Absolutely unique in its presentational style, Vancouver: A Visual History is a delightful and important book. This stunning, full-colour historical atlas brings to life Vancouver’s first fourteen decades, beginning with a map of the 1850s depicting the land use, economy and settlement patterns of its first peoples, and ending with a map of the 1980s.

Using a repeating grid format, in which each ten-year period of the city’s history is examined through the application of the same criteria, each decade is introduced by a full-colour map that illustrates land use patterns. A column of text to the left of this map describes the major land use changes that have occurred since the previous decade; to the right of the map are notes that provide related details of the city’s evolving history. Following each double-page map, the reader is introduced to the prominent personalities of the decade, in the area of sports, politics, business, labour, culture and community service, as well as given an overview of each period’s economic focus, settlement patterns, political directions and key historical events.