By Dr Josh MacFadyen [Cross-posted on The Otter] The technologies that have helped enclose us from nature may also help expose us, exposing us to hidden and fragile ecosystems and the common efforts to protect them. Environmental historians argue that the average North American has less contact with the natural environment than any previous generation; we simply spend less of… Read more »
“Enterprise” is an exhibition that deserves to be seen. It makes you feel history and think about it. What more could we ask for in an active history?
By Ryan Kelly A friend of mine with decades of bargaining experience once told me, “No one has ever sat down to a bargaining table and had management say: ‘Sounds good! We have enough money to cover all of that.’” There are many nuances to negotiations, many ingrained in the processes as described in the Ontario Labour Relations Act. Negotiations… Read more »
By Merle Massie When Senator Nicole Eaton called for Canada to declare a new biopolitical symbol in the fall of 2011, she suggested replacing the ‘dentally defective rat’ –– known as beaver, or castor Canadensis –– with the perhaps more ‘stately’ polar bear. In one simple suggestion, she set off a firestorm of controversy across Canada’s social and public media… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/John-Resch-Final.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham The History Slam has gone international! In this edition I chat with John Resch of the University of New Hampshire – Manchester and get the American perspective of the War of 1812. So while people across the country commemorate the Canadian point of view of the war, Professor Resch describes how… Read more »
By Jay Young The passing of Sam “the Record Man” Sniderman at the age of 92 filled the airwaves, newspaper pages, and conversations on the street in Toronto this past week. Sniderman owned the largest chain of record stores in Canada and ardently promoted the Canadian music industry. Many people expressed warm memories of the entrepreneur and his flagship shop… Read more »
By Mark J. McLaughlin September 2012 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. In this influential book, Carson argued exhaustively that the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides such as DDT for industrial and agricultural purposes was detrimental to ecosystems and human health. Generally well received by the public, Silent Spring helped fuel the development of… Read more »
By Greg Kennedy The government is trying really hard to make Canadians feel like the War of 1812 was important. Variations of these themes announced on the government’s website, 1812.gc.ca, are routinely expressed by politicians, directors of heritage sites and members of local historical societies: “Canada would not exist had the American invasion of 1812-15 been successful.” The war “set… Read more »
By Mireille Mayrand-Fiset When wandering around the streets of Old Montreal, one may come across a public square facing City Hall named Place Marie-Josèphe Angélique. Most people will not give much thought to it, unaware that the woman who gave her name to the square was once accused of setting fire to the very streets they are walking on. Marie-JosephAngélique… Read more »
Esyllt Jones and Adele Perry, eds. People’s Citizenship Guide: A Response to Conservative Canada (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2011). Reviewed by E.L. Payseur I was asked to write a review of the People’s Citizenship Guide as someone who has fairly recently taken the Canadian citizenship test, and not as the historian I am. It is extremely difficult to separate these… Read more »
