Customer Reviews

Caesars of the Wilderness: Company of Adventurers, Volume 2

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the unvarnished history of the Hudsons Bay Company. Extremely well researched and a pleasure to read this is the story of the founding of the company that opened up Canada and the Artic to trade. Filled with stories of exploration, adventure, hard headed business and hardship on the frontier. This isn't just the story of the founders, but the nuts and bolts of survival at the edge of the known world. If you enjoy history and adventure this will be hard to put down. Vol. 2 is Caesers of the Wildnerness.

As a Canadian and living in the Arctic I found this book to be very informative and giving more insight to historic events than what are normally taught in our schools. Peter Newman was able to write this without the typical constraints associated with being "politically correct".

If you're interested in true Canadian History, albeit one small part of it, definitely read this book. If you want an exciting and riveting book and don't have much of an interest in northen Canada then don't read it.

Its amazing that the Bay, and to a greater extent the British, were able to be successful. They seem to be more like a bunch of bumbling bafoons.

This is, without question, the best historical book that I have read in many years! It is part of a three-book trilogy on how the Hudson's Bay COmpany (HBC) shaped Canada. This second book is the strongest of the three, and focuses on the period from the 1600's to the early 1800's when the HBC was primarily engaged in the fur trade in Canada and essentially providing the civil, social and political structure to Canada west of Ontario. The descriptions of the Northwest Company and the struggles between them and the HBC are fascinating. As an American with French-Canadian and Cree ancestors who paddled for both the Northwest Company and the HBC, it was as if I found where I have come from. I gave this book to my mother's companion of 27 years as a Christmas present. He died in hospice in mid-March, but not before finishing this volume. He was a history buff, with no Canadian or British heritage, yet it fascinated him enough that he looked forward to reading it each day when he had enough strength. In his last days, I read to him out loud some of the passages that he particularly liked, such as the description of the goings-on at the Beaver Club in Montreal. A book that can give you something to look forward each day while you are dying of lung cancer has much to be said for it. Thank you, Peter, for this book!

This book is a review of a very successful real estate company in Canada. My more then exciting introduction is about how I felt about the book. There were facts, lots of them but overall no real excitement or much to get the normal reader interested in the book. I got through about 175 pages before I gave up. The author tried to punch up the book, but the subject matter did not lend its self to it, there is just noting scandalous or exciting about a well-run company. This is more of a 400-page case study best left to a university class on management. Unless you work here or are related to some on that does I doubt you would find much value in this book.