The Past Speaks

The H. Sanford Riley Centre for Canadian History at the University of Winnipeg opened on Monday with a lecture by Ramsay Cook, a distinguished Canadian historian. The title of his talk was “Who Broadened Canadian History?” The title of his talk alludes to Who Killed Canadian History, a book by J.L. Granastein.

Here is a summary of Professor Cook’s lecture: “Over the past thirty years or so, the content of Canadian history has broadened out in several significant directions. In my years at United College and later when I began teaching university courses, the main, indeed almost the only, Canadian history menu listed political, diplomatic, military and constitutional dishes. In these fields the prominent Anglophone and Francophone men who dominated the “national stage” were featured But in the 1970s and 80s, as universities admitted increasing numbers of students from regional, class, ethnic and genders formerly under represented, students began to wonder why their ancestors were so often absent from the history that they were taught. Soon graduate students, often from these new groups, began research into these neglected areas with the result that a new past, or rather an expanded past, was discovered and made part of what is now accepted a more accurate and more diverse Canadian past. The success of this expansion, this enrichment of our past, now raises some new questions about Canadian history, questions which may suggest another broadening dimension based on comparative historical studies.”

I will put a link to a video of Cook’s talk online soon.