The new issue (#89) of Geist magazine is making its way onto newsstands. It contains my column about a new book, Desiring Canada (UofT Press), that takes on the always vexing topic of national identity.

The authors, Patricia Cormack and James Cosgrave, are both sociologists, which means that the book can be a little heavy-going at times, but it is worth the effort for its provocative discussion of several aspects of our popular culture (CBC...

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...

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...

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....

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...