Kyoto and Canada

Looks about right.

 The internet is buzzing about The Harper Government's™ pending announcement that it will pull the country out of Kyoto.  Because, you know, nothing is better than something.  The Council of Canadians has issued its response, which is worth reposting here.

"This would reveal just how adverse the Harper government is to addressing climate change. If this is true, Harper should stay home from these critical climate talks," says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson, Council of Canadians. "This announcement, on the first day of the UN climate talks, is a betrayal to the goal of an effective international deal when many countries have been clear Kyoto is vital to forward movement."
"The Harper government says this is about getting a UN climate deal that puts all countries under one banner. It's not. This is about getting a deal with voluntary emission reduction targets and other loopholes that allow business as usual in Canada -- more emissions," adds Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Justice Campaigner. "This government has demonstrated a serial disregard to addressing climate change, allowing vital programs to expire, helping pave the path for a tripling of tar sands emissions and actually lobbying against other countries' climate policies."

And Peter Kent wants fewer fossil awards?  

Imaginary Cities

It's important to have a marking soundtrack.  Thank you, Imaginary Cities.  I will now be thinking about Winnipeg while reading about British Columbia's entry into Confederation.

The Popular Historian: This is not an insult

Kate Beaton is popular. Or should be (www.harkavagrant.com)

I've realized that in some of my recent work I refer to "popular historians," by which I mean historians who write books that people actually read.  A friend  commented that some academics might take the term as an insult, as if "popular" is, by definition, the opposite of scholarly.  

This discussion got me thinking about the differences between American and Canadian scholarship.  I read as much American history as I do Canadian, likely because I'm interested in a period when these two places did not exist.  Consequently, I am acutely aware that I can pick up a book by Alan Taylor, Jill Lapore, or William Fowler, Jr. in most book stores; on the other hand, I rely on Amazon to find monographs by John G. Reid, Allan Greer, and other prize-winning Canadian historians (Jerry Bannister, Michele Ducharme, and Jeff McNairn come to mind).  

Popular history is not always scholarly, especially in Canada.  We have Pierre Burton, who academics love to hate.  Yet his books (and there are dozens) get people reading about Canada.  Next year, as the Harper Government™ works to re-brand Canada as the country the War of 1812 made, you can be sure that Burton's Flames Across the Border will feature heavily in Chapters.  But so, too, will Alan Taylor's The Civil War of 1812.  One is certainly more scholarly than the other, but both are popular.  

Popular historians serve an important purpose in civic debate.  For example, I'm somewhat surprised that no Canadian historian has stepped up to explain the Occupy movement in the way that Jill Lapore did to investigate the Tea Party.  Canadians have excellent historians well-suited to explain these phenomena (Ian McKay's Reasoning Otherwise or Rebels, Reds, Radicals should be hot sellers at the moment), but none seem particularly "popular". And they should be.  

Canadians need to discover their historians, and historians need to make the case that history (and those who write it) should be popular. 

 

 

The Job Market

Like many in academia, I'm worried that recent history PhDs will have trouble finding a tenure-track job.  I'm relieved, however, that we'll all have cute puppies.

CBC Massey Lectures: Listen Online

Every year I buy the Massey Lecture book.  I tell myself I will read it all the way through.  I even bought the "lost" Massey lecture collection, which looks great.  It's on my shelf.  I haven't read it. 

With all the reading that academia demands, it can be tough to get through books in your specific field, let alone books that just look like fun.  

Well, the CBC is helping me out.  Our national broadcaster has made every Massey lecture from 1961 available online.  For free.  Amazing. If I can somehow load these onto my phone and listen to them during my commute, I will get through the entire series in no time.  Well, it will actually take quite a while -- but I'll enjoy it. 

Check the series out here.