Steel Across the Shield

Kelly L. Green is editor of the Canadian Book Review Annual’s
Children’s Literature edition.

This instalment of Berton’s Canada Move West series focuses on the
completion of Canada’s transcontinental railway “across the
thousand-mile desert of rock and muskeg ... the roots of the ancient
mountains we call the Canadian Shield.” Written in narrative form, the
book reads almost like a novel, as Berton tells a story of unbelievable
obstacles (sheer rock to be blown away by dynamite and nitroglycerin,
taking many men with it), hardships (railroad workers living in squalid
shacks with little in the way of food), and adventure (thousands of
troops called out in one of the railway’s first uses to put down the
Saskatchewan Rebellion led by Louis Riel). In a conclusion that is
indeed as strange as fiction, the reader learns that after all this
superhuman effort, the CPR nearly failed, but was saved in the nick of
time by government financing.

Berton’s conversational tone and anecdotal approach make the book
interesting reading. Seldom dry, he conveys the importance of past
events to present-day issues (e.g., First Nations-government relations,
the railways, and the prairie economy). The series would definitely
benefit from notes and a bibliography, however, as it is condescending
to assume that young readers might not want to compare Berton’s
interpretation to other sources, particularly primary sources. This
deficiency means that Steel Across the Shield and other books in this
series fall short in the effort to encourage a love of history in young
Canadians. Nevertheless, this fine exposition of an important period is
recommended.