Our new book review section launches today with the publication of our first review. John Horn, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Gumboot, a community blog out of Vancouver, has reviewed Craig Heron’s Booze: A Distilled History. Please check out his fun review. Our book reviews will have community members and involved citizens reviewing academic works. We hope this will provide a… Read more »
This post quickly looks at some neat new internet-based websites that attempt to make historical imagery accessible to the general public.
Left History is currently seeking submissions from new and established scholars for a special theme issue on the emerging field of Active History.
Do the topics that we choose, as historians or aspiring historians, help accentuate the gap between the public and the academic?
This post discusses a recent effort to bring the local history of an area into the history classroom and asks broader questions about the role of local history generally.
An article in January 2nd’s Globe and Mail discussed various web tools that universities are using to ‘open the gates of the ivory tower.’ In her article, Elizabeth Church discussed a new search engine launched by Memorial University named Yaffle, which allows community members to search and uncover various Memorial research projects, opportunities for involvement, and learn who is working… Read more »
At a recent workshop in London, I had a conversation with a fellow graduate student about the relevance of history as an academic discipline. He held that the entire academic world was a farce: professors spent too little time in the classroom, producing books that nobody read, were overpaid, and basically a general waste. Beyond my initial confusion that a… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Active-History-Roundtable-PART-ONE.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadYesterday, October 1st, the Graduate History Students Association at York University hosted their first Historians’ Craft of the year, which focused on the question of what Active History is. The title of the forum was “Hands On History: Keeping History Relevant”. It was a round table discussion with guests Geoffrey Reaume, Victoria Freeman, Craig Heron… Read more »
In today’s Globe and Mail, an insightful article from Mark Humphries that draws on the lessons of the 1918 Influenza to provide advice on how to deal with the contemporary H1N1 (‘swine flu’) pandemic fear. The link is here. It’s certainly worth reading and thinking about, both as a great way to see active history in motion but also because… Read more »
The first annual meeting of the Active History committee was held at Carleton University on 27 May 2009, part of the Canadian Historical Association annual meeting. A fruitful discussion was had, revolving around our constitution (which was passed and is available upon request) as well about the general mandate of both the committee and the website. It has helped us… Read more »
