Read For Free Commemorating Canada: History, Heritage, And Memory, 1850s-1990s Engineered By Cecilia Morgan Ready In Hardcover

decent, if dry, introduction to the topic, In Commemorating Canada: History, Heritage, and Memory,sMorgan looks at numerous ways Canadians commemorated and understood its historical past, Morgan analyzes a variety of topics, In the second chapter, Morgan illustrates the role of historians, largely “amateur” ones, who crafted narratives that emphasized the success of British values and traditions in Canada, French Catholic nationalists were also memorialized, mostly, men who represented Catholic values such as family, language, and nationhood, These histories often focused on genealogies as a means to locate and legitimize peoples connection to Canada, As the middleclass grew and other nations, such as America, took to shaping a selective memory of the past to unite their nation, public history took on more forms including historical societies, pageants, and monuments.
Ontarios monuments, in comparison to Quebecs, were often of secular figures and focused on three themes: loyalist migration, the War of, and the pioneering identity, These narratives often glossed over the nuanced realities of the past, Similarly, monuments

erected after the First World War, often funded by the local community, emphasized the Christian nature of the “everyman” soldier and the worthwhileness of their sacrifice, Such emphasis on Canadas “peacefulness” made reinforced that Canadas young men did not die in vain and unified most of the nation despite the contradiction between ideas of peace and participation in the war.
The creation of Parks Canada and the Heritage Sites and Monuments Board brings out more fully the role of the state in “official” forms of commemoration, Although Morgan makes clear that federal jurisdiction in “protecting” or “restoring” certain sites remained limited due to provincial, local, and private interests, Indeed, the tension between putting up plaques and restoring decaying sites created different ideas of how to shape Canadas historical narrative, Morgan demonstrates how state and local actors shaped ideas of Canadian heritage and how this changed, or did not change, over time, Increasingly, Morgan notes, those marginalized in Canadas heritage have the social and political currency to make their voices, and histories, heard and complicate Canadas grander history, It is clear that Canadians have and continue to care about their history,
Commemorating Canada is a concise narrative overview of the development of history and commemoration in Canada, designed for use in courses on public history, historical memory, heritage preservation, and related areas.


Examining why, when, where, and for whom historical narratives have been important, Cecilia Morgan describes the growth of historical pageantry, popular history, textbooks, historical societies, museums, and monuments through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Showing how Canadians have clashed over conflicting interpretations of history and how they have come together to create shared histories, she demonstrates the importance of history in shaping Canadian identity.
Though public history in both French and English Canada was written predominantly by white, middleclass men, Morgan also discusses the activism and agency of women, immigrants, and Indigenous peoples, The book concludes with a brief examination of presentday debates over Canada's history and Canadians' continuing interest in their pasts, .