Company of Adventurers, Volume 1

Description

413 pages
Contains Illustrations, Bibliography, Index
$25.00
ISBN 0-670-80379-0

Publisher

Year

1985

Contributor

Reviewed by Dean Tudor

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

Review

There is a definite feeling about this book — a feeling that Peter Newman certainly put a lot of work and time and effort into it. His effort does show in certain places. But alas, in style and conception, Newman is not as good a popularizer of history as is Pierre Berton. A certain stiffness pervades his writing. Still, Newman must be given a chance, for this is his first actual account of history. Volume One covers the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1670 through 1800; Volume Two will advance through the modern era, and presumably by this time Newman will have a greater sense of history in his writing. The black-and-white illustrations in Volume One are poorly reproduced.

On the positive side, there is a long list of sources (written materials and archives) as well as the names and positions of about 180 resource people. And HBC did Newman a favour by “granting me unimpeded access to archives and files” (p.v). Scattered throughout the book, and especially at the end in a series of appendices, there are important business documents dealing with the financial transactions of the Company.

Citation

Newman, Peter C., “Company of Adventurers, Volume 1,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed October 14, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/36273.