University of British Columbia
Department of History
Canadian Social History
History 325 – 201
Canada 1896-1945: The Challenges of the Human Spirit
BUCHANAN D317
September 3 – November 29, 2013
Professor Dianne Newell
1107 Buchanan Tower, Department of History, 11th floor
604-822-5195 (available during office hours)
Office Hours: Mon and Wed 10:00 am – 12 pm (or by appointment); you are also welcome to email me for clarification or other straightforward matters but some issues are best discussed in person.
Course Description
Canadian Social History 1896-1945 examines critical aspects of the History of Canada, both in its internal spatial and its socio-political dimensions and its external relations with the world. Roughly chronological in organization, it is not a simple overview of events; rather, it will examine key areas of economic, political, and social development and movements, and look at the lives of representative individuals. Topics include: Imperialism, Nationalism, Activism, Racism, Modernism, Social Reform, Populist Politics, Labour Movements, Internal Colonization, Immigration and Exclusion, Economic Booms and Busts, Culture and Communications, and Social Memory and Commemoration.
Objectives
This is an upper level, undergraduate course. Students are expected to read critically and comment on academic scholarship, in both written papers and in-class discussions. Readings include (recommended, especially for those students with no background in Canadian History) a general, illustrated history of Canada written by distinguished historians (for purposes of general reference); (required) a classic, semi-fictional autobiography on growing up in the early 20thcentury on the Canadian plains, Canada-US border, Cypress Hills region(“a literal place as a state of mind”) by one of North America’s foremost literary figures; and (required) an academic collection of historical legal case studies on the discriminatory legal practices in Canada that created and preservedracial discrimination across time, space, and issuesin the first half of the 20th century.
Texts: Available at the UBC Bookstore and Koerner Library; you will find these to be excellent additions to your permanent library:
Recommended:
Brown, Craig, ed. The Illustrated History of Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press, latest edition (preferably the 2012 anniversary edition).
Note: Chapters4 & 5 are the most relevant, but the other chapters, including the maps and illustrations to be found throughout the book, make it an important reference work for understanding the period under examination.
Required:
1. Stegner, Wallace. Wolf Willow: A History, A Story, and A Memory of the Last Plains Frontier. With an introduction by Page Stegner. Penguin, 2002. Originally published 1955.
For in-class discussion and final exam, and as the thematic basis for essay #1.
2. Backhouse, Constance. Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950. University of Toronto Press, Osgood Hall Society for Legal History, reprinted 2010. First published 1999.
For in-class discussion and final exam, and as the thematic basis for essay #2.
3. Kelleher Storey and Towser Jones. Writing History: A Guide for Canadian Students. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2007. A detailed guide for planning, researching, and writing history essays that includes good tips on studying for and writing history exams.
Evaluation
1. Participation in discussions and attendance: 20%
2. Final Examination: 20% (study guide for exam will be distributed early in the term)
3. Written Assignments: (60% in total) tworesearch essays @ 20% each; two essay proposals @ 10% each
- Research essay #1based on a theme you chose from your reading of Wolf Willow
Deadlines:
25 Sept (Wed):Submission of proposal for essay #1: A working title and500-word
abstract that includes a research question(s), pluspreliminary bibliography. Tie your essay directly to some aspect of Wolf Willow.
30 Sept (Mon): Proposal for essay #1 returned, with comments
16 Oct (Wed): Deadline for submission of essay #1: 3000-3,500 words, including
footnotes. For questions of style follow Storey and Jones, Writing History.
21 Oct (Mon): Essay #1 returned
- Research essay #2 based on a theme you chose from an essay (or essays) chosen from Colour-Coded.
28 Oct (Mon): Submission of proposal for essay #2: A working title and 500-word
abstract that includes a research question(s), plus preliminary bibliography. Tie your essay directly to a case study (or studies) inColour-Coded.
1 Nov (Fri): Proposal for essay #2 returned, with comments
20 Nov(Wed): Deadline for submission of essay #2: 3000-3,500 words, including
footnotes. For questions of style follow Storey and Jones, Writing History.
29 Nov (Fri): Essay #2 returned
UBC Grade Scale:
A+90-100
A85-89
A-80-84
B+76-79
B72-75
B-68-71
C+64-67
C60-63
C-55-59
D50-54
F 0-49
Grading for Essays: A first class (A- - A+) is awarded for excellent writing, convincing evidence, thoughtful analysis, and a clear and arguable thesis. Second class (B- - B+) essay will have weaknesses in some of these areas and often a less-than-compelling thesis. Third class (C- - C+) essays may be overly descriptive and/or weak in areas of quality of the writing and clarity. A grade of D indicates lack of effort, especiallyin the area of research.
Remember, academic honesty is expected. I am asked to remind you to please review the UBC policies on cheating and plagiarism in the UBC Calendar under “Academic Regulations,” and the Jeffrey Alexander essay on the History Department web site under “Writing Centre.”
University of British ColumbiaDepartment of History
Canadian Social History
History 325 (201)
BUCHANAN D317
Canada 1896-1945: The Challenges of the Human Spirit
Professor Dianne Newell
SEPTEMBER
Wednesday 4th:Undergrad. Classes Cancelled / No Class: PLEASE BEGIN READING STEGNER’S WOLF WILLOW
Friday 6th:
History Classes Cancelled / No Class: PLEASE BEGIN READING STEGNER’S WOLF WILLOW
Monday9th / General Approaches to Understanding Modern Canada (Harold Innis and others)
Wednesday 11th / Exiting the 19th Century: Canada, Empire, and the South African War, 1899-1902
Friday 13th / Entering the 20th Century: Imagining a National Economy and A “Western Canada” (Sir Wilfrid Laurier; Robert Bourassa)
Monday 16th / Klondike International Gold Rush, 1896-98 & The Legacy for BC: Treaty 8
Wednesday 18th
All UBC Classes Cancelled / UBC Aboriginal Awareness Day
Friday 20th / Class discussion of Assigned Book #1:
Wolf Willow
Monday 23rd / Immigration: Who Was Wanted? Who Came? And Why?(Clifford Sifton; Frank Oliver)
Wednesday 25th
Submit Proposal Essay #1 (Wolf Willow) / ‘Strangers Within our Gates”: Canadian Social and Institutional Responses to Immigration (J.S. Woodsworth)
Friday 27th / Chinatowns and the “Yellow Peril”: The Vancouver Anti-Chinese & Anti-Japanese Riots, 1907 (Mackenzie-King Report)
Monday 30th
Proposals for Essay #1 Returned / Unlikely “Canadian Persons of International Interest”: Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables, 1908) and E. Pauline Johnston, Mohawk Poet, Writer, International Entertainer
OCTOBER
Wednesday 2nd / “The Great War”: Determining the Nature and Scale of Canada’s Involvement Across the RegionsFriday 4th / Enemy Aliens, War Resisters, Internment, and the War Measures Act, 1914
Monday 7th / Halifax Explosion, 1917 (Hugh MacLennan’sBarometer Rising, 1941; the garden city movement)
Wednesday 9th / Quebec, Conscription, Votes for Women, & Borden’sWartime Elections Act, 1917
Friday 11th / Pandemic: Spanish Flu in Canada, 1918-1919 (UBC in the service of public health)
Monday 14th
No Classes: ThanksgivingHoliday
Wednesday 16th
Essay #1 is Due / “In Death So Noble”: How Canadians Made Sense of “The Great War” (Dr. John McCrae, In Flanders Fields, 1915)
Friday 18th / Post War General Strike Movement & The Winnipeg General Strike, 1919
Monday 21st
Return of Essay #1 / Class discussion of Assigned Book #2:
Colour Coded
Wednesday 23rd / The Survival of Canada’s “Metis” People
Friday 25th
Class Cancelled
Monday 28th
Submit Proposals for Essay #2 / 1920s: The “Disappearing Indian” (Diamond Jenness, anthropology)) and the Imagined Indian (“Grey Owl”)
Wednesday 29th / “Red Scare” Between the Wars
NOVEMBER
Friday 1st
Proposals for Essay #2 Returned / The Person’s Case, 1929 (Emily Murphy, the Famous 5, and Senator Corinne Wilson)
Monday 4th / The Great Depression in Canada: Roots and Social Legacies in the 1930s (Relief Camps and On-To-Ottawa Trek)
Wednesday 6th / Nationalism: From National Radio and the National Film Board (NFB), to National Parks and Trans-Canada Airlines
Friday 8th / Birth of the CCF (Regina Manifesto, J.S. Woodsworth) and Union Nationale (Maurice Duplessis) in the 1930s
Monday 11th
No classes: Remembrance Day
Wednesday 13th / Canada and the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War: 1936-1939 (NFB)
Friday 15th / Dr. Norman Bethune in Montreal, Spain & China: Canadian Hero or Heel? (NFB)
Monday 18th / Transition from the Great Depression (Bust) to WWII (Boom)
Wednesday 20th
Essay #2 is Due / Internment of Japanese Canadians in WWII & The Legacy of Rights Activism (Arthur Kazumi Miki)
Friday 22nd / War Art and Artists: Integrating Culture, Gender, and Politics (Shadbolt, Coleville, Pegi Nicol, Molly Babcock)
Monday 25th / The Left in Canada During WWII
Deadline for essay #2
Wednesday 27th / Wartime Basis for the Canadian Welfare State, and the Marsh Report, 1943 (UBC Archives)
Friday 29thLast Day of Classes
Return of essay #2 / In-class course review for final exam