Vancouver: A Visual History

by Bruce Macdonald and Macdonald

Absolutely unique in its presentational style, Vancouver: A Visual History is a delightful and important book. This stunning, full-colour historical atlas brings to life Vancouver's first fourteen decades, beginning with a map of the 1850s depicting the land use, economy and settlement patterns of its first peoples, and ending with a map of the 1980s. Using a repeating grid format, in which each ten-year period of the city's history is examined through the application of the same criteria, each decade is introduced by a full-colour map that illustrates land use patterns. A column of text to the left of this map describes the major land use changes that have occurred since the previous decade; to the right of the map are notes that provide related details of the city's evolving history. Following each double-page map, the reader is introduced to the prominent personalities of the decade, in the area of sports, politics, business, labour, culture and community service, as well as given an overview of each period's economic focus, settlement patterns, political directions and key historical events.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889223114
• ISBN13: 9780889223110
• Release Date: February 1992
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 2.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 12.4" x 12.5"

Customer Reviews

One of my favorite history books

Having lived in Vancouver, B.C. for 4 years, I felt a strong need to take something with me when I left, "to remember it". That was the reason I bought this book. Anyone familiar with Vancouver will find this facinating, as there are literally thousands of little tidbits of information on every page. What I find truly best is the VISUAL part - the text centers around the map of Vancouver, tieing events to PLACES. For example, if you know Kitsilano, you may NOT have known that Veterans aparments were along 4th avenue in the 1940s (I later lived in that area). Or that in 1981 (and probably today) that same area had a very high concentration of Greeks. My book was ruined in a flood, and I'm writing this review as I'm ordering a new one.