by Lisa Rumiel On Tuesday, September 14th the Toronto Public Library (TPL) will kick off its 6 part History Matters lecture series. As you might have guessed from the title, the idea for the series was inspired by what’s been going on over the past couple years with the folks at Active History – both [...]
Posts under ‘Does History Matter?’
Historical Preservation in Comparative Perspective
Toronto’s lack of history, heritage and culture is a myth, but does it thrive in the city’s municipal structure?
Dr. Georgina Feldberg, 1956-2010
The history community lost a great teacher, scholar and active historian this week. I had the pleasure of knowing Dr. Feldberg during my first year at York. She was one of the professors in a graduate course on the history of science, health and the environment. I learned a lot from her as a teacher [...]
The Moral Economy of the 2010 Toronto G20 Crowd?
A brief discussion of the G20 peaceful protests largely overlooked in the mainstream media, and the relevance of historian E.P. Thompson’s work to our times.
Remembering Oka
The twentieth anniversary of the Oka Crisis provides an opportunity to reflect on how Canada, Canadians and Aboriginal people engage with each other and each other’s past.
Giving voice to history
by Laura Madokoro Last week, the first event by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on residential schools was held in Winnipeg. In the same week, British Prime Minister David Cameron issued an apology on behalf of the British government for the “unjustified and unjustifiable” killings of thirteen people in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1972 – [...]
Campaigning with History: Wildlands and Woodlands
Last week we have two great posts by Tom and Alix on historians engaging with current issues and the value of “thinking with history” for policy development. Both these post brought to mind a project in New England that I learned about at an environmental history conference a few years ago. The Wildland and Woodlands [...]
The Politics of Textbooks: How Texas Wants to Educate the Nation
The recent changes to the ‘standards’ for history textbooks in Texas go right to the heart of academics and their legitimacy as historians.
“Tell me the story” – Thinking with History, Policy, and the Goldberg Rule
Alix Green In my role as an adviser on policy for a university Vice-Chancellor, the UK equivalent of President, perhaps my most important job is to ask our leader to ‘tell me the story’ when he’s consulting me on some issue or another. It seems to me that universities, along with many public sector institutions, are [...]
Conversation, Contradiction and Conflict in ‘The Historical Present’
The practice of history, however, is not a zero sum game in which historians can isolate themselves from outside influences. The research, writing and teaching of academic, policy-oriented, and popular history are deeply political, social and ideological pursuits. Whether historical research is intended to ‘add value’ or ‘make an impact’ is only one component of many that shape historical perspective.
