Fort Calgary was built in 1875 by the North West Mounted Police to bring law and order to the newly-opened frontier of the Canadian West. With the arrival of the railway and the granting of land concessions favourable to ranching the new town of Calgary grew rapidly, justifying the eternal optimism of its energetic boosters.
The discovery of oil at Leduc in 1947 restored the city's pre-eminence in the province's economic life. Always the most American of Canada's major cities, Calgary in recent years has felt the southern influence even more as American multinationals set up new headquarters in the rapidly rising downtown core. Nevertheless, despite the general uniformity of its ethnic makeup and the relative lack of civic enterprise, the city's inhabitants have preserved a spirit which is energetic and immediately recognizable.
The text has been enhanced by a fine selection of 120 historical photographs illustrating all aspects of the city's life from its origins to the present day.

Max Foran is the author of a dozen books, including The Chalk and the Easel: Stanford Perrott, Teacher?Painter; Trails and Trials: Markets and Land Use in the Canadian Cattle Industry; Roland Gissing: the People's Painter; and Calgary: Canada's Frontier Metropolis. He is a professor in the University of Calgary's faculty of Communications and Culture.

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