Survey Comments: Who Cares about Canadian History? UPDATED

[January 18:  See comments and responses below:]

I have been a little busy lately (see here  -- click on the image under my name), but I have not forgotten the results from the survey taken here last December, and particularly the comments, suggestions, and questions given in response to the final question. Here is one question a survey-taker posed (Thanks!):

Is it inevitable that Canadian history is of serious interest only to those who have themselves lived in Canada a long time?

Hmmm. The question reminds me of two memorable phrases.  

One is from a book review by Donald Akenson in the Canadian Historical Review many years ago. I forget the book in question, but the review's opening line was "Let's face it: Canadian history is boring."  Coming from someone who has written a great deal of serious, innovative, provocative Canadian history, this was somehow both funny and liberating at the time -- but also a bracing reminder of the uphill task we all face. 

The other is from Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, by Barrington Moore, Jr (no relation) a big book about, well, what the title says, that impressed me mightily a long time ago. He examines his topic only in relation to major powers, and explains this pithily:

The fact that the smaller countries depend economically and politically on big and powerful ones means that the decisive causes of their politics lie outside their own boundaries.

So, maybe it is tough. I have been reading Julia Lovell's recent Cundill Prize-winning Maoism: A Global History -- and was not surprised at all that in this global history, "Canada" does not appear in the index.  Sorry, all those little Maoist cells still hanging on.

I once wrote a piece about Canadianists who have taught Canadian Studies around the world, and their main takeaway was that in every country, students found something in Canadian history that spoke to their own national conditions. In the United States, students liked our progressive social programs. In Scotland, both federalism and Quebec separatism attracted interest. In Japan it was how to handle relations with the Americans. In New Zealand, it was comparative indigenous issues. And so on.  (Also, foreign students of Canada are much more admiring of Canada than Canadians typically are.)

It ought, I think, to be possible to create a book on some Canadian subject that created the kind of worldwide interest given to, say, Robert Hughes's book on Australia's convict settlements, The Fatal Shore  Perhaps the closest Canadian equivalents are books about the Franklin expedition, but I've always maintained that was really an episode in British rather than Canadian history. (See: Michael Palin, Erebus.) 

Suggestions from readers on this whole topic welcomed.

Update January 18: Mark R. Harris responds:

I certainly don’t believe that Canadian history (or literature) is only of interest to Canadian residents. I am an American citizen and a Mexican permanent resident. I haven’t read as much about Canada as I would like, because so many things compete for my reading attention, but I am interested. I recently have read Pierre Berton’s Niagara, Roger Riendeau’s A Brief History of Canada, Mazo de la Roche’s The Building of Jalna, and Frank Davey’s aka bpNichol, for example, and I am a big fan of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. I suppose I am unusual, but I hope that I am not unique.

And Tom Morton:

I just read your post "Who Cares About Canadian History?" and your request for suggestions for book topics that might generate interest outside of Canada.
 Amazon has a list of bestsellers in Canadian history that might already reflect international interest, for example, bestseller #1: Airplane passengers diverted to Gander after 9/11, #28 and 80: War of 1812, #48: Klondike Gold Rush, #53: Normandy Invasion, and #69: Champlain in addition to a number on Arctic exploration and Indigenous history.
 There are also works of fiction on topics in Canadian history that have had worldwide interest: Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace and Antonine Maillet's Pélagie-la-Charette, as well as the Come from Away musical that I saw last summer in London with a full house who applauded enthusiastically at the end. Bonheur d'occasion and Les Belles Soeurs and their portrayal of poverty and the working class also drew considerable worldwide interest in the past if they count as historical.

Thanks both!  Actually the international success of Canadian fiction adds to the puzzle a bit.  Wayne Johnston can write a novel about the early life of Joey Smallwood and reach an admiring international audience. Alice Munro can attract the same attention by writing about one southern Ontario county.  Can one imagine a nonfiction work with a similarly local Canadian focus having an equivalent success? 

January 20:  Alan B. McCullough comments:

Foreign students of Canadian history are much more admiring of Canadian history than Canadians are. My impression is that Canadians are admiring of their history, or at least their society - how many polls suggest we live in the best country in the world? Canadian historians may be less admiring of our history but in many cases their dissatisfaction is focussed on specific areas of interest - immigration policy, relations with First Nations are obvious examples. These are valid concerns but on balance Canadian history is a positive story. Do the foreign students who admire Canadian history focus on the larger picture rather than its parts?
 As to what Canadian stories might attract international interest, exploration is always good - think of  Francis Parkman and recent books on Champlain.  War - especially the War of 1812 with its American interest - is a possibility.
 A question - did Pierre Berton have significant international sales?

To the last question, my understanding is no, not really, not in any proportion to his Canadian audience.  I have heard that Peter C. Newman, longtime McClelland and Stewart author, moved to a branchplant publisher in hopes of international sales for his Hudson's Bay Company histories.  And that it did not work.