Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

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July 21, 2013

The Daily Beast has an interview with Princeton U historian Anthony Grafton. "That's my preeminent method: let stuff fall on my head and then try to crawl out and put some order to it."

Active History has an article about that vexing question: what to do...

July 17, 2013

There is so much to ponder in Richard Evans's essay that appeared on the Guardian's website last weekend that I hardly know where to begin.

Evans, who is a professor of modern history at Cambridge and author of several books about Nazi Germany, was responding to the latest attempt by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to come up with a reformed curriculum for British schools. Evans is...

July 16, 2013

When I was researching my book, Trucking in British Columbia, I heard a lot of stories about the pioneer wheel jockeys who hauled through the Fraser Canyon in the 1920s and 1930s. The route was winding and steep, without guardrails of any kind, unpaved and potholed. Rock slides were a constant threat and the roadbed could simply collapse into the canyon at any moment, washed away by rainfall and snow melt....

July 9, 2013

Yesterday brought exciting news for orca lovers on the BC coast. A sighting near Bella Bella indicates that Springer, the famous "orphan orca," has given birth and that mother and calf are doing well.

In 2002 Springer, then less than two years old, captured the world's attention when she was discovered, alone and in poor health, down in Puget Sound near Seattle. Marine scientists decided to intervene to capture the animal, nurse her back to health, then return her to her normal...

July 5, 2013

 

Just in time for Canada History Week the folks at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography had done a makeover to their website. The result makes for a vastly improved visitor experience. As a taste test, try this new bio of historian Donald Creighton.

For the Fourth of July, Slate published a critical...

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