Halifax: The First 250 Years - Softcover

"Halifax: The First 250 Years is an engaging and accessible study."--Greg Marquis "Acadiensis "

"Most Canadian cities have been the subject of book-length studies in recent years, but Halifax was somehow overlooked. Happily, this well-written and beautifully illustrated... book admirably fills this yawning gap in Canadian urban history."--Margaret Conrad "Canadian Book Review Annual "

"This is a fine, popular addition to a growing library on the port city of Halifax. The authors, all Halifax-based academics, are able communicators and guides for a general audience. The style and pace of the book are lively, and often entertaining as well as informative. The three separately-written sections... are remarkably compatible. The scholarship is authoritative and for the most part unobtrusive. This new account brings together the riches and freshness of recent professional approaches to Canadian history. The city comes alive with new perspectives. The notes accompanying the many striking photos and reproductions of early sketches, paintings, and artifacts are also full of rich material and insights. This is sound academic history brought to life for the general reader."--Alan Wilson "Canadian Historical Review "

"A wonderful book"--CBC Information Morning

"The wide variety and the high quality of the visuals collected in this book make it a treat."--The Chronicle Herald

"...a cohesive, informative and detailed book..."--The Coast

For more than two and a half centuries Halifax has experienced both war and peace, growing from a frontier outpost to one of Canada's most appealing and forward-looking cities.

For many years the fate of the city was determined by the rivalries among Britain, France, and the United States: conflict meant prosperity for Halifax in 1812 and again during the U.S. Civil War. During the Victorian era Halifax enjoyed lively commerce and manufacturing and an active and progressive social and cultural life. The early decades of the twentieth century, punctuated by economic depression, world war and the devastation of the 1917 Explosion, were difficult for the city. It was not until the 1960s that Halifax started to prosper again, its growth fuelled by government policies and trends favouring urbanization.

Halifax: The First 250 Years brings together extensive research into the diversity of the city's development with more than 300 illustrations, many in colour, providing a vivid portrait of the city and its diverse residents through the years.