Active History

Memory at 100: The First World War Centennial and the Question of Commemoration

June 4, 2014 2 Comments

Is this a First World War monument?

By Nathan Smith

In a recent post here Jonathan Weier compared official plans in the UK and Australia to commemorate the First World War centennial with the Canadian government’s disengagement with the one-hundredth anniversary of the First World War. Given the interest the federal Conservatives have shown in warrior nationalism and war commemoration, this is surprising.

From the government’s memorialization of the War of 1812, which includes a website, you would think it would be excited by the prospect of commemorating Canada’s Great War. The National Day of Honour it held this past 9^th of May seems like more evidence for this assumption. Announced by the Prime Minister’s Office this past March, the honour day was “in recognition and commemoration of Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan.” You can find video of the day’s events on the Prime Minister of Canada YouTube channel (and, you know, subscribe if you want).

Weier suggests some reasons why the government may be biding its time on commemorating 1914-1918. He also says the government’s reticence to commemorate the centennial may not be a bad thing. Might it lead to a greater diversity in how the war is remembered, and what is remembered? Continue reading →

Pessimism and Hope When Teaching Global Environmental History

June 2, 2014 7 Comments

Wendell Berry stands before the solar panels on his farm in Henry County, KY. Photo by Guy Mendes (From Wikipedia)

By Jim Clifford

This past year I taught a small but fantastic group of undergraduate students in a course focused on the global environmental history of the industrial revolution. My goal in the course was to situate the massive environmental transformations of the past two centuries in a broad historical context and to provide an opportunity to discuss the benefits and costs of these changes. By the end of the course, however, it became clear that the students recognized the unsustainable nature of the global economy and that they were unconvinced that the more positive and sustainable developments in recent decades would meet the challenge of climate change.

We started the course by exploring global trade and connections from 1400 through to about 1800, recognizing the importance of China and Asia more generally during this time period. From there we explored the ongoing debates about the reasons the industrial revolution started in Britain. With that broad context established we explored some of the environmental consequences of industrialization and globalization over the past two hundred years. This included attention to the colonial disposition, resource depletion and widespread deforestation resulting from the reliance of industrial economies on on raw materials from forests, plantations, mines and guano islands scattered throughout the world. We explored a range of developments with significant environmental consequences, such as the application of industrial technology to fishing and whaling, leading to the collapse of whale populations and once productive fisheries, through to the extractive industries that harvested mahogany, cinchona and gutta percha from tropical forests in South America and South East Asia. Continue reading →

A Berks Retrospective: Feminist Mentorship and Inequality in the Ivory Tower

May 29, 2014 2 Comments

By Beth A. Robertson

In anticipation of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Adele Perry wrote of the ongoing power of women’s history to “challenge and unsettle”. Reflecting on the success of the Berks this past weekend, one cannot fault Perry for being optimistic. I had the opportunity to present at this conference, held in Canada (Toronto) for the first time. While there, I was struck by the diversity, depth and overall amiability of those I feel privileged to call my colleagues. A staggering array of panels were featured, with topics ranging from disability studies, sexuality, religion, medieval bodies, archival politics, materiality, global feminism and digital humanities. Taken together, they demonstrate the continued cultural engagement and political salience of women’s history.

One lunch time session dedicated to ‘”Feminist Mentors” drew an especially large crowd. The speakers included several prominent historians, including Linda Kealey, Jill Ker Conway, Natalie Zemon Davis, Elizabeth Cohen, Veronica Strong-Boag, Andrée Lévesque and Susan Hill. Many told stories of their own experiences of mentorship and offered valuable words of wisdom. Although deeply appreciating all of their insights, it was Strong-Boag’s remarks that particularly resonated with me. While affirming the importance of feminist mentorship, Strong-Boag also cautioned her audience to not romanticize such relationships between women in academia. Moreover, she argued that feminist mentorship is by no means the solution to sexism, racism, homophobia and classism in the ivory tower and beyond.

Listening to her speak, I recalled the challenges women scholars face in not only history departments, but higher education more broadly. A number of articles over the last few years have warned that women are much more likely than men to be funneled into less prestigious, often contingent, part-time positions. (For a couple of examples of these articles, see here and here.) This issue has become so pervasive that the magazine The Nation referred to the growing ranks of contract instructors in North American universities as “The Pink-Collar Workforce of Academia.” Continue reading →

China’s Official History and Wild Histories

May 28, 2014 No Comments

By David Webster

In Canada, some say, you can only get a new history museum by renaming an existing museum.

In China, the 2010-1015 Five-Year Plan envisions opening 3,500 new museums. And this isn’t a matter of grandiose targets never to be achieved: by the end of last year, 4,000 museums had opened.

The Chinese state’s efforts to control the country’s national narrative dwarf the federal Harper government’s (all too real) efforts to harness history to a usable national narrative, or the efforts of Pauline Marois’ outgoing government to promote more of the teaching of Quebec’s national history in Quebec schools.

It overspills into foreign relations. In March 2014, a visit to France by Chinese president Xi Jinping saw two history-conscious governments dig into and warp the past to paint a picture of historic ties that both hoped would underpin improved Sino-French collaboration. Xi’s visit included a high-profile stop at the Sino-French Institute in Lyon, where many Chinese students studied in their years of exile from Chiang Kai-shek’s authoritarian regime between the 1920s and the 1940s. This was the result of an agreement inked by Cai Yuanpei, dean of Peking University, the site of numerous anti-government protests throughout China’s 20th century history. The visit, in one critical account, aimed at showing China’s current authoritarian regime was “retrospectively responsible for and in control of all of China’s modern history irrespective of its past political colours.” Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Forty-Two: The Politics of Memory with Yves Frenette

May 27, 2014 1 Comment

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By Sean Graham

Since coming to power in 2006, the Harper government has increasingly involved itself in historical commemorations. Perhaps most famously with the War of 1812 television campaign, the government’s efforts have led to debates over what events should be commemorated and how political considerations shape the construction of social memory. Last week the Canadian Journal of History published an article by Yves Frenette, professor at the Université de Saint-Boniface, in which he discusses these issues and examines how the Harper government has used history and commemoration for political purposes.

In this episode of the History Slam, I chat with Professor Frenette about his article. We talk about the history of commemoration in Canada, the politics of commemoration, and the place of history in Canadian life. The article will be open access through June 10, 2014 and can be found here.

Sean Graham is a doctoral candidate at the University of Ottawa where he is currently working on a project that examines the early years of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has previously studied at Nipissing University, the University of the West Indies, and the University of Regina and like any red-blooded Canadian his ultimate dream is to be a curling champion while living on a diet of beer and poutine.

What does Canadian History Look Like? Impressions from the Periodical Room

May 26, 2014 3 Comments

By Tom Peace

This morning, as you read this post, historians from across the country have gathered at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario for the Canadian Historical Association’s annual meeting (click here to read the program). The CHA’s annual meeting is one of the most important forums to hear about new and emerging research on Canada’s past or by historians working in Canada on non-Canadian subjects. This year, panels address computer modeling of battles and pandemics (today at 9 a.m.), the 1200^th anniversary of Charlemagne’s death (also at 9 a.m.), surveillance in 20^th century Canada (tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.) and Canadian historians and the media (a panel we’re sponsoring at noon on Wednesday). There’s always a little bit for everyone and it’s a good place to familiarize yourself with the breadth of historical work being conducted in Canada.

As such, the CHA’s annual meeting provides a convenient opportunity to reflect on the current state of Canadian history. Last year, at the start of the CHA, I wrote a post analyzing paper titles over the past decade, using them as an index to better understand the subjects on which historians are working (click here to read that post). The theory underpinning that exercise was, when taken collectively, paper titles reveal broader patterns about the state of the field. This year, I’ve embarked on a similar task, looking at the Canadian history papers that will be delivered over the next three days and setting them in a broader context. Instead of rehashing last year’s post, though, I’ve decided to take my study a little further. Rather than looking at past CHA programs, this year I decided to take a look at what some of Canada’s premier history journals suggest about the field as a whole. To do so, like last year, I’ve run article titles from the past decade of Acadiensis, B.C. Studies, Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française and the Canadian Historical Review through wordle.net (for the visualizations) and Voyant Tools (for the word ranking) to get a better sense of the topics in which Canadian historians are interested.[1]

Continue reading →

Podcast: “Death or Deliverance: Canadian Courts Martial in the Great War” by Teresa Iacobelli

May 23, 2014 No Comments

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The Ottawa Historical Association welcomed historian Teresa Iacobelli on March 5, 2014.

ActiveHistory is happy to feature her talk “Death or Deliverance: Canadian Courts Martial in the Great War”.

Iacobelli is a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at Queen’s University. Her talk is based on her book of the same title: Death or Deliverance: Canadian Courts Martial in the Great War (UBC Press, 2013)

Carpe Aqua: Asian Carp, Invasive Species, and the Great Lakes

May 22, 2014 1 Comment

By Daniel Macfarlane

Invasive species in the Great Lakes have been a big problem for decades. From the alewife, which first appeared in the Great Lakes in the 1800s, to the zebra mussels in recent decades, the composition of the Great Lakes biomass has been constantly in flux. And the problem is about to get bigger – literally, as Asian carp are knocking on the doorstep.

Granted, “invasive” species is a subjective term. The pernicious sea lamprey, for example, may well have been native to the lower Great Lakes; conversely, exotic species – such as the Pacific salmon, stocked in the Great Lakes to support sports fisheries – aren’t considered “invasive.” Basically, when we don’t like the consequences of new types of flora and fauna, even though most are introduced because of human actions, we call them “invasive”.

Asian carp. Wikimedia Commons.

Great Lakes newcomers have tended to enter through canals, either moving in the water via locks or hitching a ride in the ballast water of vessels. Asian carp are no exception: during the 1970s they were purposefully introduced into the American South to act as natural vacuums in fish farms. By the 1990s the carp had escaped and have since been inexorably working their way northward up the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The most prominent means, or vector, for the carp to get into the Great Lakes is via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Forty-One: Race, Identity, and Newfoundland Culture in Robert Chafe’s Oil and Water

May 21, 2014 2 Comments

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By Sean Graham

Alison Woolridge, Neema Bikersteth, and Jeremiah Sparks in Oil and Water at the Neptune Theatre. Photo via the National Arts Centre.

On February 18, 1942 off the coast of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, the USS Truxton and the USS Pollux ran aground in the midst of a harsh winter storm. Of the 389 sailors on both ships, only 186 survived. Of those, one stood out: Lanier Phillips. After being rescued by a group of locals, Phillips became the first African American in St. Lawrence, an experience that forever changed him and the community.

That transformation is the focus of playwright Robert Chafe’s Oil and Water, which is currently running at the National Arts Centre. The show examines both Lanier’s background and that of the St. Lawrence townspeople. The two parallel stories come together in a beautifully poignant moment that demonstrates how our preconceptions can be changed in an instant.
Continue reading →

Feminism and Technology: Doing Active History at the Berkshire Conference

May 20, 2014 2 Comments

By Jenny Ellison

For only the second time in its history, the 2014 Berks Conference will feature a Digital Lab. Here, visitors can browse and interact with a selection of digital history projects, listen to project leaders talk about their work, and, on May 25, participate in a Wikipedia Hack-a-Thon to improve women’s history content online. Scholars and artists who use technologies like photography, film, and audio to interrogate gender norms, gendered spaces, and women’s absence/presence in history are also featured at the Berks. Technology, too, is being used by participants to talk about their research, to carpool, to live-tweet panels, and together with Activehistory.ca, to share podcasts of some of our keynotes.

By foregrounding technology and digital media in particular, the Berks is making space to think about contemporary aspects of feminist activism and women’s experiences. The role of Twitter and social media in feminist activism is the subject of debate. As Arit John explains in The Wire magazine’s review of Twitter Feminism in 2013, feminists on social media have used hashtags like #solidarityisforwhitewomen and #notyournarrative to debate gender, race, and class differences and to challenge white privilege. Bringing these longstanding debates to Twitter has been, for some, a productive way to challenge representations of feminism and vent frustrations about misogyny and patriarchy today. On the other hand, John argues, so-called #hashtag activism may result in further divisions because of the limitations of using 140 characters to discuss complex issues. Continue reading →

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