Volume
83, Number 3, September 2002
Articles
'Animated
like Us by Commercial Interests': Commercial Ethnology and Fur Trade
Descriptions in New France, 1660-1760
George Colpitts
The
Mental World of Ralph Merry: A Case Study of Popular Religion in the
Lower Canadian-New England Borderland, 1798-1863
J.I. Little
The
Second Frontier: The North in English-Canadian Historical Writing
Janice Cavell
Heavy
Baggage en route to Winnipeg
Peter Seixas
Book
Reviews
Higham,
Noble, Wretched and Redeemable: Protestant Missionaries to the Indians
in Canada and the United States, 1820-1900
Reviewed by Jean Manore
St
germain, Indian Treaty-Making Policy in the United States and Canada,
1867-1877
Reviewed by Jean L. Manore
Chennells,
The Politics of Nationalism in Canada: Cultural Conflict since 1760
Reviewed by Michael Behiels
Robertson,
Memoirs of a Very Civil Servant: Mackenzie King to Pierre Trudeau
Reviewed by Alan Cairns
Davis,
Whatever Happened to High School History? Burying the Political Memory
of Youth, Ontario: 1945-1995
Reviewed by E. Lisa Panayotidis
Davis,
Skills Mania: Snake Oil in Our Schools?
Reviewed by E. Lisa Panayotidis
Havard,
The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701: French-Native Diplomacy in the
Seventeenth Century, trans. aronoff and scott,
Reviewed by Jan Grabowski
Wolfart
and ahenkew, eds., Ah-ayitaw isi e-ki-kiskeyihtahkik maskihkiy: They
Knew Both Sides of Medicine: Cree Tales of Curing and Cursing Told
Reviewed by Alice Ahenakew by Mary-Ellen Kelm
Landsman,
ed., Nation and Province in the First British Empire: Scotland and
the Americas, 1600-1800
Reviewed by Ken MacMillan
Conrad
and moody, eds., Planter Links: Community and Culture in Colonial
Nova Scotia
Reviewed by Catharine Wilson
Keith,
ed., North of Athabasca: Slave Lake and Mackenzie River Documents
of the North West Company, 1800-1821
Reviewed by Carolyn Podruchny
Young,
The Making and Unmaking of a University Museum: The McCord, 1921-1996
Reviewed by D. Thiery Ruddel
Abel
and coates, eds., Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North
in Canadian History
Reviewed by Margaret Conrad
Haines
and steckel, eds., A Population History of North America
Reviewed by Lisa Dillon
Klymasz
and willis, eds., Revelations: Bi-Millenial Papers from the Canadian
Museum of Civilization
Reviewed by RoderickMacLeod
Lyon
and van die, eds., Rethinking Church, State, and Modernity: Canada
Between Europe and America
Reviewed by Nancy Christie
Cook,
mclean, and o'rourke, eds., Framing Our Past: Canadian Women's History
in the Twentieth Century
Reviewed by Gail Cuthbert Brandt
Reczynska,
Pietno Wojny. Polonia kanadyjska wobec polskich problemow lat 1939-1945
[The Stamp of War. Polish-Canadians Facing Polish Problems, 1939-1945]
Reviewed by Jan Grabowski
Michaud
and nossal, eds., Diplomatic Departures: The Conservative Era in Canadian
Foreign Policy, 1984-93
Reviewed by Gordon T. Stewart
Johnston,
Joseph Workman: The Father of Canadian Psychiatry
Reviewed by E. Lisa Panayotidis
Bogue,
The Farm on the North Talbot Road
Reviewed by Margaret Derry
Merriken,
Looking for Country: A Norwegian Immigrant's Alberta Memoir
Reviewed by Tamara Palmer Seiler
Paddock,
Keeper of the Wild: The Life of Ernest Oberholtzer
Reviewed by Theodore Binnema
'Animated
like Us by Commercial Interests': Commercial Ethnology and Fur Trade
Descriptions in New France, 1660-1760
George Colpitts
Beginning
in the mid-seventeenth century, French colonial correspondents, crown
employees, and military officers began to describe in more detail
the North American fur trade. They furnished to the metropolis more
information concerning the exchange between Amerindians and Europeans,
and they underscored the cultural and economic benefits that arose
in exchange. For the first time, writers interested themselves in
the details of exchange, identified the needs of Amerindians for European
goods, and suggested that the social disposition of New World people
could be ameliorated in a trade with Europeans. Drawing on new metropolitan
understandings of commerce and the marketplace, writers identified
ways that the trade could link Amerindians peacefully with French
interests. Descriptions also suggested that the passion of intêrét
guided Amerindians and prompted them, as consumers, to seek the best
prices on goods. This article situates texts of this type - and the
ethnological information they contain - in their commercial context.
It concludes that many memoirs, reports, and, later, published ethnological
narratives describing the fur trade were written by parties interested
in protecting or expanding their investments in newly discovered inland
regions, particularly in the Illinois and Mississippi watersheds.
À partir du milieu du xviie siècle, les correspondants
coloniaux français, les employés de la Couronne et les
officiers de l'Armée commencèrent à donner du
commerce des fourrures en Amérique du Nord une description
plus nette. Ils fournissaient à la métropole une quantité
accrue d'information sur les échanges entre Amérindiens
et Européens et ils soulignaient les avantages culturels et
économiques qui en découlaient. Pour la première
fois, les auteurs s'intéressaient aux détails du troc,
identifiaient les besoins des Amérindiens en marchandises européennes
et suggéraient que le commerce avec les Européens pouvait
améliorer la situation sociale des peuples du Nouveau Monde.
Se fondant sur la nouvelle manière qu'avait la métropole
de comprendre le commerce et le marché, les auteurs identifièrent
divers moyens de lier pacifiquement intérêts amérindiens
et intérêts français par le biais du commerce.
Les descriptions suggéraient de plus que la passion de l'"intérêt"
guidait les Amérindiens et les incitait, en tant que consommateurs,
à rechercher les meilleurs prix pour les marchandises. Le présent
article replace des textes de cette nature - ainsi que l'information
ethnologique qu'ils renferment - dans leur contexte commercial. Il
conclut qu'un grand nombre de mémoires et de rapports ainsi
que, plus tard, de récits ethnologiques publiés sur
le commerce des fourrures furent écrits par des parties intéressées
à protéger ou à étendre leurs investissements
dans les régions de l'intérieur que l'on venait de découvrir,
en particulier dans les bassins de l'Illinois et du Mississippi.
The Mental World of Ralph Merry: A Case Study of Popular
Religion in the Lower Canadian-New England Borderland, 1798-1863
J.I. Little
This article outlines the religious life of Ralph Merry, a farmer/pedlar
from the Eastern Townships, as it is reflected in the diary he kept
through most of his long life. Themes include Merry's transcendental
experiences, composition of hymns, attitude towards the supernatural,
attraction to millenarianism, and political ideology, as well as the
hybrid folk-modern nature of his journal and the psychological basis
of his spirituality. From the picture of religious belief and practice
that emerges, it is clear that the international border remained somewhat
pervious to New England's radical religious culture, despite the dominance
of the British-supported Anglican and Methodist churches in the Eastern
Townships.
Cet article présente les grandes lignes de la vie religieuse
de Ralph Merry, fermier / colporteur des Cantons de l'Est, telle que
la reflète le journal qu'il garda durant presque toute sa longue
vie. Les thèmes incluent les expériences transcendantales,
la composition d'hymnes, l'attitude à l'égard du surnaturel,
l'attrait pour le millénarisme et l'idéologie politique
de Merry, ainsi que la nature hybride traditionnelle-moderne de son
journal et le fondement psychologique de sa spiritualité. Il
ressort clairement, du fond de convictions et pratiques religieuses
qui se dégage, que la frontière internationale resta
quelque peu perméable à la culture religieuse radicale
de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, malgré la prédominance des
églises anglicanes et méthodistes soutenues par les
Britanniques dans les Cantons de l'Est.
The
Second Frontier: The North in English-Canadian Historical Writing
Janice Cavell
It is widely believed that Anglo-Canadians' sense of their destiny
as a northern nation has deep historical roots, dating from the 1850s.
However, there has been a misunderstanding of Canadian attitudes to
the Arctic in the nineteenth century, owing to a failure to fully
consider the different meanings of the word 'north' in the years up
to the early twentieth century. The expansionists of the 1850s and
1860s made frequent references to the north, though they meant the
area we now call the prairie west. Survey histories of Canada written
in the late nineteenth century show an intense interest in this region,
but little concern with the more northerly reaches of the continent
or the Arctic islands. It would appear that the far north remained
peripheral to most Canadians' mental picture of their nation for many
years after it became Canadian territory.
This article examines the evolution of Canadian attitudes to the Arctic
from the late nineteenth century to the present, mainly through survey
histories. It argues that until the 1970s, the Arctic, far from providing
a key paradigm for the Canadian sense of nationhood, was either ignored
or viewed as a 'second frontier' that could be developed and exploited
much as the first frontier, the west, had been. Northern history was
in many ways a problematic subject for nationalist historians, since
they approached it with the preconceptions formed during their study
of Canada's development from east to west.
On croit souvent que l'idée que se font les canadiens anglais
de leur destin en tant que nation nordique a des racines historiques
profondes, remontant aux années 1850. Cependant, l'attitude
canadienne anglaise envers l'Arctique a fait l'objet d'un malentendu
du fait que les différentes significations attribuées
au mot "nord" avant le xxe siècle n'ont pas été
prises en compte. Les tenants de l'expansionnisme des années
1850 et 1860 faisaient fréquemment référence
au nord, alors qu'ils pensaient à la région que l'on
appelle maintenant la Prairie. Les ouvrages écrits à
la fin du xixe siècle sur l'histoire général
du Canada révèlent que l'on s'intéressait vivement
à cette région, mais bien peu aux confins nordiques
du continent ou à l'archipel Arctique. Il semble que, longtemps
après être devenu territoire canadien, le Grand Nord
ne faisait toujours pas partie de l'image que se faisaient les Canadiens
de leur pays.
Cet article se penche sur l'évolution de l'attitude des Canadiens
envers l'Arctique depuis la fin du xixe siècle jusqu'à
l'heure actuelle. Il soutient que, jusque dans les années 1970,
loin de représenter un paradigme clé pour le sentiment
canadien de nation, l'Arctique était soit ignoré, soit
perçu comme une "seconde frontière" que l'on
pouvait mettre en valeur et exploiter comme on l'avait fait pour la
première, celle de l'Ouest. Pour les historiens nationalistes
en particulier, l'histoire du Nord était de bien des façons
un sujet problématique, car ils l'abordaient avec les idées
préconçues formées durant leur étude du
développement du Canada de l'est vers l'ouest.
Heavy Baggage en route to Winnipeg
Peter Seixas
In October 2001 the Association for Canadian Studies convened a meeting
in Winnipeg of 566 teachers, historians, and others involved in history
education. This article situates the conference (as one in a series
of comparable events) in larger cultural trends by reviewing those
aspects of contemporary popular culture that stimulate a demand for
such initiatives. It surveys the change in academic attitudes that
makes historians more receptive to these calls than they might have
been before the early 1990s. And finally, it looks at the conference
itself as a locus for debate about how to help the next generation
understand, criticize, and contribute to representations of the past
in both the popular and the academic cultures.
En octobre 2001, l'Association d'études canadiennes a convoqué
une réunion qui a attiré à Winnipeg 566 enseignants,
historiens et autres personnes intéressées par l'enseignement
de l'histoire. En étudiant ces aspects de la culture populaire
contemporaine qui stimulent une demande pour de telles initiatives,
l'article replace le congrès (vu comme un événement
parmi une série d'autres de même nature) au sein des
grandes tendances culturelles. Il examine le changement dans l'attitude
du monde enseignant, changement qui rend les historiens plus réceptifs
à ces appels qu'ils n'ont pu l'être avant le début
des années 1990. L'article enfin voit le congrès même
comme une tribune où l'on débat la façon d'aider
la nouvelle génération à comprendre, critiquer
et collaborer aux représentations du passé dans la culture
populaire comme dans la culture universitaire.
Contributors
Janice Cavell is completing her doctorate at
Carleton University. Her thesis is on British and Canadian representations
of polar exploration.
George Colpitts completed his doctoral work
on fur trade descriptions at the University of Alberta. His book,
Game in the Garden : A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada
to 1940, will be published by the University of Alberta Press in 2002.
He lives in Hull, Quebec.
Jack Little recently edited Love Strong as Death:
Lucy Peel's Canadian Journal (2001) and is currently completing a
project on Protestantism in the Eastern Townships during the first
half of the nineteenth century.
Peter Seixas is professor and Canada Research
Chair in Education at the University of British Columbia and director
of the Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness (www.cshc.ubc.ca).
He taught high school for fifteen years and earned a doctorate in
history from ucla. He is co-editor, with Peter Stearns and Sam Wineburg,
of Knowing, Teaching and Learning History (2000) and author of the
chapter on 'Social Studies' in the Handbook of Research on Teaching
(2001).
