The Wild Ride: A History of the North-West Mounted Police 18731904

by Charles Wilkins

The Wild Ride is a book like no other—an epic record of the opening of the Canadian west. It is the story of a force of untested young men, mounted policemen in crimson coats, sent west to do what they could to bring law and order to the land. The Wild Ride is history related in a bold as storytelling, as theatre, as art and exhibition, brought to life by an inspired collection of photos, artifacts, and ephemera.

Genres: Canada

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

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Reviews

[Gail Amendt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty interesting and easy way to explore Western Canadian history. I would describe it as a work of popular history, or perhaps as a coffee table book. It covers a number of fascinating topics...the demise of the bison and end of the native way of life, the Metis rebellions, the building of the railroad, and the Klondike gold rush. It provides a more balanced examination than I was expecting in a genre that so often tends to portray the mounties as the good guys and the natives and Metis as the bad guys. There are a lot of illustrations, photos, letters and side stories that add a great deal to our understanding, and all is presented in an easy to read format. The story of the North-West Mounted Police is really the story of the opening and settlement of the Canadian West. I am not completely convinced as to the historical accuracy of this book, as it seems to reinforce some of the larger than life myths of the mounties, but it seems like a very good place to start if one wants to know about this time period.

[Amy Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is beautifully layed out, the photos are amazing and there are tons of them, along with illustrations. But for me... the writing style was pretty bad, which was sad because I was certain this was going to be a great read. It occurred to me that the writing is identical to a school textbook, something none of us enjoyed. It's very dry, factual and just sort of chugs on when you wanted more information on interesting parts. I got halfway and just read the photo captions for the rest. Get this from your library if you want a look. Photos are really fantastic, the words are really not.

[Della · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great historical read about the N.W.M.P. and Canada in general. Wonderful photographs and illustrations add to the interest of this book.