Cole Harris was born and raised in British Columbia and has been a distinguished member of the Department of Geography at UBC for many years. Currently the co-editor of BC Studies, he is especially well known as the editor of the first volume of the Historical Atlas of Canada: From the Beginning to 1800.

• Introduction1 Voices of Smallpox around the Strait of Georgia2 Strategies of Power in the Cordilleran Fur Trade3 The Making of the Lower Mainland4 The Fraser Canyon Encountered5 A Population Geography of British Columbia in 1881 / with Robert Galois6 The Struggle with Distance7 Industry and the Good Life around Idaho Peak8 Farming and Rural Life / with David Demeritt9 Making an Immigrant Society

The Resettlement of British Columbia, analyzing the historical geography of distance, disease, and multiculturalism, demonstrates how elegantly and gracefully the social sciences can be written. - W.H. New (Canadian Literature) An engaging provocative, introduction to the early history of the province that only someone of {Harris's] experience and ability could produce ... The Resettlement of British Columbia is a fine book. Full of wonderful insights and candid observations, it offers a nuanced look at the history of Canada's Pacific province ... What distinguishes the collection, however, is Harris's challenge to the reader to re-think some common assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes. - Bill Waiser (Western Historical Quarterly) This is an important book, characterized by its broad, sometimes breath-taking, intellectual and empirical sweep ... a provocative and important book by someone who has given a great deal of thought to the relationship between land and power in Canada. - Tina Loo (BC Studies)