Was the Past a Happy Place?

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As an example, taking Stephen Harper's 2012 Throne Speech, cutting it into 20 pieces, and plotting several emotions. Bad news (i.e. austerity) bookended between joy, hope.

By Ian Milligan

Was the past a happy place? Could we take a large array of information and learn whether there was an emotional content to it? I’ve been increasingly curious about how we can apply a host of tools that data miners are using on contemporary information to large repositories of historical information: could we learn something new from a distant emotional reading of the past? In this post, let’s briefly chat about sentiment analysis, or the extraction of the overall emotional state of an author. It’s all very new and introductory, but I hope to pique your interest and explore some of these ideas myself. Continue reading →

Travelling by Story

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by Merle Massie

The Saskatchewan River Delta (insert: on the border between SK and MB). Image courtesy Ducks Unlimited, Canada.

A few weeks ago, I was privileged to visit with Solomon and Renée Carriere at their home: Big Eddy Camp, northern Saskatchewan. If that seems like a vague description, it is. Few people would be able to find Big Eddy on any map, unless you are a canoe racer, dogsled racer, or know the Saskatchewan River Delta.  But if you, like me, love the art and craft of storytelling, Big Eddy might be your next travel destination. Let me tell you why. Continue reading →

The Canadian Auto Workers, Social Unionism and the Abortion Debate

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By Mathieu Brûlé

While there have been a number of labour-related subjects in the news recently, from the Elliot Lake tragedy  to the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ White Paper on unions, one article in particular caught my interest. It was about the recent efforts of the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) to organize a number of demonstrations in support of continued access to safe, legal and accessible abortion. That this has turned out to be a controversial campaign did not come as a surprise, but I was interested in some of the comments made by a number of readers of the article.  Aside from being surprised at the small number of comments, especially on the issue of abortion (14 comments at the time of writing this), I couldn’t help but notice the surprise in some of the comments that the CAW would show an interest in, let alone take a position on, the question of abortion. Continue reading →

Parler Fort: Four Wars of 1812

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We’re pleased to tell you about our next PARLER FORT discussion taking place next Wednesday evening, July 4th at 7:30pm.

Our commemoration of the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 has begun in Toronto and across Canada with many opportunities to look with fresh eyes at what took place 200 years ago. Parler Fort’s latest contribution is our event titled: The Four Wars of 1812: Remembering Our Independence this July 4th. Continue reading →

Active History and the Importance of Place

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By Andrew Watson

Stories bring places to life, and places attach special meaning to stories. Every story takes place somewhere, and every place has a story to tell. Historians, especially ‘Active’ historians have a responsibility to tie the stories we tell to the places where they unfolded. The evidence historians uncover and the insight historians apply to that evidence combine to create stories that include lessons from the past. While academics often find these lessons useful at a theoretical or abstract level (stories about ‘freedom’ or ‘Canada’), most people, I suspect, appreciate a story if the lessons they derive from it provide a better understanding of their own lives. This is why ‘place’ is so important for active history. Continue reading →

In the beginning there was… Canada?!?

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This is my favourite time of the year to be in Quebec City.  With the school year drawing to a close, a seemingly endless train of tour buses bear down on the city. Ontario’s youth are here to learn about Canada’s roots in the berceau of the nation. Our story starts here… or at least so the tale goes. Sitting at my hotel-room desk in Quebec – straddled between two days of national celebration – I can’t help but consider the stories we use to describe who we are and where we have been as a country. Continue reading →

The Loyalists

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For readers who are in Toronto, we have been asked to pass along information about a production that is having its closing night tonight.

THE LOYALISTS
Closing night 22 June 2012
7 pm & 9 pm
Tickets: $25 (buy online, visit www.singlethread.ca for more information)
Location: 520 Wellington St. W, Victoria Memorial Square (map)
Prepare yourself for an immersive and interactive experience unlike any other!

York, 1813… The Americans have occupied the town. The people of York must choose to remain loyal to Great Britain or embrace the American conqueror.

Developed in residence at Canadian Stage for the Festival of Ideas and Creation, The Loyalists focuses on concepts of domesticity, loyalty and above all, the decision to remain a distinct people.

The town of York consists of fifteen ‘stations’ designed by architect Jay Pooley. A cast of fifteen actors populate the town. A team of fifteen artists, including composers, carpenters, weavers, props experts, and installation artists have collaborated to create the sound, feel and texture of the world.

Christianity and Active History

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By Andrew Nurse

More often then not, Christianity does not enjoy a positive public image. Canadians may be willing to select Tommy Douglas as the “Greatest Canadian,” but one suspects that this had more to do with medicare than his evangelical background. Interestingly, Christianity’s PR problems have a lot to do with history. Continue reading →

Podcast: “Whose War Was It, Anyway?” A Roundtable Discussion on the War of 1812

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A full room at the Waterloo Public Library for "'Whose War Was It, Anyway?' A Round-Table Discussion"

By Jay Young

Not only are interpretations of war up for debate; the reasons behind how and why we remember it are too.  On May 30th 2012 a packed Waterloo Public Library hosted a roundtable titled “Whose War Was It, Anyway?”  Organized by the Active History Canadian Historical Association (CHA) Committee and supported by The History Education Network/Histoire et Éducation en Réseau (THEN/HiER) and the CHA, the event brought together a handful of historians to discuss not only various perspectives on the War of 1812, but also the meanings that lie behind the most recent moment of commemoration.

ActiveHistory.ca is happy to feature a podcast of the roundtable.

The roundtable concluded an engaging mini-conference on the War of 1812.  The conference included presentations on topics such as augmented reality, the relationship between local tourism and the war’s commemoration, and the role of historic peace churches in Upper Canada during the conflict. Continue reading →

Joe Beef and the Invention of Culinary Tradition

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By Ian Mosby

Charles McKiernan, the original Joe Beef ca. 1875. McCord Museum, UAPT5014

As countless Canadian undergraduates have learned after reading Peter DeLottinville’s classic 1982 article, “Joe Beef of Montreal: Working-Class Culture and the Tavern, 1869-1889,” Joe Beef’s Canteen was more than just your ordinary tavern. Described as the “Great House of Vulgar People” by its larger-than-life proprietor Charles McKiernan – or Joe Beef as he was popularly known – a nineteenth century visitor to this ramshackle Montreal institution would likely have seen a brown bear named Tom drinking ale in the corner, two human skeletons hanging behind the bar, and piece of beef that had caused the death-by-choking of an unfortunate customer on display for all to see. For middle class Montrealers, it was a source of drunkenness, criminality and moral hazard. But, as DeLottinville argues, McKiernan’s working class patrons saw Joe Beef’s Canteen as more than just a place to find food, alcohol and sociability. McKiernan’s support for the unemployed, hungry, and sick – as well as for striking workers – saw the tavern become a kind of makeshift safety net for Montreal’s workers during hard times and, partly as a result of this function, a “stronghold of working class values and culture.”[1]

Although the recently published The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts (2011) begins with selections from DeLottinville’s article – albeit with the discussions of working-class politics and culture noticeably absent – it quickly becomes clear that the form of living described within would be much more recognizable to the educated leisure class that makes up today’s ‘foodie’ universe than the original Joe Beef or his clientele of “sailors and longshoremen, unemployed men and petty thieves.”[2] Written by the founders of contemporary Montreal restaurant Joe Beef – which has been described by celebrity chef and tastemaker David Chang as his “favorite restaurant in the world” – the ‘cookbook’ establishes its distance from this world of unskilled labourers and thieves by presenting the reader with the decadent “Fois Gras Parfait with Madeira Jelly” as its first recipe and by including an entire chapter dedicated to fine French wines. Continue reading →