Roaring Days is the first full-length study to explore the history of the mining industry in British Columbia. The industry's development was not simple, as Mouat emphasizes by examining many different aspects of mining, from work underground to corporate strategies.

He brings to life the unique individuals who were a part of this history - the miners who toiled long hours in semi-darkness and unimaginable working conditions, the hardy citizens of Rossland who built a bustling town out of the wilderness, and finally the mine owners and corporate entrepreneurs whose wealth exceeded all expectations.

Although the book focuses on Rossland's sudden rise and its gradual decline as a mining town, the story of mining in the Kootenays is a local variant of a more profound event - the transformation of North America as it was brought within the network of world trade. In a world that measured progress by military strength and industrial capacity, the implications of direct access to mineral products were enormous.

The history of Rossland, therefore, deals with many of the larger themes that dominate the broader history of the province and the country. Fascinating and informative, Roaring Days provides a long-awaited study of one of British Columbia's most important and influential resource industries of the nineteenth century.