By Kayla Jonas Galvin 

Company Towns: Corporate Order and Community
Neil White
University of Toronto Press, 2012
Cloth $55.00, ebook $54.95

I chose to review Neil White’s Company Towns: Corporate Order and Community because of my recent involvement in an interesting project within a company town, Kapuskasing, Ontario. For those unfamiliar with the term, a company town is one that is in some way settled, built, and run by a single company, usually one involved in resource extraction in frontier conditions. White’s introduction provides a solid overview of company towns, plus the current number of company towns in Canada—636 (4).

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By Suzanne Morton

“Lobster Plant, 1926” Canadian National Railways/Library and Archives Canada/PA- R231-1235-X-E

“Lobster Plant, 1926” Canadian National Railways/Library and Archives Canada/PA- R231-1235-X-E

“Cape Breton Lobster Fishers on Strike” ran the headline.  On 8 May the lobster fishermen of Gabarus, Cape Breton struck demanding a price of  $3.25 per hundred lobsters instead of the $2.35 offered by the buyers.  The processors said there were too many lobsters being caught and they were losing money. The Gabarus men were joined by other fishermen at Main-à-Dieu and boats from a number of communities in Antigonish County and the Gulf Shore of Cape Breton.[1]   How similar was this story from 1909 to May 2013, and how little has change over the last hundred years. [click to continue…]

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A Quarter Millennia of Local Food

May 21, 2013

By David Zylberberg It is currently spring in Ontario, plants are blooming and many people are expectantly awaiting the cherries, strawberries or tomatoes. Yesterday a pamphlet arrived in my mailbox advertising the home-delivery of seasonal organic produce, which emphasized the virtues of it being locally grown. At the same time, I see others suggesting that [...]

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Commemorating the Unprecedented; Canada, the Arctic Council, and the History of the Present

May 15, 2013

By Andrew Stuhl Today marks an important turning point in Canadian history. Or does it? This morning Canada assumes the chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Formed in 1996, the Council promotes cooperation, coordination, and interaction among the Arctic states and with the region’s indigenous communities. It is a high-level governmental forum that, while limited in [...]

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Archives as Laboratories

May 14, 2013

By Merle Massie Over the past two years, I lurked in the halls and wandered wide-eyed through the conferences of my social and natural science colleagues. An interdisciplinary institutional postdoctoral fellowship, funded by MISTRA (The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) and routed through the University of Saskatchewan, ensured my place at the lunch table [...]

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Backward as Forward: Reflections on Canada’s “Modern” Political Scene

May 13, 2013

By Christine McLaughlin While it is too soon for the historian to comment on the long-term effects of recent changes on the Canadian political landscape, the larger rightward shift is perhaps best evidenced by the federal New Democratic Party’s decision to “modernize” its constitution at its recent convention by “toning down” references to socialism. Pointing [...]

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“The Portuguese in Toronto” Photo Exhibit: An Organizer’s Reflection

May 10, 2013

From May 13-19, Toronto’s City Hall will feature “The Portuguese in Toronto,” a free photo exhibit. What follows are some reflections on how historians can engage with the public by one of the exhibit’s organizers. Raphael Costa On May 13, 2013, the Portuguese Canadian History Project’s (PCHP) photographic exhibit celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of mass [...]

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Eat Your Primary Sources! Or, Teaching the Taste of History

May 9, 2013

By Ian Mosby History has a distinct taste. Actually, it also has a distinct smell, feel, sound, and look to it but – as a historian of food and nutrition – I always find myself coming back to the taste of history. No, I’m not talking about the musty, acrid taste of dust and mildew [...]

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The Public Historian in the History Wars: A Report from #NCPH2013

May 8, 2013

By Pete Anderson I had the good fortune to facilitate a lively discussion on the role of public historians in the history wars at a ‘dine around’ session during the recent annual conference of the National Council on Public History, held in Ottawa from April 17-20. We had representatives from both Canada and the United [...]

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The New History Wars?: Avoiding the Fights of the Past

May 7, 2013

The new history wars are not battles over the meaning of Canadian history. They are battles over public financing of historical research and historical preservation.

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