Jerry Bannister Like many Canadian historians, I have followed with interest the ongoing debate over John A. Macdonald, including the recent letter sponsored by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Among the thoughtful responses to the letter, I’d highlight three points. First, as Andrew Nurse explains in Borealia, we should be wary of pro-Macdonald calls for “balance,” which… Continue Reading
Latest in: Jerry Bannister
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Jerry Bannister Like everyone else this evening, I’m struggling to keep up with the news. What’s striking about the latest crisis in the United States is that, even at the very heart of American power, there remains so much confusion about what’s happening on the ground in Washington. Despite the ocean of tweets, there is… Continue Reading
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Jerry Bannister Last spring, in response to Denis McKim’s thoughtful post about the potential impacts of the pandemic on the study of Canadian history, I started a short piece on how the larger social crises were shaping our historical perspectives. As spring turned into summer, and we took advantage of the Atlantic bubble, my notes… Continue Reading
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Jerry Bannister Starting a graduate thesis is hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying, delusional, or one of those bizarre people who find it easy. December in Canada brings awful holiday specials on TV, complaints about freezing rain and, for those of us in universities, worries over what’s left undone from the Fall term.… Continue Reading
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Jeffers Lennox Having a first-time author give advice about publishing a book is kind of like having a new parent offer tips on surviving an infant. In both cases, the person is likely sleep-deprived, the process was a blur, and it’s too early to tell if the book/child will be any good. And yet, I… Continue Reading
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Jerry Bannister Writing is hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying, delusional, or one of those utterly bizarre people who find it easy. June in Canada brings dandelions, complaints about the weather, and, for those of us in universities, thoughts of writing. This is that magical time when the dust of the academic year… Continue Reading
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Jerry Bannister Adam Gopnik’s recent article, “We could all have been Canadians,” published in the May 15th issue of the New Yorker, has attracted considerable attention on social media among Canadian historians.[1] I’ve already chimed in with a short comment on Christopher Moore’s blog.[2] With the sun shining hopefully on my back deck this morning,… Continue Reading
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Jerry Bannister I remember the first day I saw Danny Vickers. It was in September 1986, and he was one of the instructors in my first-year History course, “Ideas and Society in the West,” a team-taught lecture at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He was tall, thin, and paced back and forth when he lectured, with… Continue Reading
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Jerry Bannister [Ed. This essay is cross-posted with our partners at the Acadiensis blog.] Nations matter. National cultures matter. And national histories matter. As we try to understand what has happened in the United States, we should keep those three things in mind. There will be endless discussion of all the proximate causes of Donald Trump’s victory… Continue Reading
Borealia 