BOOK TUESDAY
On the first Tuesday of every month(ish) we will be sharing books that have useful, entertaining, and interesting information on Victorian history.
Each post will have one book that deals with the History of Western Canada and one that deals with the greater Victorian World outside of Western Canada.
To get things rolling here are the first two books for you to check out.
Thanks for reading.
The Victorian Spectator.
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Ranching with Lords & Commons
By John Craig
Ranching with Lords & Commons, originally published in 1903, tells the fascinating story of Alberta's famous Oxley Ranch from the perspective of John R. Craig, Oxley's former manager. Craig's passion and knowledge shine through in this overview of what the cattle business was really like when ranching got underway in the late 1800s. In writing about his experiences, Craig's intention was to provide "faithful reproductions of actual facts in the pioneer life of the western cattleman." This story—and the history it reveals—provides an entertaining and informative account of the early days of Alberta's cattle industry.I feel I am justified in presenting a narrative which has the double merit of novelty and truth, and which at the same time serves to relieve me from responsibility for the shortcomings and eccentricities—to put it mildly—of the aristocratic cattlemen with whom it was my lot for some years to be associated, and who are indicated in the title as lords and commons.—John R. Craig
Available at AMAZON and fine used bookstores.
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The Victorian Internet:
The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers
by Tom Standage
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.
Available at AMAZON
I am running a regular post "From the Wire" on our FaceBook page with interesting little bits of telegraphic history.
Check it out!
--Ed.
