Once Were Brothers: Reflections on Rock ‘n’ Roll revisionism

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By James Cullingham

I first saw The Band at Massey Hall in January 1970 when I was a Toronto high school student. It was a highly anticipated comeback show just around the corner from the bars and strip clubs they had played when they were known as The Hawks.

The Band’s sound drew on Appalachian music, Country & Western, Delta and Chicago blues, rockabilly, R&B and Indigenous musical forms that powerhouse guitarist and principal songwriter Robbie Robertson grew up with. Even with all these influences, at its best, this band sounded only like The Band. As Bruce Springsteen says, “they were loaded for bear” because in bassist Rick Danko, drummer Levon Helm and pianist Richard Manuel, The Band possessed three singers who could have sang lead for any group. The combination of their voices is still thrilling decades after they cut The Band’s records. In keyboardist and saxophonist Garth Hudson, The Band also featured a singularly brilliant musician equally steeped in Christian church music, jazz and experimental forms.

In 2019, the saga is being revisited through Robertson’s eyes. Once Were Brothers – Robbie Robertson and The Band directed by Daniel Roher launched the Toronto International Film Festival. It is the first Canadian documentary to be so chosen. Robertson was on hand for the premiere. Toronto Mayor John Tory presented him with a key to the city where he grew up. (Full disclosure: I was briefly consulted by Roher and one of the film’s executive producers Peter Raymont in the film’s pre-production phase.)

Once Were Brothers begins with funky black and white old timey titles on a decayed background. Continue reading →

University Donations and the Legitimization of Far-Right Views

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by Asa McKercher

In 2016, Western University’s Department of History announced the establishment of a variety of graduate awards and scholarships named for Kenneth Hilborn, who had bequeathed $1 million to the university in his estate. A faculty member at Western from 1961 to 1997, Hilborn (PhD, Oxford) was of a generation where one could apparently secure tenure without having published a scholarly, peer-reviewed book. Rather, in the early part of his career, Hilborn’s writing – and here is where I am familiar with him given my research on Canadian international history – consisted mainly of op-eds focused on the Cold War and Canada’s foreign policy. A fixture in Canada Month, a long forgotten conservative – small ‘c’ and quite opposed to the federal Progressive Conservative Party – magazine, he maintained a column offering strident anti-communist positions and criticisms of the Pearsonian status quo (multilateralism, peacekeeping, less than full-throated support for the United States). Hilborn also devoted his time to defending the white minority regimes in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. While his defence of apartheid was ostensibly rooted in his anti-communism, it is telling that his columns on this subject were often reprinted in the Canadian Intelligence Service, a newsletter published between 1951-2005 by Ronald Gostick, whose hatreds included communists, socialists, Pierre Trudeau, Jews, race-mixing, and fluoride.

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Seeing What Lies Beneath Paintings

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By Brett Liem and Michael Robertson

Last year we published a short article in Active History where we described optical techniques for recovering the contrast from faded documents.  A range of light sources from ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared (NIR), filters, and a camera adapted to form images with light outside or the normal visible spectrum were used to reveal residual ink that was no longer visible due to damage or aging.  This year, we extended the work to investigate the use of similar optical techniques for imaging a pencil sketch underneath a painting.  The inspiration for this work was a paper by Delaney et al [1] where three layers of underdrawings were imaged beneath Picasso’s The Tragedy.

In order to understand the optical properties of the acrylic paints used in this study, optical transmission spectra were obtained from 8 colours of acrylic paint applied to a glass slide as well as from the glass slide itself. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode 134: Advocate

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By Sean Graham

Since I started doing the podcast back in 2012, there have been a lot of topics and discussions that have surprised me. Perhaps nothing was as surprising, though, as when I learned of the new documentary Advocate, which premiered earlier this year. The film tells the story of Lea Tsemel, an Israeli lawyer who has spent her career defending political prisoners, including many from Palestine. Her story is one of strength, perseverance, and the power of standing up for principles in which you believe. It premiered earlier this year and has earned positive reviews following its screenings at Hot Docs in Toronto.

In this episode of the History Slam I talk with filmmakers Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche about their documentary. We talk about Lea Tsemel, her career, and how she is perceived in Israel. We also talk about the challenges of putting together the film, its narrative structure, and why this story is so important to share.

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Public History Placement for the Undergraduate History Student

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By Valla McLean, Tim O’Grady, Carolee Pollock, Allan Rowe

As part of MacEwan University’s Public History offerings, the Field Placement course provides undergraduate students with a distinctive learning experience and offers local public history partners significant benefits. This successful course is built on four pillars: meaningful work, structured learning, an opportunity for networking, and an emphasis on the importance of the broader historical context in local public history work. Benefits for community partners include both short and long-term capacity-building, the completion of projects and the pleasure of working with enthusiastic young people. This program aligns with the university’s commitments to engage with its local community, and to provide students with a meaningful university experience. It introduces them to the professional world and possible careers. Students report great satisfaction with their placements.

Historians have long emphasized the importance of experiential learning in public history education and training. Continue reading →

Spare a Thought for the History Teacher

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By David Calverley

As a secondary school history teacher in Ontario, I enjoyed the ActiveHistory.ca posts published in March by Samantha Cutrara and Rose Fine-Meyer. I agree that women’s history and gender issues are not well-represented in Ontario’s Grade 7 and 8 History curriculums. Lack of representation is also an issue in the Grade 10 History Curriculum. It is the final compulsory history class in Ontario, a course I’ve taught numerous times, and the course I’ll largely focus on for this article. However, observations that the curriculum fails to address certain content sufficiently carries the implication that the curriculum requires revision. Such observations are useful since curriculum is always changing to reflect different needs. However, as a practicing teacher, I think it is important to consider another factor when addressing limitations in the history curriculum: the practice of teaching high school history. Multiple issues impinge upon a history classroom but many can be lumped under the heading of time. So, please spare a thought for the history teacher and give some consideration to our practice.

A Harkness-Style Classroom Discussion

First, all teachers must consider their students. Good teachers love their kids and want them to succeed but puberty ridden students can be exasperating. Intermediate students (grades 7 to 10) have only partially developed brains. They have poor attention spans, and what attention they do have is often focused elsewhere. They have difficulty grasping concepts that might seem straight forward to the teacher but are too abstract for a thirteen-year-old. Complicating all of this, teachers instruct students with a range of academic, social, emotional, and developmental issues. I’ve taught Grade 10 students who read at a Grade 3 level, students with ASD, FAS, and other social/emotional/developmental issues. Creating a course that addresses the curriculum, is age appropriate, and supports exceptional students takes time.

Teenage life also intrudes on your class time. Perhaps a student is upset because their friend is facing a manslaughter charge, or a member of their family is charged with multiple, indictable offences. Perhaps their parents are divorcing. Maybe their father, mother, brother, or sister has suddenly passed away. The student might be developing mental health or addiction issues. Perhaps one of your female students is pregnant and both she and the father are understandably stressed. Maybe a student at the school has died, from illness, accident, or suicide and it is impacting the students in your class. Maybe one of your students is being abused and your are part of a Children’s Aid Society investigation. I have faced all of these issues at some point in my career, and each required my time and attention. Continue reading →

A new mission statement for HistoireEngagée.ca

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For nearly a decade, Active History and our French-language partner, Histoire Engagée, have shared similar goals and concerns, while working independently in two quite different social and historiographical contexts. Today the editorial team of Histoire Engagée have published a new mission statement that anyone interested in their work or more broadly in what it means to be active historians today should read. It presents three broad goals: to offer texts that interpret the present in Canada and the world in light of the past; to take an active role in important historiographical debates; to forefront historical narratives that give agency and place to marginalized actors and voices. 

Un nouvel énoncé de mission pour HistoireEngagee.ca

Introduction par Florence Prévost-Gégoire, University College Dublin, membre du comité éditorial d’HistoireEngagee.ca. Énoncé de mission par l’équipe éditoriale d’HistoireEngagee.ca.

Introduction

En guise de premier texte de l’année 2019-2020, l’équipe éditoriale d’HistoireEngagée.ca publie aujourd’hui son nouvel énoncé de mission. Après une année 2018-2019 pleine de changements, il nous apparaissait nécessaire de repenser les objectifs de la revue afin qu’ils soient plus en accord avec les valeurs d’une équipe éditoriale qui s’est considérablement renouvelée dans les deux dernières années. La chronique éditoriale que nous avons publiée en janvier dernier parlait de cette année comme d’un moment charnière, d’un tournant, dans l’histoire d’HistoireEngagée.ca. L’augmentation de nos publications (maintenant deux par semaine) témoigne effectivement du fait que la plateforme occupe une place de plus en plus importante dans les milieux historiens. Notre revue offre un lieu de diffusion rapide et nous recevons de plus en plus de textes spontanés qui réagissent à l’actualité ou réfléchissent aux apories de la discipline historique. L’augmentation de notre rythme de publication nous a placés devant un grand éventail de dilemmes éditoriaux et nous a fait prendre conscience de la place de notre revue dans la diffusion de la connaissance historique. Ce « succès » d’HistoireEngagée.ca (qui fêtera l’an prochain sa première décennie) vient avec une responsabilité : utiliser cette plateforme pour apporter des changements réels dans la discipline.

(To read the rest of this article, visit HistoireEngagée.ca)

Historical Jeopardy: The Emperor’s Club

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Bryn Coates-Davies

The Emperor’s Club (2002, directed by Michael Hoffman) stars Kevin Kline as a History teacher who works at a prestigious boys’ boarding school in the 1970s. Kline’s character, William Hundert, is a strict teacher of the history of the Roman Empire. He teaches a very structured class until Sedgewick Bell, a senator’s son, certified bad boy, and potential Communist joins the class. Despite a rocky beginning to their relationship, Hundert is able to inspire young Sedgewick in the run up to the prestigious “Mr. Julius Caesar Contest”. However, in the final, Hundert discovers Sedgewick is cheating and is able to eliminate him without this being discovered. Twenty-five years after this, Sedgewick, now a very wealthy businessman, organizes a rematch just to cheat again and be eliminated again in the same manner. Following this, Hundert concludes that he failed Sedgewick, as the latter uses this event to announce his candidacy for the senate and shows no remorse for cheating. Hundert then concludes that while he failed Sedgewick, he succeeded with the rest of his students.

Film poster for The Emperor's Club

Film poster for The Emperor’s Club

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Francophone Alberta: Deeply Engaged in the First World War

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By Rebecca Lazarenko

As news of impending conflict travelled across Canada on August 4, 1914, a monstrous manifestation in favour of the declaration of war was held in downtown Edmonton. Thousands of French and English residents marched up and down the streets of the city, proudly waving the French, British and Canadian flags, shouting “hourah!” in favour of the declaration, and loudly singing “Rule Britannia” and “La Marseillaise.” Around 8:00pm, multiple patriotic speeches were made by prominent English-Canadian and French-Canadian political figures in Alberta.

Despite cultural and linguistic differences, both the English and the French residents of Alberta declared their patriotic support for the Canadian war effort. Although French-Canadian nationalists in Québec quickly began questioning Canada’s involvement in the war, the francophone community of Alberta’s support never wavered. Its members continually demonstrated their belief in a moral “devoir” (duty) to actively support the Canadian war effort, as a means of honouring the dignity of the French “race”[1] and culture, but also to fight against injustice.

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Reading Religious History in Parisian Guidebooks and Architecture

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Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois. Wikimedia Commons

Erin Isaac

In 2006 Leonard Pitt observed in his guidebook Walks Through Lost Paris that “one would have no idea that this was the spot where Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre was launched.”[1] The spot to which he referred, pictured above, is Paris’s l’Eglise Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, a gothic cathedral that has become a well known “dark tourist” destination for its role in the 1572 massacre. While “dark tourism” is a fairly recent term (coined in 1996 by Malcolm Foley and J. John Lennon), it is not a new concept.[2] The Catacombs of Paris, for instance, have been open to the public since 1809, and Pompeii has attracted European visitors since the mid-18th century.[3] However, guidebooks only began mentioning the darker side of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois’s history in the mid-19th century. By considering how guidebooks from different eras describe this church, I explore how historical memory of the site was tied to Paris’s changing urban landscape and suggest that references to the 1572 massacre in tourist literature only emerged as religious tensions in France diminished.

Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois is situated in the heart of Paris. Taking a left off the Pont Neuf onto the right bank, the church is just a few blocks away. Turn right onto Place de l’École, then left onto Rue des Prêtres Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, and right again onto Place du Louvre. A few steps forward will bring you face to face with one of Paris’s most interesting historic sites (for historians of religion, at least). Looking between the buildings on either side of the ornate bell tower that is now situated between the Mairie for the 1er Arrondissement and the church, subtle signs indicate that the building to the right is much older. To truly appreciate the differences between the structures, pass through the gates into the courtyard where you can see that the church is adorned with gargoyles and flying buttresses—testaments to the building’s age.

From this vantage point, the original bell tower is visible. Most of the tower’s visitors these days are the staff who park their cars here, or the workers going about their tasks at the Mairie’s loading dock. A full view of the old bell tower is obscured by tree branches, and the tight quarters force you to tilt your head backwards to see the top. However, for this historian, this quiet spot in the courtyard is the most important part of the building.

Photo courtesy of the author, May 2017.

This bell tower was ground zero for one of history’s most infamous massacres, the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 24 August 1572—an historic “red wedding” that would become a defining moment in the then raging French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). Continue reading →