Bown follows his well-received Scurvy with another sedulously researched and well-written popular history. He's particularly good at penning provocative theories that link seemingly modest events to ...

Is Knud Rasmussen the most remarkable polar explorer that few people have ever heard of? In “White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen’s Fearless Journey Into the Heart of the Arctic,” Stephen R. Bown makes a good ...

At the end of Stephen R. Bown’s book, White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen’s Fearless Journey Into the Heart of the Arctic (Douglas & McIntyre, 340 pages, $34.95), the Canmore-based author writes about his ...

THE Canadian writer Stephen R. Bown has a nice idea for a book with “Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World: 1600 to 1900” (St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books). From that title, I thought I ...

We used to live in a world in which the only certainties were death and taxes. In the 17th century, Europeans added two more: states and corporations. States were not new, of course, especially in ...

In one of cinema's most beloved scenes, Charlie Chaplin's Great Dictator plays in his office with a beachball-sized balloon representing the globe – and his own insane pretension. The game and the ...

Author Stephen R. Bown has been named the recipient of the 2024 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media. The $5,000 Pierre Berton Award, as it is also known, is administered by Canada’s ...

What makes a hero? Is it courage under fire, self-sacrifice, physical endeavor? Or is it something else? Stephen R. Bown calls Roald Amundsen "one of the greatest explorers of all time," so the ...

Though mostly forgotten, the 1791-95 voyage of Capt. George Vancouver and his crew rivaled Columbus and Cook's for long-term impact; Vancouver's painstaking navigation through the uncharted Pacific ...

We independently select everything we recommend. Buying through us may earn us a commission, which supports our work. In 2020, the Canmore-based author published The Company: The Rise and Fall of ...

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