Rivers Run Through It

This essay reviews three books illustrating recent trends in Canadian environmental history. All three books deal with the relationship of human beings to rivers, but each from a different perspective. The first book, written by Christopher Armstrong, Matthew Evenden, and H.V. Nelles, examines the Bow River (Alberta) in the most comprehensive way since the beginning of human settlement. The second book, by Michèle Dagenais, depicts the numerous, and often conflictual, links Montréal has with the St. Lawrence River since 1800. In the last book, David Massell focuses on the transformation of the Peribonka River made by the Aluminum Company of Canada Ltd. (Alcan), and the social and political consequences this transformation generated.