Anchor Canada and colophon are trademarks.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Berton, Pierre, 1920–
The national dream : the great railway, 1871–1881

eISBN: 978-0-385-67355-6

1. Canadian Pacific Railway Company – History. 2. Canada – History – 1867–1914. 3. Railroads and state – Canada – History.
4. Railroads – Canada – History. I. Title.

HE2810.C2B48 2001 385′.0971 C2001-930606–7

Published in Canada by
Anchor Canada, a division of
Random House of Canada Limited

v3.1

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