The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871-1881

In 1871, a tiny nation, just four years old—it's population well below the 4 million mark—determined that it would build the world's longest railroad across empty country, much of it unexplored. This decision—bold to the point of recklessness—was to change the lives of every man, woman and child in Canada and alter the shape of the nation.

Using primary sources—diaries, letters, unpublished manuscripts, public documents and newspapers—Pierre Berton has reconstructed the incredible decade of...