Awards

• Short-listed for Canada Prize in the Social Sciences, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences 2010 (Canada)
• Short-listed for Prix du Canada en Sciences Sociales (Canada Prize in the Social Sciences) 2010
• Shortlisted for Prix du Canada en Sciences Sociales (Canada Prize in the Social Sciences) 2010.

Overview

Historians have long engaged in passionate debate about collective memory and the building of national identities. This book focuses on one national hero – Jacques Cartier – to explore how notions about the past have been created and passed on through the generations and used to present particular ideas about the world in English- and French-speaking Canada. The cult of celebrity surrounding Cartier by the mid-nineteenth century, Gordon reveals, reflected a particular understanding of history, one which accompanied the arrival of modernity in North America. This new sensibility, in turn, shaped the political and cultural currents of nation building in Canada. Cartier may have been a point of contact between English and French Canadian nationalism, but the nature of that contact, as Gordon shows, had profound limitations. The Hero and the Historians is necessary reading for anyone interested in the underlying culture of national identity – and national unity – in Canada.

Full Product Details

9780774817424

Table of Contents

Reviews

Gordon has succeeded in offering a very astute and nuanced empirical study that situates history writing in its larger social and political contexts. - Daryl Leroux, University of Ottawa (H-Canada) L'analyse des sources visuelles concernant les sports et la culture associative de Montréal que présente Poulter ouvre une nouvelle perspective sur le rôle identitaire des élites anglo-montréalaises dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle ... Son analyse détaillée et équilibrée intègre avec succès des sources visuelles et textuelles. Le sujet est développé de manière logique et claire, et l'auteur fait montre de rigueur. Il s'agit là d'une importante contribution à l'historiographie concernant le discours identitaire au Canada, qui élargit ce champ d'étude au-delà de la division souvent trop rigide posée entre le Québec et le reste du pays. - Gillian I. Leitch, CDCI Research Inc. (Mens) This book will greatly interest those who wish to better understand the historiographic traditions of nineteenth and twentieth century Canada, particularly Quebec. - Peter E. Pope, Memorial University (Journal of Historical Biography, Autumn 2010)

Gordon has succeeded in offering a very astute and nuanced empirical study that situates history writing in its larger social and political contexts. -- Daryl Leroux, University of Ottawa H-Canada L'analyse des sources visuelles concernant les sports et la culture associative de Montreal que presente Poulter ouvre une nouvelle perspective sur le role identitaire des elites anglo-montrealaises dans la seconde moitie du XIXe siecle ... Son analyse detaillee et equilibree integre avec succes des sources visuelles et textuelles. Le sujet est developpe de maniere logique et claire, et l'auteur fait montre de rigueur. Il s'agit la d'une importante contribution a l'historiographie concernant le discours identitaire au Canada, qui elargit ce champ d'etude au-dela de la division souvent trop rigide posee entre le Quebec et le reste du pays. -- Gillian I. Leitch, CDCI Research Inc. Mens This book will greatly interest those who wish to better understand the historiographic traditions of nineteenth and twentieth century Canada, particularly Quebec. -- Peter E. Pope, Memorial University Journal of Historical Biography, Autumn 2010

Author Information

Alan Gordon is an associate professor in the Department of History, University of Guelph.

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