Episode 20: The Popular Historian- Stephen R. Bown

“The whole history of Canada is the history of the fear of being taken over by the United States,” says historian and author Stephen Bown, as we stroll along beside a mountain river in Canmore, Alberta.

This is how we start our conversation, and where his most recent book, Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada, begins.

In this sweeping narrative, Bown explores how the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway helped forge a national identity, linking distant colonies into a unified country and reshaping the political and cultural landscape of the 19th century.

Named Best Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail, History Today and The Hill Times, Bown brings to life the characters and conflicts behind one of Canada’s most ambitious undertakings. Dominion isn’t just about steel and tracks — it’s about visionaries, schemers, and the monumental challenges they faced in carving a nation from wilderness and ambition.

The study of history has always focused on the friction between continuity and change. But Bown argues that a picture of our past is best illustrated when it is made up of a collage of often contradictory accounts. Or in Bown’s words “not a single narrative, but rather many competing and intertwining narratives blending and striking off from each other.”

As we wander, we talk about who and what knit Canada together in the first place. We talk about the changing study of history we’ve experienced over our lifetimes. And we talk about what the past can teach us about where we are today, and perhaps what the future holds for our country.

Bown is the author of 12 works of literary non-fiction. His books have been published throughout English-speaking territories and have been translated into nine different languages. He has won dozens of awards for his writing over the years, most recently the Governor General's History Award, better known as the Pierre Berton Award.

Click below to join us on our walk through the woods.