New local history book inspired by social media

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Interest in our local history has taken off recently, thanks to social media.

“Vancouver Was Awesome: A Curious Pictorial History” is a new book inspired by a pair of popular blogs.

Author Lani Russwurm has been posting pictures and stories for a number of years now at Vancouver Is Awesome and at his own Past Tense Vancouver blog.

“Things are changing so much in the city these days, like development and whatnot, I think that makes people more interested in how things were and… how things are now and how they’re changing — seeing the city in this historically dynamic way,” he explains.

He’s really happy to see young people engaged through social media platforms like Tumblr.

“I mean, a lot of times it will just be like a cool picture, right? ‘Isn’t that a cool picture?’ It won’t necessarily get them thinking about the history of the city or anything like that.”

In fact, Vancouver Was Awesome features 175 black-and-white and color photographs.

“The response that I’ve gotten has been very positive, from people who are local historians themselves and also from people who are newer to the subject who say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that!'”

Even the author himself learned something new.

“Around 1917, when Vancouver prohibition hit, one of the unintentional consequences was that there was a interesting little jazz scene that popped up in the Downtown Eastside because the hotels wanted to stay open and make money so they had live entertainment instead of just selling alcohol.”

“Vancouver Was Awesome” is available online through Arsenal Pulp Press.

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