Alexandra Montgomery, a Ph.D candidate at Penn and an award-winning historian, asks this question here. A taste: As an American born kid growing up in Halifax, the question of why that chunk of land stayed British while the rest of...
Canada
Was the American Revolution a Bad Idea?
Over at The New Yorker, writer Adam Gopnik explores this idea through a discussion of several new books on the American Revolution. Here is a taste of his article “We Could Have Been Canada“: And what if it was a mistake...
The Author's Corner with Lawrence Hatter
Lawrence Hatter is Assistant Professor of History at Washington State University. This interview is based on his new book, Citizens of Convenience: The Imperial Origins of American Nationhood on the U.S.-Canadian Border (University of Virginia Press, 2017). JF: What led you...
New Books in Early Canadian History
I am a sucker for online roundups of new books. Over at Borealia blog, Keith Grant, the blog co-proprietor and a SSHRC Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholar, introduces us to some new books on early Canadian history. Here is a taste: Welcome...
Is Early American History Experiencing a "Canadian Turn?"
Jeffers Lennox of Wesleyan University thinks so. Here is a taste of his piece at Borealia: The American Revolution wasn’t simply American. The Early National period was hardly national at all. From 1774 to at least 1815, regional linkages and...
Historians of Canada Have Been Studying Loyalists for a Long Time
Because history is often written by the winners, Whigs and patriots have long dominated the study of the American Revolution. Loyalists–or those men and women who supported the Crown during the Revolution–have thus received sort shrift in the narratives that...
Interested in Early Canada?
Borealia, the website which has quickly become the go-to source for all things early Canada, gives us a glimpse of some forthcoming book on the subject. Here is Keith Grant’s introduction to the booklist: Welcome to the first Borealia roundup...
Newspapers and British Identity in 18th-Century Quebec City and Halifax
If you have not discovered Borealia, you should go check it out. The editors of this blog are pushing us to expand our understanding of early America to include Canada. (Of course scholars have been doing this for a long...
Introducing Borealia: A Group Blog on Early Canadian History
I have been waiting for the arrival of Borealia, a new blog on early Canadian history edited by Keith Grant, a Ph.D candidate in history at New Brunswick University, and Denis McKim, a historian at Douglas College in British Columbia.Here […]
Keith Grant Reports From the 2014 Omohundro Conference in Halifax
It is summer conference-going season and The Way of Improvement Leads Home is on the beat. A few days ago Liz Covart reported from the New York State History Conference in Poughkeepsie. Today we hear from Keith S. Grant, a...
Nicholas Kristof’s Canadian Dream
Writing in his The New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof argues that the “American dream has derailed” as a result of inequality. In fact, the so-called “American Dream” is more likely to be found in Canada. Canadians receive free health […]
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Canada’s History Wars
Stephen Harper In the United States we can’t get our president to say a word about the importance of history. In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a conservative, has declared that historical remembrances and commemorations will be a major part...
The Historical Thinking Project
I just ran across an amazing website devoted to historical thinking. It is called “The Historical Thinking Project” and it is run by Peter Seixas at the University of British Columbia. The project is funded by the Department of Canadian […]
Dispatches from the AHA in New Orleans (4)
Erin Bartram weighs in on Thursday afternoon panel on Canadian Catholic Influences in America –JF This afternoon, I attended a panel on Canadian Catholic influences in America which provoked a lively discussion on borderlands, cultural transformation, and identity politics. Molly […]
The Fuzziness of Canadian Nationalism
Do Americans know their history better than Canadians do theirs? David Koyzis, a politics professor at Ontario’s Redeemer University College, thinks so. Part of the reason, Koyzis argues, is the myth of American exceptionalism and the cult of the American...
How Should Canada Commemorate the War of 1812?
Here is an interesting article on the dilemma that Canada faces in celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. (HT: Joe Carter). A taste:This may not be the best time to plan a war commemorative. The United States...