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In the Province of HistoryThe Making of the Public Past in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia |
eBook Available
How a region sells - and misrepresents - its past
Nova Scotia's captivating natural beauty and important place in the history of North America and the Atlantic world make it a premier tourist destination for visitors from around the world. From re-enactments at the Halifax Citadel, monuments to the Explosion of 1917 and Pier 21, and postcards of Peggy's Cove and Cape Breton, the province has cultivated a thriving tourism industry that relies on constructing and marketing the history of the area. In the Province of History studies Nova Scotia's long-standing initiatives to attract visitors, the ways in which the region's history has been presented and misrepresented, and the extent to which even the province's residents have become tourists in their own lives and towns.
Using archival sources, novels, government reports, and works on tourism and heritage, Ian McKay and Robin Bates look at how state planners, key politicians, and cultural figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, long-time premier Angus L. Macdonald, and novelist Thomas Raddall were all instrumental in forming "tourism/history." The authors argue that Longfellow's 1847 poem Evangeline - on the brutal British expulsion of Acadians from Nova Scotia - became a template a new kind of profit-making history that exalted whiteness and excluded ethnic minorities, women, and working class movements. A remarkable look at the intersection of politics, leisure, and the presentation of public history, In the Province of History is a revealing account of how a region has both used and distorted its own past.
Using archival sources, novels, government reports, and works on tourism and heritage, Ian McKay and Robin Bates look at how state planners, key politicians, and cultural figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, long-time premier Angus L. Macdonald, and novelist Thomas Raddall were all instrumental in forming "tourism/history." The authors argue that Longfellow's 1847 poem Evangeline - on the brutal British expulsion of Acadians from Nova Scotia - became a template a new kind of profit-making history that exalted whiteness and excluded ethnic minorities, women, and working class movements. A remarkable look at the intersection of politics, leisure, and the presentation of public history, In the Province of History is a revealing account of how a region has both used and distorted its own past.
Details
481 Pages, 6 x 9
50 b&w photos
ISBN 9780773537040
May 2010
Formats: Paperback, Cloth, eBook
"Ian McKay and Robin Bates make marvelous mischief of Nova Scotia's social and political traditions in their assiduously indexed and foot-noted tome about one Canada's first signatories to Confederation." Alec Bruce, Atlantic Books Today
"In the Province of History is a profoundly important book ... Much of what passes for Nova Scotia's public history remains mired in touristy imagery and sentimentality. Historians like McKay and Bates who are genuine critical thinkers are effective in exposing fabrications and provoking much-needed rethinking. After all, many of us do cringe at the sight of Nova Scotia premiers playing the fiddle, see fissures in Nova Scotian society, and prefer to keep those provincial tartan ties safely in our closets." The Chronicle-Herald
"In the Province of History gives a highly provocative and sometimes startling insight into the evolution of Nova Scotia's tourism history. McKay and Bates demonstrate expert archival knowledge, while masterfully sustaining an intellectual narrative, from cover to cover. This highly anticipated book will inform, inspire, and advance alternative understanding of Nova Scotian history. The authors are to be congratulated." Gwendolyn Davies, Professor and Dean Emerita, University of New Brunswick
"This is a serious book about the process of history. It advocates for solid academic research as an antidote to popular and state-approved history that is market driven and shaped by cultural elites ... One can only hope that the book stimulates a debate on the nature of our perception of the past. After reading this book, a visit to Nova Scotia will never be the same." Literary Review of Canada
"In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia is a book full of delectable tales about the making of our tourism industry." Wendy Elliott, Kings County Advertiser/Register
"McKay and Bates's In the Province of History is a profoundly important book. (...) The authors have produced a weighty volume that deserves to be taken seriously here in Nova Scotia. If the province's tourism promoters ever discover McKay and Bates's book, look out for big changes." The Chronicle Herald
"[McKay] makes his case with passion, sarcasm, and irony." Christopher Moore, Canada's History
"The scope of the book and the research are astounding. The writing is superb, tinged with bits of sarcasm and humor. Little areas that are seemingly trivial upon beginning turn out to be fascinating and unexpected, informative and essential to the overall ideas behind "tourism/history." Although geared to specialists in history, tourism studies and cultural studies, the book is so wonderfully constructed that the above average general reader would find it both interesting and an absolute pleasure to read." American Review of Canadian Studies
"McKay and Bates provide an engaging and thought-provoking description of the official past that was created in mid-twentieth-century Nova Scotia; and apparently the franchise is not yet finished, since the authors promise 'there will be at least one more 'road to innocence' to explore before this saga is ended' (381). This is very good news, as it will provide yet another opportunity to visit the Province of History!" The Canadian Historical Review
"In the Province of History is a profoundly important book ... Much of what passes for Nova Scotia's public history remains mired in touristy imagery and sentimentality. Historians like McKay and Bates who are genuine critical thinkers are effective in exposing fabrications and provoking much-needed rethinking. After all, many of us do cringe at the sight of Nova Scotia premiers playing the fiddle, see fissures in Nova Scotian society, and prefer to keep those provincial tartan ties safely in our closets." The Chronicle-Herald
"In the Province of History gives a highly provocative and sometimes startling insight into the evolution of Nova Scotia's tourism history. McKay and Bates demonstrate expert archival knowledge, while masterfully sustaining an intellectual narrative, from cover to cover. This highly anticipated book will inform, inspire, and advance alternative understanding of Nova Scotian history. The authors are to be congratulated." Gwendolyn Davies, Professor and Dean Emerita, University of New Brunswick
"This is a serious book about the process of history. It advocates for solid academic research as an antidote to popular and state-approved history that is market driven and shaped by cultural elites ... One can only hope that the book stimulates a debate on the nature of our perception of the past. After reading this book, a visit to Nova Scotia will never be the same." Literary Review of Canada
"In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia is a book full of delectable tales about the making of our tourism industry." Wendy Elliott, Kings County Advertiser/Register
"McKay and Bates's In the Province of History is a profoundly important book. (...) The authors have produced a weighty volume that deserves to be taken seriously here in Nova Scotia. If the province's tourism promoters ever discover McKay and Bates's book, look out for big changes." The Chronicle Herald
"[McKay] makes his case with passion, sarcasm, and irony." Christopher Moore, Canada's History
"The scope of the book and the research are astounding. The writing is superb, tinged with bits of sarcasm and humor. Little areas that are seemingly trivial upon beginning turn out to be fascinating and unexpected, informative and essential to the overall ideas behind "tourism/history." Although geared to specialists in history, tourism studies and cultural studies, the book is so wonderfully constructed that the above average general reader would find it both interesting and an absolute pleasure to read." American Review of Canadian Studies
"McKay and Bates provide an engaging and thought-provoking description of the official past that was created in mid-twentieth-century Nova Scotia; and apparently the franchise is not yet finished, since the authors promise 'there will be at least one more 'road to innocence' to explore before this saga is ended' (381). This is very good news, as it will provide yet another opportunity to visit the Province of History!" The Canadian Historical Review
Ian McKay is a professor in the Department of History at Queen's University.
Robin Bates is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Chicago.
Robin Bates is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Chicago.
In the Province of History
Ian McKay and Robin Bates
Table of Contents
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Usage xi
Prologue: The People of “Canada’s Ocean Playground” 3
1 How a Land without Antiquities Became the Province of History 18
2 This Is the Province Primeval: Evangeline and the Beginnings of Tourism/History 71
3 “All the world was safe and happy”: The Innocence of Will R. Bird 130
4 Down the Twisting Path of Destiny: The Impossible Liberalism of Thomas Raddall 200
5 Marketing Race: Angus L. Macdonald, Tartanism, and the Cultural Politics of Whiteness 253
6 Of Runic Stones and Lockean Dreams: The Triumvirate and Its Treasures, 1935-1964 317
Conclusion: Is the Romance Ended? 369
Notes 381
Index 457
Ian McKay and Robin Bates
Table of Contents
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Usage xi
Prologue: The People of “Canada’s Ocean Playground” 3
1 How a Land without Antiquities Became the Province of History 18
2 This Is the Province Primeval: Evangeline and the Beginnings of Tourism/History 71
3 “All the world was safe and happy”: The Innocence of Will R. Bird 130
4 Down the Twisting Path of Destiny: The Impossible Liberalism of Thomas Raddall 200
5 Marketing Race: Angus L. Macdonald, Tartanism, and the Cultural Politics of Whiteness 253
6 Of Runic Stones and Lockean Dreams: The Triumvirate and Its Treasures, 1935-1964 317
Conclusion: Is the Romance Ended? 369
Notes 381
Index 457
