Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

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December 13, 2023

In the November issue of the Literary Review of Canada, under the guise of revisiting Jack Granatstein's 1998 polemic, Who Killed Canadian History, Patrice Dutil writes a lament about the state of Canadian history today.

I didn't like Granatstein's book when it appeared 25 years ago and I don't much like Dutil's recycling of some of the same arguments. But instead of going on about it myself I...

November 27, 2023

Last week I was down to the regular meeting of the Vancouver Historical Society. The speaker was Jason Colby, professor of environmental history at the University of Victoria.

Jason was talking about his book Orca: How We Came to Know and...

November 26, 2023

Another year has rolled around and once again The British Columbia Review is in the middle of its fundraising drive.

You know the Review, BC's best on-line book review site (and I don't say that just because I am a member of the editorial board). If you care about books and the conversation about books then why not consider helping out?

The Review's estimable man-in-charge, Richard Mackie,...

November 22, 2023

Congratulations to Adam Bunch, winner of this year's Pierre Berton Award, known officially as the Governor General's History Award for Popular Media.

I am not familiar with Adam's work -- perhaps because I live a long way from Toronto -- but as you can see from the video he is prolific in a variety of media.

The Pierre Berton prize is...

November 9, 2023

Yesterday brought news of the passing of Clyde Rose, co-founder of Newfoundland's Breakwater Books, at the age of 86.

I have written here previously about my own connection to Breakwater, which published an early book of mine way back in 1984.

Condolences to the Rose family.

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