Active History

Ripple Effects: Great Lakes Water Levels

June 4, 2013 1 Comment

By Daniel Macfarlane

Low lake levels near Traverse City (Lake Michigan). © Michigan Sea Grant. Used with permission.

Lake Huron and Lake Michigan recently reached record lows. The other Great Lakes are also below average levels. Headlines such as “Two Great Lakes hit lowest water levels in history” or “Low water levels in Great Lakes cause concern” have been splashed across browsers and newspapers. Docks barely reach water, boats can’t get out of marinas, and beaches have seemingly doubled in size. What is causing these lows? There are a range of human efforts that influence lake levels: diversions out of the Great Lakes basin (e.g. Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal or Ogoki-Long Lac); dredging in connecting channels (e.g. St. Clair and Detroit rivers); regulating works (e.g. dams in the St. Mary’s and St. Lawrence rivers), or consumptive uses ranging from agriculture to exporting bottled water, beer, pop, etc.

These dams and diversions certainly have negative ecological effects. But, compared to natural causes, they have only minimal impacts on water levels. Natural factors and cycles are the main causes of water level variability, although the recent extremes are almost certainly attributable to climate change and altered precipitation levels. Continue reading →

What does Canadian History look like? A Peek Inside the Canadian Historical Association

June 3, 2013 10 Comments

By Tom Peace

Over the past few months Canadians have spent an unusually significant amount of time discussing how our history is told. Following significant cutbacks at our key national historical institutions (Library and Archives Canada, Parks Canada, and the Museum of Civilization) and the announcement of targeted government-led history projects (such as the new Canadian Museum of History and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage’s Study of Significant Aspects in Canadian History), the study of our history has re-emerged as a subject for heated debate. Amidst much discussion, historians and politicians have made fairly broad statements about the state of historical research in Canada. All of which leads to the question: In 2013, what does Canadian history look like?

Today, hundreds of historians are descending upon the University of Victoria for the Canadian Historical Association‘s annual meeting (the CHA). This is the pre-eminent gathering of professional historians in the country. Over the next three days, a mix of junior and senior scholars will discuss local and regional issues as well as broader international subjects and more methodological concerns. Historians will celebrate our successes and share new directions in our research.

The CHA is perhaps the best place to assess the discipline as a whole. Continue reading →

Whose Past? A Public Forum on Harper’s Review of Canadian History

June 1, 2013 1 Comment

Legacy Gallery, June 3rd, 8 pm. Broad and Yates St., Victoria, B.C.

“Whose Past? A Public Forum on Harper’s Review of Canadian History” will be a spirited discussion about the Harper Conservatives’ recent moves to review Canadian history through a Parliamentary committee. The forum will include perspectives from a secondary school educator, an indigenous scholar, a range of generations as well as from historians from Eastern and Western Canada and from Quebec. Speakers will be limited to five minutes each, to provide plenty of time for broader discussion. Moderator: Dave Obee, Editor-in-Chief, Victoria Times Colonist.

Co-sponsored by the Canadian Historical Association and the Department of History, University of Victoria.

New Paper: Veronica Strong-Boag and Tiffany Johnstone: Taking History to the People: Women Suffrage and Beyond

May 30, 2013 No Comments

ActiveHistory.ca is pleased to announce the publication of Veronica Strong-Boag and Tiffany Johnstone’s “Taking History to the People: Women Suffrage and Beyond”

History as both “facts” and “meaning” has regularly generated debate and disagreement among citizens, policymakers, and scholars. The nature and prospects of democracy and justice supply a special source of contention. Today’s ubiquitous “history wars,” sometimes termed “culture wars,” that unfold in the context of the ongoing crisis of global capitalism are a case in point. Social media increasingly provide the stage for contests between progressive and conservative interpretations of the past and, particularly, its relationship to the present.

The website womensuffrage.org has joined these debates… [Continue Reading]

Editors Note: In addition to our group blog, ActiveHistory.ca strives to provide timely, well-written and thoroughly researched papers on a variety of history-related topics. If you have a paper that resonates well with our mandate please consider submitting it to us. Expanded conference papers or short essays that introduce an upcoming book project or website are great starting points for the type of paper we publish. With a current readership of about 13,000 people per month we can assure that you will find an interested audience.

For more information visit our Papers Section or contact papers@activehistory.ca. All of our papers are peer reviewed to ensure they are accurate and up-to-date.

Podcast: After the Cuts: The Future of History in Canada

May 29, 2013 No Comments

On April 19, the Canadian Historical Association organized a panel as part of the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Public History in Ottawa entitled “After the Cuts: The Future of History in Canada.” The panel was designed to analyze the changes to historical work in Canada stemming from recent federal budget cuts, revised mandates, and institutional reorganizations.

Chaired by Martin Laberge from Université Quebec en Outaouais, the roundtable featured Ellen Judd, President of the Canadian Anthropological Association, Loryl McDonald, President of the Association of Canadian Archivists, William Ross, President of the Canadian Archaeological Association, and Lyle Dick, President of the Canadian Historical Association. While each panelist addressed issues relating to their respective associations, they also discussed how the study of history can move forward in this changing environment.

Click here to listen to a recording of the roundtable.

Please note that opinions expressed during the roundtable are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their respective associations.

Active(ist)? History on Wikipedia

May 28, 2013 1 Comment

William Murphy, 1958. Source: Whttp://www.engr.wisc.edu/

By Jonathan McQuarrie

Recently, I spent some time with Daniel Sidorick’s fantastic monograph Condensed Capitalism: Campbell Soup and the Pursuit of Cheap Production in the Twentieth Century (Ithica, 2009). Among the timely observations made by the work is the vital point that a managerial effort to enforce efficiency through the threat of outsourcing is hardly new. At the turn of the 20^th century, John Dorrance famously held the line on 10-cent cans of Campbell Soup, and that low price derived from pressures on workers to meet high production requirements and from contracts with farmers obliging them to sell their produce at a low price.

After reading it, I felt it had some information that would enhance some Wikipedia entries because I consider editing Wikipedia one entry point for public history engagement. Given how much students, the public, and (let’s be honest here) historians use Wikipedia, providing little edits never seems a bad idea. Continue reading →

4 Years of ActiveHistory.ca

May 27, 2013 1 Comment

We’re proud to announce that ActiveHistory.ca has been blogging about why history matters for more than four years!

Ever since our first anniversary back in 2010, we have celebrated the achievements of the past year, and this year is no exception. Our body of contributors and guest writers has grown larger and more diverse, while the number of posts featured on the site has continued to boom. During our best months, we enjoy a readership of almost 20,000 independent visitors.

Some specific highlights this year include Sean Graham’s excellent work on his History Slam! podcast, as well as regular book review posts, thanks to editor Kaleigh Bradley. Articles originally published here have led to full-page features in the Globe and Mail and press in other media outlets. Posts such as Tom Peace’s “History Wars: Terms of Debate” have contributed significantly to the national discussion about the purpose and aims of historical research, heritage, and history education in Canada.

A hearty thanks to all our contributors, guest writers, supporters, and of course you – our readers. The site just wouldn’t be possible without all of you.

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Karim Kanji to talk about the evolution of ActiveHistory.ca. Karim is co-founder of thirdocean, a social media agency that works with companies to help them utilize online, digital and social tools to strengthen specific business needs. He wanted to know how ActiveHistory.ca has used social media to make its mark on Canada’s history community. We chatted about the successes and challenges of the past four years and the story behind ActiveHistory.ca.

Not All Resource Towns Are Created Alike

May 23, 2013 No Comments

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).

Continue reading →

Historicizing the Lobster Fishery Tie-up

May 22, 2013 No Comments

By Suzanne Morton

“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. Continue reading →

A Quarter Millennia of Local Food

May 21, 2013 5 Comments

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 eating local food is morally superior. As a historian of eighteenth-century England with an interest in changing diets, I started to think about the meaning of local food and some of the broad changes of the last quarter millennia.

England in 1763 was a model of efficient and sustainable agriculture. Some grain was shipped between regions, particularly to London, but most of the food eaten was grown locally. There were no fossil-fuel based fertilizers, chemical insecticides or injected hormones so the food supply was organic. The country had a population of 6.3 million. English people were generally well-nourished by contemporary standards so that rural men born in ensuing decades could expect to reach adult heights between 168 and 170cm. They ate a carbohydrate-heavy diet consisting primarily of oats, wheat or potatoes. These were supplemented with some vegetables, milk, cheese, butter and occasionally small amounts of meat.

More food was shipped in ensuing decades, but most of it continued to be grown in the same region as it was eaten. Continue reading →

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