Historian Matt Hayday on “Truthiness” and Canadian Politics

20 04 2011

Matt Hayday, a political historian at the University of Guelph, has posted some interesting thoughts on the Canadian election.

According to Wikipedia, which is an invaluable guide to pop culture trend (and not much use for anything else).

Truthiness is a “truth” that a person claims to know intuitively “from the gut” without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.[1]

American television comedian Stephen Colbert coined the word in this meaning[2] as the subject of a segment called “The Wørd” during the pilot episode of his political satire program The Colbert Report on October 17, 2005. By using this as part of his routine, Colbert satirized the misuse of appeal to emotion and “gut feeling” as a rhetorical device in contemporaneous socio-political discourse.[3] He particularly applied it to U.S. President George W. Bush‘s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and the decision to invade Iraq in 2003.[4] Colbert later ascribed truthiness to other institutions and organizations, including Wikipedia.[5] Colbert has sometimes used a Dog Latin version of the term, “Veritasiness”.[6] For example, in Colbert’s “Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando” the word “Veritasiness” can be seen on the banner above the eagle on the operation’s seal.

Truthiness, although a “stunt word“, was named Word of the Year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster.[7][8] Linguist and OED consultant Benjamin Zimmer[2][9] pointed out that the word truthiness[10] already had a history in literature and appears in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), as a derivation of truthy, and The Century Dictionary, both of which indicate it as rare or dialectal, and to be defined more straightforwardly as “truthfulness, faithfulness”.[2]


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags:
Categories : Uncategorized

Historians Who Have Used R.G. Dun’s Canadian Credit Ledgers

20 04 2011

Stan Shapiro, a reader of this blog, noted that I was doing some research about R.G. Dun’s Canadian operations. He recently emailed me the following reference to an article on R.G. Dun.

Carla Wheaton, “The Trade in this Place is in a Very Critical State” R.G. Dun & Company and the St. John’s Business Community, 1855-1874”, Acadiensis, (2000) Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 120-137.

As Stan points out, “The focus is on what, despite their many limitations, the R.G. Dun credit ledgers of the time can reveal”.

Other historians of Canada have used the R.G. Dun credit ledgers. They include:

Michael Katz, “The Entrepreneurial Class in a Canadian City: The Mid-Nineteenth Century”, Journal of Social History, 8 (1975).

D.A. Muise, “The Dun and Bradstreet Collection: A Report”, Urban History Review, 3-75 (1976).

Gerald Tulchinsky, “‘Said to be a very honest Jew’: The R.G. Dun Credit Reports and Jewish Business Activity”, Urban History Review, 18 (1990).
The Dun credit reports were also used by Henry C. Klassen to reconstruct the business landscape of early Alberta. Klassen was the author of Eye on the Future: Business People in Calgary and the Bow Valley, 1870-1900. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2002.


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags:
Categories : Uncategorized

New Position in Canadian Business History

16 04 2011

The Department of History of the University of Winnipeg invites application for a tenure track position at the rank of Assistant Professor in Canadian History. Applications are encouraged from all research specialties.
Preference will be shown for candidates with a demonstrated ability to teach business history. The selected candidate will be expected to teach Canadian history survey courses.
Applicants must have a Ph.D. by the time of the appointment. The successful candidate must have a strong commitment to research and undergraduate teaching. Publications will be an asset.
Subject to budgetary approval, the position will commence on 1 July 2011.
Applicants must submit a covering letter, curriculum vitae, one sample of research, and teaching dossier (including course outlines and course evaluations if available), and must arrange for letters of reference from
three referees. Deadline for the receipt of the applications and references is 15 April 2011.

The search will continue until such time that the position is filled. Address all communications to:
Professor Eliakim Sibanda, Chair
Department of History, University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB., R3B 2E9
Phone: 204 786 9012
E-mail: e.sibanda@uwinnipeg.ca
The University of Winnipeg is committed to employment equity, welcomes diversity in the workplace and encourages applications from all qualified individuals including women, members of visible minorities, aboriginal persons and persons with disabilities. In accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, this advertisement is initially directed to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: ,
Categories : Uncategorized

Digitization of Historical Newspapers: Is Canada Trailing Other Countries?

14 04 2011

Digitized historical newspapers are an increasingly important resource for both academic researchers and undergraduates. I think that they are a fantastic teaching tool because that bring primary sources to students, which gives undergrads the sense of being “real historians”.

The Higher Education Academy in the UK was set up to improve undergrad teaching. The various Subject Centres within the academy produce guides of newly available resources for university teachers. The History Subject Centre’s guide on the use of Hollywood films in history teaching is well known outside of the UK.

The centre recently released a guide on historical newspapers that have gone digital. The guide focuses on British and US newspapers (e.g., the Times of London and New York Times databases), but it also had this to say about the progress in newspaper digitization in other English-speaking countries:

Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Greater Britain)

 
James Belich, in his recent book, Replenishing the Earth, has suggested that Britain’s white settlement colonies were effectively a British counterpart to the American West (Belich 2009). One way of testing Belich’s thesis might be to analyse the newspapers published in Canada and Australasia. Both Australia and New Zealand have major national digital newspaper projects. The National Library of Australia has digitised a selection of newspapers from the period 1803 to 1954, including full runs of major newspapers still in publication such as The Sydney Morning Herald. The National Library of New Zealand Papers Past project covers the years 1839 to 1932 and includes 52 publications from all regions of New Zealand. More will be digitised during the next few years. Unfortunately so far Canada has not funded a national project. However, some provincial newspapers have been digitised in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. Two national newspapers, Toronto’s Globe and Mail and Star, have also been digitised and are obtainable from ProQuest on a subscription basis.

In the past, most undergraduates studying the history of those countries Belich has grouped together as ‘Greater Britain’, i.e. Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, have had even less access to primary sources than those studying US history. The digitised historic newspapers that have been made available free of charge by the national libraries of Australia and New Zealand could lead to the provision of more modules on Antipodean history in British higher education institutions.

The guide is right– the Canadian federal government has done very little in this department. The National Archives of Quebec has taken the lead in funding newspaper digitization, but alas most of the historical newspapers they have scanned and placed online would be unreadable to most students since they are mostly in French.  English-speaking Canada is light-years behind Quebec in this area, although the Victoria British Colonist database is an honourable exception to this generalization.  The Toronto Star and Globe and Mail are digitized, but only to subscribers and it is unlike that institutions outside of Canada will subscribe to them. In fact many Canadians universities are having trouble finding the cash to pay for access.

It may be that the Canadian government is unaware of the importance of digitized resources in public diplomacy.  Digitizing resources and placing them online for all to use is a cheap way of getting foreigners to study your country.

Moreover, I see some inconsistency here. The current federal government has paid lipservice to the idea of increasing the Canadian public’s knowledge of Canadian history (e.g., the Discover Canada Citizenship Guide). Yet it hasn’t funded the sort of electronic resources that might further this goal.


Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: ,
Categories : Uncategorized

BHC Prizes – 2011

14 04 2011

Business History Conference (BHC) Prizes – 2011

At the Business History Conference annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, March 31-April 2, 2011, officers announced the following recipients of BHC prizes and grants.

Lifetime Achievement Award
The award is bestowed every two years to a scholar who has contributed significantly to the work of the Business History Conference and to scholarship in business history.

2011 recipient: Richard Sylla, Stern School of Business, New York University

Hagley Prize
The prize is awarded jointly by the Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History Conference to the best book in business history (broadly defined) written in English and published during the two years prior to the award.

2011 recipient: Susan Ingalls Lewis (State University of New York at New Paltz), Unexceptional Women: Female Proprietors in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Albany, New York, 1830–1885 (Ohio State University Press, 2009)

Ralph Gomory Book Prize
This prize, made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognizes historical work on the effects of business enterprises on the economic conditions of the countries in which they operate.

2011 recipient: Richard John (Columbia University), Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunication (Harvard University Press, 2010).

2011 honorable mention: James R. Fichter (Lingnan University), So Great a Proffit: How the East Indies Trade Transformed Anglo-American Capitalism (Harvard University Press, 2010).

Oxford Journals Article Prize
This prize recognizes the author of an article published in Enterprise & Society judged to be the best of those that have appeared in volume previous to the year of the BHC annual meeting.

2011 recipient: Oskar Broberg (Gothenberg University), “Labeling the Good: Alternative Visions and Organic Branding in Sweden in the Late Twentieth Century,” Enterprise and Society (2010) 11(4): 811-838.

Mira Wilkins Prize

This prize, established in recognition of the path-breaking scholarship of Mira Wilkins, is awarded to the author of the best article published annually in Enterprise & Society pertaining to international and comparative business history.

2011 recipient: Marcelo Bucheli (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), “Multinational Corporations, Business Groups, and Economic Nationalism: Standard Oil (New Jersey), Royal Dutch-Shell, and Energy Politics in Chile 1913-2005,” Enterprise & Society (2010) 11(2): 350-399.

Herman E. Krooss Prize
The prize recognizes the best dissertation in business history<http://www.thebhc.org/awards/krooswin.html> written in English and completed in the three calendar years immediately prior to the annual meeting.

2011 recipient: Dan Bouk (Colgate University), “The Science of Difference: Developing Tools for Discrimination in the American Life Insurance Industry, 1830-1930,” (Princeton University, 2009).

K. Austin Kerr Prize
The prize recognizes the best first paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Business History Conference by a new scholar (doctoral student or those within three years of receiving their Ph.D). It honors K. Austin Kerr, longtime professor of history at the Ohio State University and former president of the Business History Conference.

2011 recipient: Di Yin Lu (Harvard University), “Shanghai’s Art Dealers and the International Market for Chinese Art, 1922-1949.”

2011 honorable mention: Kelly Arehart (College of William and Mary), “‘To Put a Mass of Putrefying Animal Matter into a Fine Plush Casket’: The Development of Professional Knowledge among Morticians, 1880-1920.”

The CEBC Halloran Prize in the History of Corporate Responsibility<http://www.thebhc.org/awards/halloran.html>
The prize recognizes a paper presented at the BHC annual meeting that makes a significant contribution to the history of corporate responsibility. It is funded by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures (CEBC) at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business in honor of Harry R. Halloran, Jr.

2011 recipient: Ann-Kristin Bergquist (Umeå University) and Kristina Söderholm (Luleå University of Technology), “The Making of a Green Innovation System  The Swedish Institute for Water and Air Protection and the Swedish Pulp and Paper Industry in the mid-1960s to the 1980s.”


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags:
Categories : Uncategorized

European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH) Conference

13 04 2011

The third European Congress in World and Global History opens tomorrow at the London School of Economics. It was organised by the European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH).

There are some really interesting papers on the program.  This is what I would call industrial strength historical research on global history: comparative, theoretically rigorous, and cosmopolitan.   

The plenary forum is really interesting to me as someone who has always tried to situate Canadian history in its global and imperial contexts:

Hosted by the German Historical Institute London and kindly supported by Campus Verlag, Princeton University Press and Cambridge University Press the Plenary Forum on ‘ Empires and Colonies ’ takes place Friday, 15 April, 6.30–8.30 pm. Three outstanding scholars in the field – Frederick Cooper (New York University), John Darwin (University of Oxford), and
Regina Grafe (Northwestern University) – will discuss various, possibly contradicting approaches to imperial and colonial history, chaired by Peer Vries (University of Vienna).


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags:
Categories : Uncategorized

CETA Impact on Drug Prices

12 04 2011

European Union trade negotiators are currently in Ottawa to finalize the details of a comprehensive trade agreement with Canada. It was with great interest, therefore, that I read this:

A recent study by Professor Aidan Hollis of the University of Calgary and Paul Grootendorst of the University of Toronto titled, The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement: An Economic Impact Assessment of Proposed Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property Provisions, estimates that the adoption of the EU’s drug patent system proposals would add nearly $3- billion to Canada’s prescription drug bill.

Read more here.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : Uncategorized

Baker Library, Harvard Business School

11 04 2011

Last week, I did some research at the Baker Library at the Harvard Business School. In this photo of the HBS campus, you can see the spire of the Baker Library.

My experience using archival material in the de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room was great. The archivists there were very helpful. I was at the Baker Library to research the origins of credit reporting in Canada. Today, we take the existence of credit-rating agencies such as Experian for granted, but they were new in the 1850s and 1860s, the period I am really interested in. The Baker Library has a wonderful collection of records relating to R.G. Dun, an early credit reporting firm.

I`ll say more about research on credit-rating in the Province of Canada in a future blog post. Right now I would just like to thank that staff and the business history unit within HBS, which generously provided me with a Chandler travel fellowship.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Uncategorized

Business Archives in Scotland Versus Canada

6 04 2011

I thought I would bring your attention to the Business Archives in Scotland blog. It shares news about business archive collections in Scotland, the National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland and other related items of interest. The public launch of the National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland, which, in part reflects the agenda of Scotland’s pro-business and separatist SNP government,  took place in January 2011. The Scottish National Party hopes that it can one day make Scotland an independent nation within the EU. The agenda driving this business archives project seems to be the promotion of nationalist pride in Scottish business achievements. The leader of the SNP is Alex Salmond, whose undergraduate degree was in history and economics, I should note.

I’m mentioning this here for several reasons.

First, I think that the relationship of Scottish business with English business has some parallels with the position of Canadian business in post-NAFTA North America, although Canada does still have a separate currency, unlike Scotland, which merely has separate banknotes. The parallels between Canada and Scotland was once pointed  out to me by Duncan Ross of the University of Glasgow’s wonderful Centre for Business History in Scotland.

Centre for Business History in Scotland

 

Duncan Ross

Second, Scottish firms, Scottish investors (think Dundee) and Scottish immigrant entrepreneurs played an important role in the history of Canadian business, so Canadian historians should probably pay attention this important set of primary sources.

Third, Canada would benefit from having a similar business archives initiative. There was a short-lived attempt to set up a business archives council in Canada in 1968-1973 but it failed for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. I haven’t looked at the records of this organisation, which are kept in LAC in Ottawa, but I suspect that it was influenced by the upsurge of nationalist sentiment in Canada that was caused by the Vietnam War.

Fourth, the phenomenon of the SNP, a pro-business and nationalist party is a very interesting one to Canadians. There certainly are pro-business nationalists in Quebec. The PQ and the BQ have their right-wing members. However, most Quebec separatists tend to be on the left of the political spectrum. In English-speaking Canada, where the major issue is the domination of the economy by the United States and US firms, nationalism has, since the 1960s, been appropriated by the left. (Obviously it was very different in the days of Macdonald, Borden, Bennett, and Diefenbaker when the Conservatives were advocates of economic nationalism).  The Canadian Conservative Party today is relentlessly continentalist rather than nationalist in its orientation, as is the right-wing branch of the centrist Liberal Party.

In Canada, a pro-business person who believes in free enterprise and in engagement in the global economy but who also wants to increase Canada’s political and economic independence from the United States basically has nobody to vote for. Their choice is between the left-wing economic ideas of the NDP and the two major parties, which have implemented policies that amount to 24/7  appeasement of the United States (e.g., sending Canadian troops to die for Uncle Sam in Afghanistan or allowing the US to write Canada’s marijuana laws). Even the NDP is only intermittently nationalist, which isn’t surprising since it is supported by the so-called “international unions” that are, in some cases, headquartered in the United States.

I don’t think that business history or indeed any other branch of history should be designed to promote  a particular political agenda, nationalist, anti-nationalist, or otherwise. However, I can’t help but think that the weakness of business history in Canada is, in some ways,  a reflection of the wider malaise in the political culture and the preciptious decline of Canadian nationalism in recent decades.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : Uncategorized

Association of Business Historians

6 04 2011

The Association of Business Historians will hold its annual meeting in association with the Centre for International Business History at the University of Reading on July 1-2, 2011. The programme was recently put online.

I’m going to be presenting on credit-rating in Canada during the American Civil War. In fact, I’m currently at Harvard doing some research on this topic.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags:
Categories : Uncategorized

« Previous Entries Next Entries »