Active History

The Giant Cost of Past Pollution

June 24, 2013 No Comments

Giant Mine

Some historical artifacts pose a dangerous and costly challenge to those of us living today and to future generations. Unlike stone ruins, carefully preserved books or dusty archival papers, the toxic waste produced by past industrial activities contaminate environments around the world, threatening our health and our economic future. Here in Canada, a review board just released a report on how to clean up the “237,000 tonnes of highly toxic arsenic trioxide dust stored in 15 underground chambers” that remained after the closing of Giant Mine in Yellowknife (CBC). The outlook is grim. The clean up will costs up to one billion dollars, but will not provide a permanent solution to freeze the toxic waste in place. Because current technologies can not safely remove the arsenic, the report requires further research and a reassessment every twenty years until a permanent solution is found. Giant Mine was an economic success story, which extracted 220,000 kg of gold in a little more than half a century of mining , but also left behind a costly and dangerous toxic legacy. Continue reading →

Tap Dancing and Murder – in a Grade Seven Classroom

June 20, 2013 1 Comment

By Merle Massie

“My tap dancing just isn’t good enough,” she wrote. She: my daughter’s high school English teacher. Tap dancing: teaching (to pubescent, smartmouth, intelligent, tired kids at the end of June in rural Saskatchewan). “I remember a staff meeting conversation from some point where you were willing to come in and talk with students.” What’s the topic, Mrs. J? Reconstructing Past Lives.

Excellent. That is EXACTLY what historians do, right? So I set off to find out if I could tap dance for teenagers. Just for a couple of hours. After all, I tap dance for University students on a regular basis. How hard can it be?

Amid recent media controversy about the conservative federal government looking to choreograph the tap dancing of Canadian history (see here and here), I was curious to find out just what a typical Canadian grade seven student already knew. Continue reading →

The Wider World in the Peripheral Vision of Historians in Canada

June 19, 2013 6 Comments

By Luke Clossey

Fool’s Mad Cap of the World, c. 1580

Being a world historian in Canada can be an odd thing. Two of the founders of the “new” world history – William McNeill and L. S. Stavrianos – had roots in British Columbia. Toronto and Vancouver have more immigrants per capita than almost every other city in North America. Canada is a gloriously multicultural state, relatively innocent of the hyperbolic nationalism that sees in its own history a unique recipe for excellence (one popular textbook is subtitled “A Country Nourished on Self-Doubt“). At the same time, that self-effacement makes Canadians no less interested in Canada. Canadian history looms large in our departmental curricula, and the histories of other places, especially non-western places, are typically shuffled off into a corner. Despite the efforts and vision of some of its members, the Canadian Historical Association is far more for historians of Canada than historians in Canada (see Tom Peace’s analysis on this website of topics presented at the CHA’s annual meetings). My last SSHRC application, for a world-history project, was classified (probably with some odd bedfellows) as “history (other)”–right beneath “history (nursing),” a worthy field, but not quite the history of humanity.

An awareness of the marginalization of the history of the wider, non-western world in a country that today is so profoundly influenced by and connected to that same wider-world motivated more serious study. Over the last three years Nicholas Guyatt (University of York), a half dozen long-suffering research assistants, and I worked through the professional websites of some twenty-five hundred historians at some of the “top” universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The results (found on our website) confirmed a great deal of our suspicions, and most of the surprises came from giving us a better sense of the magnitude of Western dominance over our history departments. Some 85% of our historians are working on the history of the West, a nebulous place which today contains only some 15% of the global population. Continue reading →

In a Rush to Modernize, MySpace Destroyed More History

June 17, 2013 18 Comments

The destruction of Myspace blogs is akin to destroying Penn Station in 1963 – making way for the new by destroying the old. Both were abhorrent.

By Ian Milligan

In 1963, despite community opposition, New York City’s Pennsylvania Station was torn down. It was an age of modernism, old being wiped away for new. Afterwards, some of the sails went out of that movement: there was renewed interest in architectural preservation, added hesitation when it came to the wholesale destruction of our past.

Last week, a similar event happened. MySpace, in a rush to relaunch and rebrand itself, made inaccessible the blogs of all of its users. There could be no movement to preserve this record of the past, as it happened so suddenly. Millions of contributions, critical records of events of a decade or so ago, lost in the blink of an eye. It’s similar to the destruction of something like Penn station: a website that was run by user-generated content, that was a central hub of Internet traffic, and that meant something to multiple millions of people.

Remember MySpace? Before Facebook, there was MySpace: the world’s most visited social media site between 2005 and 2008. Users created heavily customized pages – wags enjoyed making fun of the garishness of many of them, as opposed to the sterile and standardized world of Facebook – and it was a popular blogging platform. For many young people, only a few years ago, MySpace was the centre of their social world.

So it was a shock when, without warning (even Yahoo! (no fan of history) gives warnings when they shut down their websites), MySpace decided to modernize their website and destroy those blogs along the way. MySpace is all about the new now: launching with a new cool, funky commercial by a cult photographer; focusing on streaming music and mobile applications; and blanketing television networks who have young audiences, from Comedy Central to MTV to ESPN.

Let me say this again: MySpace destroyed history.

Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Twenty-Three: Congress Recap

June 12, 2013 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

congress_header-9 The 2013 Social Sciences and Humanities Congress was held recently in Victoria, which of course included the CHA Annual Meeting. In a beautiful city, with a beautiful campus, and spurred on by beautiful weather, the conference was quite a success. A hearty congratulations to Penny Bryden and her entire organizing committee at the University of Victoria.

In this episode of the History Slam we recap the week that was and chat about some of the issues surrounding Congress and conferences in general. First I talk with Daniel Ross of York University of the President of the CHA Graduate Student Committee about some of the challenges and benefits facing grad students. Then I chat with Jo McCutcheon, treasurer of the CHA and from the University of Ottawa, et al. Finally I catch up with my former high school classmate Jodey Nurse, now of the University of Guelph, about her experience as a first time Congress-ee.

(I love Victoria!) Continue reading →

Sudbury: The Journey from Moonscape to Sustainably Green

June 10, 2013 7 Comments

Roast yard near Victoria Mines, Sudbury 1898. Greater Sudbury Historical Database.

By Krista McCracken

The image of Sudbury, Ontario has long been associated with mining, smelting, and a barren landscape. Perhaps most famously, the landscape of Sudbury has been said to be comparable to the landscape present on the moon. Similarly, the image of the towering Sudbury Superstack is one which holds sway in the minds of many Canadians. However, since the 1970s Sudbury has put considerable financial and community resources into mitigating the ecological impact of mining on the community.

Nickel was identified in the Sudbury Basin as early as 1750. Despite this discovery the early years of industry in Sudbury were dominated by forestry. By the mid 1880s forest fires and clear cut logging had already contributed to significant alteration of the natural landscape of Sudbury.

The industrial scars on the landscape increased as the mining industry developed in the area. In 1888 the first roast yard and smelter were established in Copper Cliff, and marked the beginning of large scale mining in the Sudbury area. Between 1913 and 1916 the Mond Nickel Company removed all vegetation from the Coniston area to provide fuel for the roasting yard.

The roasting method was used by mining companies in Sudbury until 1929 as the primary means of separating minerals. Fueled by cordwood these beds resulted in clouds of sulfur dioxide spreading from the beds at ground level. The roast beds have been blamed for much of the environmental destruction in Sudbury. However, it has also been argued that the later smelter technology also contributed to considerable environmental devastation by releasing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.[i]

The result of years of continuous mining and expulsion of associated pollutants resulted in approximately 7,000 lakes within 17,000 square kilometers being acidified, 20,000 hectares of barren land being created in which no vegetation grows and significant erosion has occurred, and 80,000 hectares of semi-barren land.[ii] Continue reading →

‘The Government Game’: resettlement then and now

June 6, 2013 1 Comment

By Tina Loo

Men standing on shore of output [sic, outport], 1961. Source: Library and Archives Canada/National Film Board fonds/e010975945.

So the government paid us for movin’ away,
And leaving our birthplace for a better day’s pay;
They said that our poor lives would ne’er be the same,
Once we took part in the government game….

-Al Pittman, “The Government Game” (1983)

Ninety per cent. That was the number on the minds of the eighty-seven residents of Little Bay Islands in Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland, as they voted on whether to be resettled. It was the bar they had to reach to qualify for government support to move.

People had been leaving the centuries-old community for years, and after the crab plant shut down there were almost no jobs on the island. With a population largely over sixty-five, it employed a teacher (for two students), a school janitor, and two men who looked after the diesel generating station. Islanders had to travel by government ferry to buy groceries or see a doctor – a three or four-hour round trip when the weather allowed.[1]

What I’ve just described could easily be a scene from the 1960s or 70s, when Newfoundland was in the midst of outport resettlement, a program that moved more than 20,000 people in what was the largest government-sponsored relocation of people in Canadian history. But it isn’t: the vote on Little Bay Islands happened at the end of April 2013. The results have yet to be announced. Continue reading →

Historians and Digital History: Why Do Academics Shy Away from Digital History?

June 5, 2013 6 Comments

By Paul W. Bennett

The Internet is finally beginning to penetrate historical practice. At the recent North American Society for Sports History (NASSH) Conference, held May 24-26, 2013 at Saint Mary’s University, Douglas Booth and Gary Osmond provided a fascinating primer on the impact digital history is starting to exert on a field like the study of international sports history. The Internet itself, Booth pointed out, is — in fact– “an infinitely expanding, partially mediated archive.” Exploring the World Wide Web, however, can be frightening, especially for recognized experts, because it “disturbs previous certainties.”

Digital history, according to Toni Weller, author of History in the Digital Age (2013), is the use of digital media and tools for historical practice, presentation, analysis, and research. Early work in digital history focused on creating digital archives, CD-ROMs, online presentations, time-lines, audio files, and virtual worlds. More recent digital history projects demonstrate the potential of creativity, collaboration, mapping data, and technical innovation, all of which are aspects of Web 2.0 Continue reading →

Ripple Effects: Great Lakes Water Levels

June 4, 2013 1 Comment

By Daniel Macfarlane

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 →

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