Making Vancouver: 1863-1913 Hardcover - 1996

From the publisher

Making Vancouver is about the people of Vancouver, British Columbia. It traces the social transformation of the city and points out how Shaughnessy Heights lumber barons, Mount Pleasant trades people, and East End Labourers were part of a complext society whose members exhibited sharp differences in attitudes and behaviour.

The book starts with the early years, when settlement on Burrard Inlet centered around two lumber mills and the elite dominated local institutions. Periods of social and political conflict then followed in the wake of the railway, heightening class tensions at teh turn of the century. During the boom years before the First World War, Vancouver experienced tremendous growth, and status became an important factor in defining its social structure.

In Making Vancouver, Robert McDonald depicts a western city that was neither egalitarian nore closed to opportunity. Vancouver up to the crash of 1913 was a dynamic centre. The rapidity of growth, easy access to resources, a narrow industrial base, and the homogenoeous nature of its population, the majority of which was of British birth, softened the thrust towards class division inherent in capitalism.

Of special interest to Vancouverites, Making Vancouver both confirms and challenges our understanding of the city's early history. Class tensions still emerge as a central feature of city life, and racism still divides Vancouverites from one another. But conventional wisdom also gives way to new understanding when status is recognized as an important but overlooked aspect of urban experience.