Becoming British Columbia

Becoming British Columbia is the first comprehensive, demographic history of British Columbia. Investigating critical moments in the demographic record and linking demographic patterns to larger social and political questions, it shows how biology, politics, and history conspired with sex, death, and migration to create a particular kind of society. John Belshaw overturns the widespread tendency to associate population growth with progress. He reveals that the province has a long tradition of thinking and acting vigorously in ways meant to control and shape biological communities of humans, and suggests that imperialism, race, class, and gender have historically situated population issues at the centre of public consciousness in British Columbia.

John Douglas Belshaw is a faculty member with Thompson Rivers University - Open Learning, a consultant to the post-secondary sector, a public scholar, and freelance writer. He is the author, co-author, or editor of five books on British Columbia history, including Becoming British Columbia (UBC Press, 2009).

"This book demonstrates the significance of demographic knowledge to our understanding of the province's history and its historiography. It provides another lens through which to view the history of the province. - Ruth Sandwell, author of Beyond the City Limits: Rural History in British Columbia"