Sara Wilmshurst
Credit: Toronto Harbour Commissioners / Library and Archives Canada / PA-097849. Copyright: Expired.
Active History recently circulated a survey that asked readers how they use the site, what they like about it, and what they would like to see in the future. The respondents provided fantastic feedback, and we would like to thank them and share what we learned.
Our Reach
Active History has been publishing for 15 years. In that time there have been over 2.5 million site visits. The site hosts an archive of over 2,600 essays. We have readers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Germany, France, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and Italy.
Active History’s most popular post, Crystal Fraser and Sara Komarnisky’s “150 Acts of Reconciliation for the Last 150 Days of Canada’s 150,” has been viewed over 164,000 times since it was published in August 2017. Many Active History posts get consistent traffic year over year. Timothy J. Stanley’s essay “John A. Macdonald’s Aryan Canada: Aboriginal Genocide and Chinese Exclusion” has received between 1,588 and 6,970 views each year since it was published in 2015. A post from back in 2012, “Marie-Joseph Angelique: Remembering the Arsonist Slave of Montreal” by Mireille Mayrand-Fiset, is still among our top posts of all time, with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of visits each year.
Posts get traffic year over year in part because students access them; 80% of the educators who responded to our survey assign Active History posts in their classes.
What Readers Like About Active History
“As curated history forums go, this is one of the best. I actually learn about topics that I’d not heard of. Your contributors are often emerging professionals who have an important voice as yet unheard. […] Active History feels fresh with an urgency to it.”
“Short, accessible, thought-provoking, and diverse pieces that do valuable work to connect historical research and practice to present-day issues.”
“It is sharing hidden history or little-known history to an audience that are not necessarily academia.”
“It provides such a critical discussion space for historians of Canada. Truly one of the most important, relevant, and increasingly prestigious and “cool” history publications in Canada!”
“I like the broad range of articles and authors. I often find myself quite enjoying articles on topics I didn’t think I was interested in!”
“It feels like the conversations historians used to have on twitter actively. I like that Active History doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. I like that there is a variety of authors.”
Publishing with Active History
97.2% of educators said they encourage their colleagues and students to publish with Active History. 88.9% of educators said “I view student contributions to Active History favourably and would potentially discuss them when writing about a student’s strengths and accomplishments” in a reference letter. Furthermore, Active History gives students and early-career historians a venue to:
- publish an open-access piece that is easy to share and disseminate within and without academia
- work with experienced editors to fine-tune their pieces
- respond quickly to current events when their research interest is in the news
- create a portfolio item to show off their plain language and short-form writing skills
Our survey respondents have encouraging words for prospective authors.
“I thoroughly enjoyed publishing with Active History. I received thoughtful editing comments and have received a warm review of the content I published.”
“I’ve been encouraging my students to submit material because I think it’s a great way to get their names and topics out in the world. I’ve always been very pleased with the editorial process as well.”
“I have referred and encouraged all of my grad students to publish with Active History for the following reasons: exposure; learning to write for a wide audience; service to the community.”
“The format is less constrained than that of many journals, and the audience is probably bigger, and certainly broader.”
“It’s an easily accessible blog with an international audience that turns up on basic Google searches.”
“Writing blog posts encourages students to clarify their ideas so they are easily explainable for a more general historical audience, rather than specialists in their sub-field; writing for active history would be a great way to get some outside feedback; it’s a great way to get recognition for early research.”
Next steps
When we asked what sort of content readers would like to see more of on Active History, the top three results were blog series, online exhibits, and book and article reviews. If you have an idea for these, or any other contribution, please reach out to me at activehistoryinfo@gmail.com!
I have been a fan of Active History for many years . I took some part time courses at Glendon back in the late 1960’s soon after migrating to Turtle Island from the UK. In the UK at the time we had to make a choice between Science & Arts for our “A” Levels. I chose Science but always wanted to learn more about “Arts” particularly film. So along with a daytime job in a lab I took several evening courses at Glendon. Various life events involved journeys back to Glendon from the 70’s through to the ’90’s.
I have continued my virtual links progressing from Facebook to Twitter over the years.
Fab to have review of what readers are looking for. Insight into what’s happening in the world of history and education. So excited that articles are being made available and are accessible for us non-academics.