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“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

Sean Speer: Academic historians won the History Wars and then forgot how to fight (The Hub)


Late last year The Hub was proud to publish a series of essays and podcast episodes that marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Canadian historian Jack Granatstein’s best-selling book, Who Killed Canadian History?.

These commentaries, which brought together the different perspectives of an academic historian, a young Ph.D. student, a high school teacher, a popular historian, and even Granatstein himself, were generally sympathetic to the book’s thesis that the growing insularity and parochialism of academic historians and a broader retreat from a popularized history of the country represent negative developments that in the ensuing quarter century have contributed to Canada’s attenuation, complacency, and lack of common purpose.

The series somewhat unexpectedly drew the attention and ire of academic historians invested in an anti-Granatsteinian conception of history and its aims and methods. There were claims that the articles were “misinformation”, “one-sided”, “bad faith,” and “truly horrible.” Critics of contemporary historical scholarship were told to simply “move on" ...

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