Books on Beaverbrook, oilsands up for business book award

CBC reporter Jacques Poitras's book about Lord Beaverbrook and the battle over his art collection has earned a nomination for the National Business Book Award.

Five contenders for the $20,000 award were announced Thursday by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and BMO Financial Group.

Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy was also a finalist for the B.C. non-fiction book prize.

Poitras, a CBC provincial affairs reporter based in Fredericton, has followed the story of the fight between Beaverbrook's heirs and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in New Brunswickover ownership of the press baron's valuable collection of art.

His book will be competing with an examination of gun culture, a critique of Alberta's gung-ho approach to oilsands development, a history of capitalism and a book about environmental innovators.

The other shortlisted works are:

• Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture From Samuel Colt to 50 Cent, by Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce, whichexplores guns in pop culture.
• The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, which looks at the link between capitalism and war or disaster.
• Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (and Doesn't Seem to Care) by William Marsden which charges that Alberta is ignoring the environmental impact of oilsands drilling.
• The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need, by Chris Turner, whichprofiles 10 eco-pioneers.

The winner will be announced April 22 in Toronto.