H.V. Nelles

This lively and opinionated history is a whirlwind tour of the Canadian land and inhabitants from the earliest human occupation to the present. The country has undergone several fundamental changes - from Indigenous occupation, to French and British colonization, to the rise of an independent nation and distinct society - and it is doing so yet again. Fully revised, this updated 150th anniversary edition incorporates the latest research that helps us understand the course of history in Canada.

Wilderness and Waterpower explores how the need for electricity at the turn of the century affected and shaped Banff National Park. Today's conservationists and energy researchers will find much to think about in this tale of Alberta's early need for electricity, entrepreneurial greed, debates over aboriginal ownership of the river, moving park boundaries to accommodate hydro-electric initiatives, the importance of water for tourism, rural electrification, and the ultimate diversion to coal-produced electricity.It is also a lively national story, involving the irrepressible and impetuous Max Aitkin (later Lord Beaverbook), R.B. Bennett (local legal advisor and later prime minister), and a series of local politicians and bureaucrats whose contributions confuse and conflate issues along the way.

Alberta's iconic river has been dammed and plumbed, made to spin hydro-electric turbines, and used to cleanse Calgary. Artificial lakes in the mountains rearrange its flow; downstream weirs and ditches divert it to irrigate the parched prairie. Far from being wild, the Bow is now very much a human product: its fish are as manufactured as its altered flow, changed water quality, and newly stabilized and forested banks. The River Returns brings the story of the Bow River's transformation full circle through an exploration of the recent revolution in environmental thinking and regulation that has led to new limits on what might be done with and to the river. Rivers have been studied from many perspectives, but too often the relationship between nature and people, between rivers and the cultures that have grown up beside them, have been separated. The River Returns illuminates the ways in which humans, both inadvertently and consciously, have interacted with nature to make the Bow.

Alberta's iconic river has been dammed and plumbed, made to spin hydro-electric turbines, and used to cleanse Calgary. Artificial lakes in the mountains rearrange its flow; downstream weirs and ditches divert it to irrigate the parched prairie. Far from being wild, the Bow is now very much a human product: its fish are as manufactured as its altered flow, changed water quality, and newly stabilized and forested banks. The River Returns brings the story of the Bow River's transformation full circle through an exploration of the recent revolution in environmental thinking and regulation that has led to new limits on what might be done with and to the river. Rivers have been studied from many perspectives, but too often the relationship between nature and people, between rivers and the cultures that have grown up beside them, have been separated. The River Returns illuminates the ways in which humans, both inadvertently and consciously, have interacted with nature to make the Bow.

With its dramatic landscapes and rugged beauty, Alberta's Bow River valley has inspired generations of artists. The Painted Valley : Artists Along Alberta's Bow River, 1845-2000 brings together a collection of works by local and visiting artists from 1845 to 2000 that captures the many moods of the river and its valley from its source high in the Rocky Mountains down to the city of Calgary and eastward across the open prairie. Christopher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles have selected works from a number of Alberta museums and national collections, which depict the Bow River and its valley, representing a broad array of historical periods, artistic styles, and points of view. From European topographers and military artists to painters commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway, from the Group of Seven to modernism and abstraction, these pictures of the Bow valley tell us much about changing attitudes toward nature and the environment as well as the evolution of an artistic community in western Canada.

In 1908 Canada celebrated its 300th anniversary – the tercentenary of Champlain's founding of Quebec City. In two glorious weeks of parades, ceremonies, balls, and festivities, Canadians commemorated their history in a spectacle that would not be surpassed until the centennial of 1967. The climax of the 1908 celebration was an historical pageant in which 4000 sumptuously costumed citizens re-enacted classic events in Canada's history. Canada's leading painters were also there to capture these memorable scenes for posterity. The past was being celebrated, but with the present and the future in mind. In The Art of Nation-Building, H.V. Nelles uses contemporary literary techniques to convey the scope, colour, and intensity of the tercentenary from various perspectives. Drawing on the intimate diaries and letters of leading social and political figures, he leads us behind the scenes, disclosing the politics of memory, the theatrics of history, and the making of a modern monarchy. Nelles reveals what we actually do when we commemorate, how we use the past, and the multivocal character of mass celebration This richly illustrated, thought-provoking interpretation of public celebrations offers a novel perspective on Quebec and on the upcoming celebration of the millennium. Winner of two prestigious prizes: the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize (CHA) and the Prix Lionel-Groulx (IHAF).