Sean Daly's From the Erzgebirge to Potosi (FriesenPress, 2018) is a B.C. book like no other. As an overview of geology and mining since the 1500s, it considers the relationship between mining, geology and society, including the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, while citing the most important strikes and protests by miners to improve their working conditions. From the Erzgebirge Mountains in Bohemia where underground silver mines were started in the 1500s (now located within eastern Germany and the Czech Republic) to the contemporary silver mines at Potosi in Bolivia, Daly charts the progress of geotechnical thinking with emphasis on the first geologist/engineer, Georgius Agricola who wrote his treatise De Re Metallica during the Renaissance. As the son of West Coast salmon fisherman John Daly, profiled in Edith Iglauer's Fishing with John, Sean Daly first became fascinated with geology due to the proximity of an old mine near Pender Harbour where he grew up. Having studied geology and mining engineering at university, and having also worked at the Highland Copper Mine for nineteen years, Daly has supplemented his knowledge by visiting famous mines in South America and Europe. 978-1-5255-1759-4 pb $32 / 978-1-5255-1758-7 hc $38.55

[BCBW 2018]