Best historical exhibits of 2010

In Friday's review of some historical bests of 2010, I neglected to add a couple of museum exhibits that struck me as really exemplary.  Not that I get to see every museum or exhibit in the country, but in Toronto we had two excellent ones.

Doubtless seeing the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum was no substitute for a visit to Shi Huangdi's tomb in Xian, China.  The exhibit only had half a dozen of the thousands of the remarkable sculpted figures.  But in recompense, the exhibit offered an introduction to the times and cultures that produced the First Emperor (and his tomb) that I found brilliantly executed.  It very skillfully walked visitors through the 500 year "Warring Cultures" period that culminated in the first unification of China -- a terrific mix of text, artifacts, film recreation and film documentary that made that vast history remarkably comprehensible to this ignorant westerner.

Same success, I thought, for Maharaja, the exhibit about Indian princely societies in the period roughly 1500-1900, still on at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  It has terrific art on display, but it also sets out very effectively the complex history of a vast array of competing states and principalities -- Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, European -- over several hundred years of cultural and technological change in India  I was fascinated.  I don't know if it plans to tour, but I recommend it.

I note, of course, that neither of these exhibits was on a Canadian theme.  Cannot actually think of a museum in recent years undertaking an exhibit of comparable ambition and seriousness on any Canadian history theme.

(Finally) the 2010 Review of Canadian History bests

In December we promised a review of historical bests of 2010.  Before January 2011 is over, we should fulfill that promise.

First, a few suggestions from readers. Daniel Francis, who blogs at KnowBC and recently published Seeing Reds about events surrounding the Winnipeg Strike of 1919, writes, “I thought I'd accept your challenge to lay down some of my best books of the year. Since I am always behind in my reading, two of them weren't even published in 2010." That’s okay with us, Dan, we're the same.  Dan recommended:

• Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal White Relations by John Sutton Lutz. "Puts the First Nations back into the post-contact picture by emphasizing the key role they played in the provincial economy." 
• Images from the Likeness House, by Dan Savard. |"A collection of photographs of BC First Nations from the 1850s to 1920s, curated and explicated by the longtime head of the Royal BC Museum audio-visual collection."
• Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary, by Bertrand Patenaude. "When I was in Mexico City not long ago  the best place I visited  was the Trotsky House/Museum where he lived out his final years and where he was murdered. Patenaude tells the whole sorry tale of Trotsky's attempt to escape his psychotic tormenter."

Laurie Waldie, historical consultant in Guelph, Ontario, was an early advocate for "The King's Speech" as the best historical film of 2010.

I had the pleasure of seeing it at the Toronto International Film Festival and it quite frankly had me speechless. Very well presented, visually stunning, with some sympathetic humour and very emotional. I had known George VI had a stammer, but didn't realise it had caused him such great hardship. I felt Helena Bonham-Carter was a near spitting image of a young Queen Elizabeth and portrayed her strength and support well but honestly I had trouble seeing the historic George VI in Colin Firth. But his performance was brilliant and convincing nonetheless.  I'm hoping a few Oscar nods come this film's way.

What were the historical bests of 2010? A bleg.

Some years I do a survey of our prominent historians and writers about the best history books, films, exhibits, controversies, and events of the past year.  And each year a depressingly large contingent replies, "Oh, gee, I've been busy, I haven't been keeping up, I don't read much outside my field, I...."

Sometimes I fear I will start buying into in the public stereotype of historians as dim and tweedy bores.

But this blog can't survey everything or keep up with every publication (he said, understating enormously) -- and surprisingly few historical publishers ever think of sending a  review copy or notice to Canada's leading history blog So I'm turning to you, loyal readers.

Have you seen a book worth noting among the year's best histories?  Or a film?  Or a museum exhibition that really stood out.  Email suggestions and I'll compile a master list for early in the new year.  Seriously, I want your help.  Good work deserves recognition.  Give it some thought.

Try to resist the temptation to nominate yourself, no matter how cruelly you have been neglected. And "worst of" is fun, but works better if the good has already been honoured -- which in our field is too rare.

Hoping to hear from you.  (Bleg?  Blog + beg = bleg.)  Image: Google Images

The History Crop of 2009: not one of the great vintages?

About this time of year, I've often launched into a year's best roundup in Canadian historical work, even soliciting suggestions and contributions directly from historians and writers around the country. (Follow the tag "Year's Best" for examples.]

I'm not doing it this year, not so far at least. Partly because dragging suggestions out of my friends and colleagues doesn't seem to be much welcomed by them. But more because 2009 seems to have been a rather quiet and undistinguished year in Canadian historical production -- not a huge crop to celebrate.

It's my impression that there have been relatively few really important big new syntheses or interpretations out this year. Few stormy public controversies about history (okay, there was that dumb one about re-enacting on the Plains of Abraham). Few hot-selling popular histories. Few notable historical films and documentaries. A relative scarcity of histories on the short lists for the major prizes this fall. And so on.

I'm willing to say that's okay, there are tides in all this. Quite possibly a bumper crop is looming for next year. But right now I am looking a little wistfully at Books of the Year lists beginning to appear in the US and in Britain that seem to be filled with big, interesting, challenging, important works on historical themes of all kinds.

So, readers, I'm looking to you. I'm willing to be disproved!

If there is a book/film/exhibition/controversy from the past year, related in some fashion to Canadian history, whose appearance readers of this blog ought to celebrate, I appeal to you to let me know of it (with a word or two about why they impressed you, if you can). I'll be happy to share out suggestions. Local and specialist works absolutely welcome, since those are the easiest to overlook. My definitions of "Canadian" and "history" are capacious. Be warned: no suggestions, and I'll take it as more evidence for my general impression.

Email thoughts and suggestions to cmed[at]sympatico[dot]ca.

Update, November 27: A best history books list from Britain, and Atlantic Magazine's history-heavy 25 Best Books

[Image from Google Images]

Hints for the Hard to buy for Historian #19

Janet McNaughton, of St. John's, prolific young adult novelist, sometime folklorist, and author of To Dance at the Palais Royale, a novel of early twentieth century Toronto, suggests:

Cloud of Bone by Bernice Morgan, but it appeared late in 2007, so that might not suit you. [nah, we're easy here -- ed.] It's not strictly historical. There are three sections, one in St. John's in World War II, one with Beothuk Indians, and one in Rwanda and England more or less in the present. The historical detail is lovely though and so's the writing.

The link I've put in for Cloud of Bone is a blog called Compulsive Overreader, -- because it topped my Google search on that title, and because I love its enthusiasm, for that book and generally. The Google ads that come up are funny too -- osteoporosis!

Late update: here's your invitation to last-minute Christmas suggesting. I'd be glad to hear a few fresh suggestions from followers of this list.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #18

Myrna Kostash, of Edmonton, writer, sage, co-author recently of Reading the River: A Traveller's Companion to the North Saskatchewan River:

I recommend membership in The Canadian Club of Edmonton. I've just joined it myself, for $50, because it invites local (Alberta) historians and writers of history to speak at thoroughly pleasant lunches in a good hotel on issues of interest and importance in the history of Alberta. Also, they sing O Canada at the beginning and God Save the Queen at the end.

I don't think the Canadian Club in Toronto is half so much fun, but maybe I've been missing something....

Ideas for the Hard to buy for Historian #16

Daniel Francis over at HistoryWire notes a dearth of West Coast non-fiction on the Globe & Mail's 100 Best Books of the Year, and offers five BC non-fictions worth reading or giving. Hume on Simon Fraser has been the one on my list of interests; I know less of the others (which is Dan's point, I think).

Mary Soderstrom, Montreal novelist, social critic and blogger has most recently published The Walkable City: From Haussmann's Boulevards to Jane Jacobs' Streets and Beyond with Vehicule Press. She suggests the historian on your list should know of:

The Kill (La Curée) by Emile Zola. When I read it last year while researching The Walkable City, I was blown away by the way this novel (published in 1871) says so much about the financial forces still at play today. The Kill is the second of Zola's novels about the Rougon-Macquart family, and takes place in the Paris of the 1860s and 1870s which was being completely transformed by Napoléon III and Georges-Étienne Haussmann. The real estate speculation then led directly to the Great Crash of 1873, which many are comparing to what we're currently going through.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #15

We have suggestions from two wise readers today. They suggested the same book.

George Fetherling, poet, memoirist, traveller, and man of letters of Vancouver, suggests both a book and a membership:

Book: "Lord Selkirk: A Life" by J.M. Bumsted (University of Manitoba Press, 2008).

Membership: The Vancouver Maritime Museum, a fine but too-little-known institution, with, among things, a truly extraordinary library.

The link there is to a lively article about Bumsted and his book from Tom Ford in the Winnipeg Free Press. And quite independently, as far as I know, aboriginal rights lawyer Murray Klippenstein of Toronto suggests the same book. He also provides a review - and perhaps even some fresh evidence about Selkirk:

My nomination for the best book on Canadian history of 2008 would be Lord Selkirk: A Life by J. M Bumsted of the University of Manitoba, published in November of this year by the University of Manitoba Press.

This life of the founder of the Red River colony appears to be the fruits of decades of work by Professor Bumsted, and it is fascinating and illuminating. There was more to Thomas Douglas, fifth earl of Selkirk, than we commonly know, although in the end his life had perhaps more frustrations than successes. This somewhat timid fourth son, who was never expected to become earl, had numerous remarkable youth experiences, leaving the reader to puzzle out their possible effects on our country's history. As a youth, Douglas was in the estate house on the coast of Scotland when American privateer John Paul Jones (who had actually been born on a nearby estate) raided the Selkirk house and, while chivalrously explaining matters to the stunned family, stole the family silver. Although Jones later regretted this, and tried to return the utensils, Douglas wrote that this experience created in him a lifelong antipathy to the United States.

Douglas' education included influence from leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment such as Dugald Stewart, who, interestingly, later strongly advised Lord Selkirk to abandon his wild North Amercan projects (which advice Selkirk ignored). As a privileged twenty year old, the future earl travelled to France, then in the apogee of its Revolution, and spend months dining and discoursing with leaders of the Revolution, of the likes of Condorcet, Brissot, Sieyes and Thomas Paine.

Whether and how these ideas influenced his North American colonization attempts remains a puzzle which Bumsted describes, but which the historical evidence -- much of which was destroyed in a fire at the Selkirk estate during WWII -- does not allow to be fully answered.

The book describes in interesting detail much of the poor planning surrounding the Red River and other colonization attempts by Selkirk.
However, one glaring gap in the narrative is the absence of any real consideration of the Aboriginal perspective on what Selkirk was attempting to do. Bumsted includes one brief reference to Selkirk's strategizing about how a colony could help pacify indigenous people by
shutting off their access to European commodities as necessary.
Nevertheless, by mostly ignoring indigenous peoples' perspective, Bumsted has almost entirely missed half of the pageant being played out. I have in my files one of Selkirk's instruction letters to the leader of the first Red River settler party, which specifically describes how the settlers should pretend to the Indians that they are merely visiting traders, until the colonists have their first fort built and are militarily secure within its walls, upon which they can reveal their true land settlement intentions, when the natives can no longer do anything about it. Bumsted does not mention this.

Bumsted's account of Selkirk's "takeover" and manipulation of the Hudson's Bay Company is engrossing, as is Bumsted's description of the war -- political, economic, military and legal -- between the HBC and the North West Company, in which Selkirk was personally a central player. Of particular interest -- at least for the legally minded -- is the amazing description of the intricacies of the numerous monumental litigation battles with the North West Company that Selkirk engaged in for years in Upper Canada, Lower Canada, the United States, and elsewhere, which pretty much bankrupted him and which pulled into their vortex almost all the political and legal leadership of the then
Canadian colonies. The description of that legal war is a revelation
and in itself makes the book well worth reading.

Overall, a fascinating, intriguing and illuminating addition to Canadian history.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #14

From Antonia Maioni, Director of McGill University's Institute for the Study of Canada:

I am reading Ken Whyte’s lively account of Hearst (The Uncrowned King).

Also, take a look at McGill’s Cundill Prize in history finalists.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #13

Lynne Bowen of Nanaimo, historian of Vancouver Island and the prairies and non-fiction professor at UBC Creative Writing, writes:

Since I have never been asked this question before I'm going to tell you about my best thing relating to Canadian history and Canadian identity. It didn't happen this year as you specified, in fact it happened almost twenty years ago. The movie is "Bye, Bye Blues" made in 1989 by Ann Wheeler.

Early in this movie there is a moment when I realized that this was the first time I had ever seen a Canadian story told on film that I could relate to. The heroine (played by Rebecca Jenkins) is travelling across Canada on a train in the winter and the train stops in the middle of nowhere. The heroine looks out the window and sees several boys playing shinny on the ice in a ditch beside the train. As a child raised on a cultural diet of American movies and books about British royalty, this was the first time I had seen a story I could identify with.

Today we are fortunate to have many books written for a general audience about Canadian history and even several movies that tell our story, but this was the first time for me and it was a very powerful moment.

National Film Board info on Bye Bye Blues is here. Amazon.ca has purchase info here-- but it says they want $180 for a used copy.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #12

Jean Barman of Vancouver, historian, author most recently of British Columbia: Spirit of the People (Harbour Books, 2008) suggests:

John Ralston Saul's A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada provides an important reminder that Canadian history is far more than the men on top politically and economically who have all too often ruled the past as well. The author's stature ensures his argument that "we are a métis civilization," to quote his first sentence, gets a broad hearing.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #11

Andrew Stewart, heritage consultant, Toronto, Ontario, has some ideas for the Toronto history lover on your list:

My nomination would be Toronto: An Illustrated History of Its First 10,000 Years edited by Ronald F. Williamson (Lorimer, 2008).
I suggest this book for several reasons:
• It is a comprehensive popular history that fills a gap in the existing literature about Toronto. In particular, it treats, seriously, the entire history of this place on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and not just the post-1750 history of Toronto. In other words, it gives equal treatment (in terms of scholarship and pages) to aboriginal (precontact) history instead of treating it as an afterthought (or before-thought). Some important information and images relating to precontact history derived from consultant archaeology -- not otherwise seen by most people -- is made available.
• It is written by scholars, writing in an accessible format and is well-edited to assure flow and consistent voice.
• It is beautifully layed-out and well-illustrated; nicely designed to be a modestly-sized and priced book (not an expensive weighty tome) -- making it even more attractive to a wider readership, including schools. Eminently giftable.
PS, despite the pitch, I had nothing to do with the book. I am simply a grateful reader -- one with a serious interest in the history of Toronto who recognizes a good thing.

My other suggestion would be a gift membership in the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario with its good magazine (Acorn) and opportunity for chapter memberships and advocacy activity.

We are losing more architecture to demolition and neglect than ever before in Ontario, despite the passage of the revised Ontario Heritage Act in 2005. The Ontario government feels it has done it's bit with this act, but to be effective, it must be enforced by municipalities. Most municipalities can't be bothered or feel they can't afford to enforce it (and alienate the citizenry).

A few months ago, we lost one of the finest Victorian buildings in the province -- Alma College in St Thomas. The ACO, founded by Eric Arthur 75 years ago, provides leadership and organization on all issues of architectural history and heritage.

Torontophobic Ontarians who track back the link to the Toronto history will find that the same publisher has on offer similar works on several other Ontario cities.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #10

Graham Broad, historian, professor, writer, of London, Ontario:

I have three suggestions. One of them is Randall Hansen's Fire and Fury, about the Anglo-Canadian-American bombing of German cities 1942-1945. Lots of new research, great analysis, but also a gripping narrative, with some truly heart-wrenching stuff; his account of the firestorm in Hamburg brought to mind John Hershey's Hiroshima. Hansen is at U of T.

Second. Not Canadian, but the "John Adams" miniseries from HBO was absolutely gripping stuff. Everybody talks about Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti, but the standout performance was a British actor, Stephen Dillane, as Thomas Jefferson. Amazing.

Finally, a plug for my friend Jonathan Vance's new book - "Unlikely Soldiers."

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #9

Mark Reynolds, writer, Beaver magazine contributor and current resident of Rheims, France, has a digital suggestion:

This is quite possibly too silly, but Kate Beaton's web-comics are a delight. I'm a huge fan. Most of her comics have a history spin, and given that she's originally from Cape Breton, a Canadian spin as well. Her website is www.katebeaton.com and there are links to her history comics on top. She also has a livejournal blog, where she will occasionally write about history topics (she recently reviewed Passchendaele, for instance).

She sells t-shirts and such from her web site as well, which could make a good gift for history enthusiasts with an absurdist sense of humour.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #8

Neil Ross, comedian and historian, whose series "Nation of Irony-mongers" is in development at CBC Radio, suggests:

The West Toronto Junction Historical Society is one of the most active historical groups in the nation. This year we managed to convince the neighbourhood of Toronto Junction that one hundred years ago it became a city and that a centennial celebration was called for and we brought back fifteen historical characters from the Boom Years to walk the streets again. We are now in the process of informing the community that one hundred years ago in 1909 the Junction joined Toronto as an equal and that another celebration is required. We plan to keep celebrating centennials well into the 21st Century . . . You can join WTJHS for the laughably small fee of twenty dollars for a single membership or thirty dollars for a family and receive our award winning quarterly newsletter or buy our book The Leader and Recorder's History of the Junction for thirty dollars at the Annette Street Library.

Neil's suggestion has nation-wide application, I'd say. There is probably a local historical society, heritage org, or conservancy project not far from you that the historian on your list ought to be part of.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #7

Today's suggestion comes from Constance Backhouse, law professor and historian, as well as an elected bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, and most recently the author of Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975. When I contacted her, Constance was travelling with Governor-General Michaelle Jean's about-to-be-truncated European tour:

If I were to recommend a book without access to my book collection, it would be Philip Girard’s biography of Bora Laskin [Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life, 2005] Professor Girard is one of the finest legal historians in Canada, and his book is based on extraordinary research. It also provides what is probably the best information in print so far about the history of anti-Semitism in the Canadian legal profession. It is just a start…much yet remains to be written…but it is a superb start.

If I were to recommend something other than a book, it would be ….wait for it…membership in the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. If the former chief justice R. Roy McMurtry can sign up 600 people single-handed, surely putting the organization on your holiday list might add a dozen or so more.

One last thought – send someone a beautiful card, offering to take them to lunch at Osgoode Hall in the Law Society’s dining room. “Take a legal history buff to lunch.” While there, go on a tour of the public areas of the building and read the names of every judge/lawyer whose portrait hangs on the walls. See if you can identify some fact about at least 5 of these, and reward yourself with a prize if you can – an extra serving of dessert. The Law Society chef’s desserts are totally delectable and worth any weight-gain that follows.

Carnal Crimes will be the subject of my column in Law Times in the week of December 8.

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #6

Chris Raible, writer, bookseller, Creemore, Ontario, has two suggestions:

By far the best book on Canadian history I've seen in the past year is Robert Malcomson's Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813. Despite - or perhaps because of - its extraordinary detail, it presents a balanced and coherent chronology, not only of the event itself, but the build-up and the aftermath. It is required reading for anyone (Canadians and Americans) with claims expertise in the War of 1812 era.
Perhaps the best history book I've read in a decade was published last year (but I read it early this year): Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1816-1848. It melds political, social and religious history into a single narrative, with fascinating anecdotal material that does not distract from the main theme. It is (of course) a bit weak on Canadian history of the era, but it makes an attempt to look north of the border from time to time. It makes the Whigs understandable and it shatters the heroic image of Jackson.

Chris is not alone. Howe's book won the Pulitzer Prize last year.

Ideas for the Hard-to-Buy-For Historian #5

My gift suggestion for families that love history (and particularly grandparents looking for something for the hard-to-buy-for age group 7-11 year olds) is a subscription to Kayak, Canada’s History Magazine for Kids. A one year gift subscription (6 issues) costs $21.95 ($17.95 for each additional gift). There’s also a neat website with interactive games etc. Available from Canada’s National History Society, PO Box 56060, Portage Place, RPO Winnipeg, MB R3B 0G9 or online here. The magazine is full of ghosts, explorers, adventures, puzzles – and real history. Happy holidays!

-- Charlotte Gray

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #4

I asked geographer Ron Brown, expert on Ontario heritage travel and tourism, author most recently of The Train Doesn’t Stop Here Any More; an illustrated history of the railway station in Canada (Dundurn Group, 2008). He suggested:

I would like to suggest a couple of books that I think are worthy of nomination: Ken McGoogan’s Race to the Polar Sea, and Lawrence Hill’s Book of Negroes (this is fiction but based on a very real episode in Canadian history).

Ideas for the Hard-to-buy-for Historian #3

John Robert Colombo, the Master Gatherer, anthologist extraordinaire, and most recently the author of Footloose: A Commentary on the Books of Gordon Sinclair, offers a suggestion:

Surely the professional historian or the professor of history will want to buy a book to give to a younger reader as a Christmas gift. I am impressed with the quality of the popular titles in the "True Canadian" series published by Prospero Books. This series is a well-kept trade secret for the books are really published by Key Porter of Toronto for the Indigo-Chapters chain. Their current title is "True Canadian Explorers" and this 286-page trade paperback is written from secondary sources by Ed Butts, a Guelph-based journalist. Butts writes readably and responsibly about the early explorers, including Cabot and Frobisher and on down to (or up to) Thompson and Vancouver. He has a nice, light touch. For instance, the chapter on Radisson and Groseilliers begins, "Generations of Canadian schoolchildren have known this pair of remarkable fur traders and explorers as 'Mr. Radishes and Mr. Gooseberries.'" These are "stories" that should be told and should be known by younger readers.