History of cockatoos and panics and American journalism

Andrea Mantegna's Mantua Madonna ... and bird

I try not to consume too much American media, because it is easy to get drawn into the crazy down there as if it were the norm. But that mighty media machine does provide a lot of good material too.

Case 1 is a story in the New Yorker about an art history scholar in Australia studying works of the Italian renaissance artist Mantegna, who was active in the late 1400s, and seeing in one of them a small but very detailed image of a cockatoo -- a bird native to Australia and some of the islands around New Guinea.  

How did a cockatoo get to Mantua in 1496? is the burden of the article.  (There's another, it turns out, in a volume from the 1240s belonging to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.)  And the answer, simple when you think about it, but very nicely laid out in Rebecca Mead's article is ... trade. Well before 1000 CE, there was quite a lot of sea trade between China and Southeast Asia and westward to India and on to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea ports.  Luxuries were a significant driver of trade, useful in the exchanges between princes and aristocrats that facilitated trade.  

So why not a cockatoo? It's our Eurocentric it-all-starts-with-Columbus that fools us into placing Australia beyond an unreachable horizon before 1492. Columbus, remember, wanted to get in the trade opportunities of "the Indies" -- because he knew they already existed! The desire to trade, the article's experts aver, can be a more important driver of history than the dreams of adventurers or the ambitions of monarchs. (Cod and the new found land, sez the Canadianist.)

Case 2 is from The Atlantic: Chris Heath's "The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds."  Remember last year there was a media sensation/panic about lots of people receiving mysterious and unsoliticted little packages of seeds ... from China!  Covid contagion? Political subversion? Ecological attack? Commercial scam? What is this thing and What Must Be Done? I won't say much about Heath's discoveries because they are worth discovering for yourself, but the exploration is both amusing and enlightening, and nicely twisty. Let's classify it as a case study in the history of rumours and panics, and yes, the wierdness of trade. 

HIstorical wisdom is where you find it

Credit: Comics Kingdom Dustin  

Bradburn's Local history

Every Sunday lately the Toronto Star has enlivened its "Together" section with a quiz on Toronto history.  Props to Jamie Bradburn, who produces the column.  He draws on a seemingly limitless knowledge of local history matters. (I've lived in T.O. quite a while, but I flame out on his quiz every week.)

Which East York road is named after the founder of Laura Secord chocolates?

Thanks to its historical association with the production of roses, which community is known as “Flower City”?

\_O_/

Bradburn used to write most of the "Historicist" articles for the Torontoist blog, and I was regularly amazed about the amount of deeply researched history that went into every week's .

Maclean's quiz: is this man the Governor General of Quebec, or is he its lieutenant general?

Maclean's, which used to be quite a substantial magazine of Canadian news along with its provocative cover stories, is now little more than a website like the rest of us. Recently it has a truly sad story about Canadian constitutional history. It's not that they don't know anything; it's that they cannot even be bothered to find out.

The original story had a couple of references to M. Michel Doyon, the person who represents the Crown in Quebec. Both times it referred to him as "the lieutenant general" of the province.

They have made a silent correction. Now it reads "the Governor-General of Quebec." Twice. Let me quote the relevant paragraph, since they will probably make another unacknowledged correction sometime.

After Charlottetown, Quebec was the province to host the follow-up meeting, which Quebecers se souviennent. “When the delegates to the Quebec Conference gathered here,” wrote the Governor General of Quebec in 2014, “they laid the basis for a country…” The City of Quebec has also erected a statue of Etienne-Paschal Tache, the chairman of the conference, whom the Governor General called the “too-often-forgotten Father of Confederation.”

The rest of the piece has about the same level of cultural literacy. There is a historical oddity at least in every paragraph. ("Canada was conceived in Saint John, incubated in Quebec City and born on the Island?" Huh?)

It's another belated riff on the story Jacques Poitras broke around the New Year and I covered here.  But the first story actually wanted to get the story right; you could tell the reporter was genuinely taken with the subject. The succeeding ones seem to take the position that it's about history, so any old crap will do.

Image> La Presse

History of Toronto, and mining, and power

The Guardian's "Cities" series runs a thoughtful, historically informed essay on the role of the mining industry in underpinning Toronto and its financial sector -- and vice versa.

Unbeknown to most of its residents, Toronto is a city built on mining. Nearly 75% of mining companies globally are headquartered in Canada and almost 60% are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). In 2015, more than half of all capital investment in the mining business travelled through the exchange.

In fact, few – if any – other capital markets around the world are as specialised in a single industry as Toronto is in mining. 

Written by my former researcher Niko Block, too.

Globe on confederation: blogger scoops mainstream media again

The Globe has a Chris Hannay story this weekend on how New Brunswick is claiming its place as a starting point for confederation.

Sound familiar?  It's the story we had here on January 5th. And even my piece was riffing on one Jacques Poitras did for the CBC.

History of the decline of the Globe & Mail

The complete text of Saturday's op-ed pages:

• the centrepiece is Margaret Wente's complaint about how hard it is to use an iPhone and to have young people patronizing her.  
• Above her, a worry piece about Justin Trudeau by some guy who was influential in the 1990s.
• Below her, a sneer at Barack Obama by some guy who was important in the 1980s.  
• Opposite, a full page editorial complaining that official commemoration of Canada's 150th anniversary is "pork."

What century are these people in? The fake-news onslaught confirms how important credible news will be, but that's gonna be hard to find in this nostalgia fest paper.

Update, January 10:  Jerry Bannister writes from Halifax:

Happy New Year. Just wanted to say that you hit the nail on the head with your piece about the Globe.

History of swearing-ins and 60s style

Yesterday I did a little bit with CTV NewsNet comparing Justin Trudeau's swearing-in ceremony to those of his father.

I provided them this great Doug Bell/Canadian Press photo of ministers arriving for a swearing-in from July 1968, and we used it in the clip.  Today the CBC picked up the photo (just sayin'), and its Twitter comments (click on the photo) are terrific. One word summation: badass. (One other word: male!)

What Pierre Trudeau looked like when he showed up for his swearing-in ceremony in 1968 https://t.co/RQlRGbRJJk pic.twitter.com/RHsvbKTTCG

— CBC News (@CBCNews) November 4, 2015

And this is the bit from Reservoir Dogs that commentators were reminded of  (highlevel earworm advisory):

History of Ideas.

Down last night to the Toronto Broadcast Centre where Ideas, the CBC Radio program, was marking its fiftieth anniversary. It being Ideas, their idea of a birthday party was a panel discussion on "Famine, Shelter, and War in the next fifty years," followed by cake in the lobby.  Mind you, these were some smart people, and it was fun to watch how they fielded impossible questions on zero notice. It will be broadcast.

More on the history of Ideas, launched in 1966 by the west coast poet Phyllis Webb, here.  And the October broadcast sked here.  As was noted last night, hour-long radio in a world of seven-second sound bites....  it's something.

The first time I pitched a program to Ideas (closer to 1966 than 2015), the executive producer said, "We did a program with Canadian historians a couple of years ago.  Is there anything new to cover?' I like think that over the years I played a part in helping to change that. A program on the death of D'Arcy McGee ran earlier this week.

History of thinking

Once commissioned a Saturday Night article from me

Prospect -- the leading magazine of ideas, it says -- has picked the world's top fifty thinkers. Thin on Canadians. though the only one, Naomi Klein, ranks number three. Pretty thin on historians too: Christopher Clark, recent historian of the First World War, and Linda Colley, historian of Britishness, scrape in near the bottom, and that is about it.

As Clark and Colley suggest, Prospect is British, and though the list is pretty global, there is a good sprinkling of "famous in London" types.  The fifty were chosen by a vote of readers, and they must be kinda lefty -- and a little unconventional. Russell Brand is number four? I loved Get Him to the Greek, but come on!

Number one is Thomas Piketty, go figure. Two is Yanis Varoufakis, the economist in the leather jacket from the new Greek government, and five is Paul Krugman.

Update,April 4: Tom Bergbusch writes:

It has to be noted that Varoufakis is notable, among many other achievements, for having utterly demolished Piketty’s theories, which deliberately conflate capital and wealth!   Other progressive economists, including Varoufakis’s frequent collaborator, James Galbraith, and Michael Hudson have seconded Varoufakis’s argument, which details neatly the history of economic thought.

In case you are interested, I attach Varoufakis’s article (one can skip the equations), and [...] Hudson’s piece..

Piketty is unfashionable already?  That was fast!

HIstory of Isaac Brock, history of journalism

Who said the War of 1812 (+200) was over?

A new statue of General Isaac Brock, by sculptor Danek Mozdzenski, will become a centrepiece of the Brock University campus in St. Catharines, Ont. The photo above and this story are from the St Catharines edition of The Standard.

The $1.2-million sculpture — paid for through a gift by the late David S. Howes — was positioned in front of the tower Monday. At 4.5 metres tall tall, the War of 1812 hero immediately became the focal point of the new Isaac Brock Plaza.

Mozdzenski said the space suits a crowd, so he made Brock so tall he’ll tower over even a large gathering.

Meanwhile, Grant Lafleche, in The Tribune of nearby Welland, grumbles that they have prettied him up and trimmed his waistline and thinks Brock was a loser, anyway.

Best thing about this, I think, is the evidence that local newspaper journalism and commentary actually still exists here and there.

History of public broadcasting, history of culture

What's the special sauce for great public broadcasting?   Kate Taylor observes that in a geographically-small space and (mostly) one language, the BBC gets 8 time the funding the CBC does

Have blog, get media

When a journalist asks. 'In your view as a historian, what does this say about us as a nation?" I really try not to be quotable at all. Did not quite succeed in this Post story on why sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers is so modest, private, and spotlight-avoiding.

Story is somewhat spoiled, in any event, by Vickers in Israel being celebrated by Benjamin Netanyahu for killing a Muslim.

Maclean's on leadership

Maclean's has its own views on the democratic deficit in Canada, so it's probably inevitable it skews my views to support its own in its editorial on the crisis of confidence in the Manitoba government. I did say:

As Canadian historian Christopher Moore points out in an interview, “An executive which lacks the confidence of a majority of the people’s elected representatives is no longer a legitimate government.”

But that hardly means that a general election is required in Manitoba, as they claim I propose. In my clearly expressed view, the NDP caucus, which still forms the majority of the people’s elected representatives in Manitoba, has the right, and indeed the responsibility, to remove Mr. Selinger by majority vote and to choose his successor as premier by the same process. That would truly empower Canadian legislators to represent us effectively.

Maclean's, however, prefers a "never do anything by halves that you can do by quarters" approach.

History of being part of the crazy

Never anticipated this when I put up a website and started a blog about Canadian history:

Hi Mr. Moore, I hope that this e-mail finds you well. I am a producer for “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” at the Fox News Channel.  I am reaching out to you to see if you would be available tonight, in the 7p ET hour, to come on with our guest host, Kimberly Guilfoyle to discuss the shootings that occurred today. We can do the interview from anywhere in the world via satellite. If you could please let me know of interest and availability, I would appreciate it! Thank you! Sincerely,
xxxxxxx"On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren"

"No thanks."

History of journalistic integrity in Canada (as in, it ain't got much future)

The Saturday Globe & Mail examined the sidelining of broadcaster Ron MacLean by the new regime at Hockey Night in Canada, linking it directly to MacLean's failure to tug forelock sufficiently in the presence of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman:

MacLean and Bettman usually butted heads over labour-management issues in the NHL. MacLean consistently took the players’ side during interviews because, he said, he firmly believed the league was better off with a strong NHL Players’ Association.

The Globe goes on to show that the pressure to tout for the league came most directly, not from Bettman, but from the CBC

"That pressure was always there to acquiesce, to toe the company line and in some cases that might have been the league line,” MacLean said. “But I felt strongly about the importance of a healthy NHL Players’ Association. That was a difficult thing for both the CBC and the league to accept, always was. Nobody [at the CBC] was ever happy when I was treating a partner [with skepticism], a partner that thought they were more important than the NHLPA."  

It is a good thing that hockey is gone from the CBC, given the corruption of journalism it always encouraged there, though I don't really have much hope for a blossoming of integrity at the CBC. For previous comments on integrity and the CBC, put "gutted like a fish" in the search box at top left of this blog.

On the other hand, we can expect even less from the NHL's new "partner," Rogers Communications, which has a huge amount invested in hockey and seems set to trample on every bulwark of journalistic independence in the rush to generate hockey revenue. Content in all Rogers' scores of magazines, for instance, is about to become native advertising for the NHL. So, for instance, the Globe reports that every issue of Today's Parent magazine (owned by Rogers) will now have at least one hockey story, and you gotta guess it will not be about concussion dangers or violence in kids' leagues.

The company will be awash in hockey, with every corner of the business expected to leverage the rights somehow. 

Even Maclean's, ostensibly a newsmagazine, has been substantially repurposed to promote the NHL. As Paul Wells recently described in a tweet:

For a few weeks now, "hockey" has been general-purpose shorthand at Maclean's for "major project." As in, "Nan's back, but she's on hockey"
— Paul Wells (@InklessPW) October 2, 2014

Maybe the editor of Maclean's thinks covering something else might be a better use of the mag's resources this week? Tough, evidently...  Gotta make back the boss's investment.

Canada Day puts history (and history blogger) in the papers

.

Tom Broadbeck of the Winnipeg Sun looks into how the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 worked:

When government leaders from four British North America colonies gathered here in September 1864 to discuss the possibility of a federal union, they did something today’s elected officials would never do: they invited their political rivals to the negotiating table.

And Michael MacDonald of Canadian Press was on the story too:

"It's true that the Canadians had barged in on what had been a meeting on Maritime union, but they were certainly welcomed by the Maritimers," says Christopher Moore, a Toronto-based historian and author of "1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal."

Doubtless lots of stories that didn't quote me, but who care, really?

Image (of the PM in Charlottetown recently): CTV/Canadian Press 

Readings: Haddon on Allen on Canadian Press

In the Literary Review of Canada online, Beth Haddon's review of Making National News, the history of Canadian Press, "one of the most overlooked institutions in Canadian life," by journalist, historian, filmmaker Gene Allen:

CP member newspaper editors sent local stories from their papers to central CP “filing editors.” The filing editor would read the dozens of stories and many thousands of words that came in from across the country, and would assess the newsworthiness and suitability of each for the various papers he (it was always a he) was responsible for. In what must have been a frenzy of journalistic productivity, he would then rewrite, shorten and send the stories out, bearing in mind wire capacity and different deadlines in different time zones. The member newspaper editors would choose which stories to run in their local papers. That way a Toronto newspaper could report on a Calgary news story without having a correspondent in Calgary. And all would have the benefit of a correspondent in Ottawa where CP hired its own reporters. The editorial decision making that went into determining which stories to select and send out effectively determined what Canadians knew about their government in Ottawa and about the far-flung regions of the country.

History of influence

You get a website.  You start a blog.

Then the media come calling.

This is true.

Also in England, but sixty years ago....

I'll be talking Monday morning at or after 8.30 9:00 am Toronto time with Dan and Jacquie of CTV News Channel's "Morning Express."  Subject: Canada and the world in 1952, at the time of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne.

Update, June 4: Wondered if CTV would find me subversive for observing that, you know, a lot of Canadians in 1952 were British, but in 2012 we Canadians need to talk seriously about our pretense that the Queen is ours too.  But that's where Jacquie's news sense took us right away. That conversation is coming faster than Stephen Harper imagines, I think.