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Canada : a very short introduction
Wright, Donald A., 1965-Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020A bilingual, multicultural, and multinational nation, Canada borders the United States, reaches into the Arctic, and stretches across six time zones. Drawing on Canadian history, politics, and literature, Donald Wright explores the Canadian story and identity, from the arrival of the first Indigenous peoples to contemporary climate politics
Online Very Short Introductions
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Donald Creighton : a life in history
Wright, Donald A., 1965-Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2015]Through his virtuoso research into Creighton's own voluminous papers, Donald Creighton captures the twentieth-century transformation of English Canada through the life and times of one of its leading intellectuals.A member of the same intellectual generation as Harold Innis, Northrop Frye, and George Grant, Donald Creighton (1902-1979) was English Canada's first great historian. The author of eleven books, including The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence and a two-volume biography of John A. Macdonald, Creighton wrote history as if it "had happened, " he said, "the day before yesterday." And as a public intellectual, he advised the prime minister of Canada, the premier of Ontario, and - at least on one occasion - the British government. Yet he was, as Donald Wright shows, also profoundly out of step with his times. As the nation was re-imagined along bilingual and later multicultural lines in the 1960s and 1970s, Creighton defended a British definition of Canada at the same time as he began to fear that he would be remembered only "as a pessimist, a bigot, and a violent Tory partisan." Through his virtuoso research into Creighton's own voluminous papers, Wright paints a sensitive portrait of a brilliant but difficult man. Ultimately, Donald Creighton captures the twentieth-century transformation of English Canada through the life and times of one of its leading intellectuals.
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The professionalization of history in English Canada
Wright, Donald A., 1965-Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, ©2005."The study of history in Canada has a history of its own, and its development as an academic discipline is a multifaceted one. The Professionalization of History in English Canada charts the transition of the study of history from a leisurely pastime to that of a full-blown academic career for university-trained scholars - from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century." "Donald Wright argues that professionalization was not, in fact, a benign process, nor was it inevitable. It was deliberate. Within two generations, historians saw the creation of a professional association, the Canadian Historical Association, and the rise of an academic journal, the Canadian Historical Review. Professionalization was also gendered. In an effort to raise the status of the profession and protect the academic labour market for men, male historians made a concerted effort to exclude women from the academy."--JacketThe study of history in Canada has a history of its own, and its development as an academic discipline is a multifaceted one. The Professionalization of History in English Canada charts the transition of the study of history from a leisurely pastime to that of a full-blown academic career for university-trained scholars - from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century. Donald Wright argues that professionalization was not, in fact, a benign process, nor was it inevitable. It was deliberate. Within two generations, historians saw the creation of a professional association - the Canadian Historical Association - and rise of an academic journal - the Canadian Historical Review. Professionalization was also gendered. In an effort to raise the status of the profession and protect the academic labour market for men, male historians made a concerted effort to exclude women from the academy. History's professionalization is best understood as a transition from one way of organizing intellectual life to another. What came before professionalization was not necessarily inferior, but rather, a different perspective of history. As well, Wright argues convincingly that professionalization inadvertently led to a popular inverse: the amateur historian, whose work is often more widely received and appreciated by the general public.
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