The Past Speaks

HIST 1407 (First-Year Canadian History Survey Course)

Lectures in this course fall into two categories: lectures on a short period of Canadian history (e.g., a decade) and lectures that trace a theme over a longer span of time. On Monday, I talked about Canada in the 1920s. I spoke about the Winnipeg General Strike, the Canadian economy,  the growth of car and radio ownership, the King-Byng affair, the Balfour Declaration, the Halibut Treaty, the Chanak Crisis, and other incidents in Canada’ s diplomatic history. I worked some material about Mackenzie King’s private life into the lecture. I also mentioned Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), the case that led to the appointment of the first woman to the Senate in 1930.

A major theme of my lecture on Monday was the role of third parties in Canadian politics in the 1920s. I showed this “heritage minute” in lecture, which generated a debate in the class about the role of the NDP in federal politics today. (Jack Layton visited our campus last week, which was a “teachable  moment” for me).

Here are some of the pictures I found in preparing the powerpoints for my lecture.

Arthur Meighen

King and his dog Pat, 1924

King at the Imperial Conference in 1926, Fighting for Canada's Autonomy

Lord Byng, GG, and Lady Byng

King at the Canadian Legation in Washington, 1927

My lecture on Wednesday was about the history of alcohol in Canada. I spoke about whiskey traders and natives, the Canada Temperance Act, Ontario’s experiment with prohibition, smuggling,  and the influence of religion on attitudes to drinking.

Police Raid on Illegal Bar, Elk River Ontario, 1925

LCBO Store, Late 1920s

LCBO Store, 1950s

Fourth-Year Seminar on Canada in the Confederation Period

Peter J. Smith, “The Ideological Origins of Canadian Confederation” Canadian Journal of Political Science 20, no. 1 (1987): 3-29; Arthur Silver, “Confederation and Quebec” The French Canadian Idea of Confederation, 1864-1900 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 33-50 ;Paul Romney, chapter 7 “Confederation: the Untold Story” in Getting It Wrong: How Canadians Forgot Their Past and Imperilled Confederation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).

HIST 5157

In my graduate level course, we discussed Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand: the Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press, 1977); R ichard John  “Elaborations, Revisions, Dissents: Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.’s, The Visible Hand after Twenty Years,” Business History Review 71 (Summer 1997): 151-200. The students found Chandler’s book to be a difficult but rewarding read.