Canada’s Yankee Railroad Czar

The photograph is a memorable one—probably among the most celebrated in Canadian history. It shows a white-bearded Lord Strathcona, flanked by a crowd of onlookers, driving the last spike in the Canadian Pacific Railway. Beside him, a portly figure in homburg hat and dark suit catches the eye. William Van Horne, the managerial mastermind behind the CPR’s construction, is a dominating presence even when on the sidelines. This impression is no photographic fluke, as amply proven in Valerie Knowles’s full-length biography. At the narrative’s heart is a career trajectory of Horatio Alger proportions: a business genius rising from modest beginnings to the pinnacle of success, thanks to pluck and indefatigable energy, although his story is laced with setbacks and unexpected plot twists as well.

Born in frontier Illinois in 1843, Van Horne traced his paternal roots back to some of New York City’s earliest Dutch settlers. His immediate family experienced more than its share...