Canada’s First World War Centennial Series: Year 1

Happy belated birthday to “Canada’s First World War: A Centennial Series on ActiveHistory.ca!” Our series on ActiveHistory.ca is now a bit more than a year old. We’ve shepherded 21 works onto the ActiveHistory.ca blog since we launched in August of 2014 with this post. The “Ongoing Projects” widget on the ActiveHistory.ca site brings you here, a page introducing the series and listing the latest posts.

Year 1 post topics ranged quite widely, and that kind of diversity of subject matter is something my fellow co-editors and me have tried to encourage. We are hoping to expand that characteristic of the series with more cross-disciplinary contributions, and additional posts not focused on, but still relevant to, Canada. Probably most of the posts this year are rooted in the author’s historical research, and I am pleased to have played a role in helping to share the insights derived from such work with a wider audience through the medium of ActiveHistory.ca. Several of the posts are historian’s responses to contemporary issues; not exactly “hot takes” but perhaps a rough equivalent. Two or three of the posts qualify, I think, as media criticism and political commentary.

To mark our first year, ActiveHistory.ca ran a week’s worth of re-posts, a sampling of pieces we liked best and that attracted some attention – and hadn’t just been published a couple of weeks earlier (sorry July posts!). I have an affinity for pieces about an author’s personal experience, meaning some kind of non-research interaction with the world in which the past is important. They offer not only a historically informed perspective on the present, but act as windows into how history matters from a personal perspective, and they raise questions about to engage with the past. Year 1 had a few of those too.

We continue to seek contributions to our series, and if you are interested then you can download this call for papers: Call for Contributions.  It says, in part, that we are interested in “all aspects of the war”, from “individual, local, national, and global” perspectives. “We welcome submissions from academics, public historians, graduate students, researchers, authors, and anyone passionate about an active history of the First World War.”

Here’s a chronological list of posts in Year 1 of our series.

Canada’s First World War Centennial Series: Year 1

  1. Sarah Glassford, Christopher Schultz, Nathan Smith, and Jonathan Weier, “Call for Blog Posts – Canada’s First World War: A Centennial Series on ActiveHistory.ca,” 4 August 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/08/call-for-blog-posts-canadas-first-world-war-a-centennial-series-on-activehistory-ca/
  1. Nathan Smith, “‘1914-1918 In Memoriam’: A View from the Grandstand,” 12 August 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/08/1914-1918-in-memoriam-a-view-from-the-grandstand/
  1. Christopher Schultz, “A Canadian Observing the Great War Centenary in London, UK,” 23 September 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/09/a-canadian-observing-the-great-war-centenary-in-london-uk/
  1. Sarah Glassford, Christopher Schultz, Nathan Smith, and Jonathan Weier, “Comic Art and the First World War,” 30 September 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/09/13975/
  1. Russ Chamberlayne, “Anti-War Poetry in Canadian Newspapers at the Beginning of the First World War,” 14 October 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/10/anti-war-poetry-in-canadian-newspapers-at-the-beginning-of-the-first-world-war/
  1. Jim Blanchard, “World War One in Winnipeg,” 21 October 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/10/world-war-one-in-winnipeg-conscription/
  1. Robert Rutherdale, “Podcast – Robert Rutherdale on the Local Responses to WWI,” 10 November 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/11/podcast-robert-rutherdale-on-the-local-responses-of-wwi/
  1. Sarah Glassford, “1864 vs. 1914: A Commemorative Showdown,” 11 November 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/11/1864-vs-1914-a-commemorative-showdown/
  1. Beverly Soloway, “Victory in the Kitchen: Food Control in the Lakehead during the Great War,” 18 November 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/11/new-paper-victory-in-the-kitchen-food-control-in-the-lakehead-during-the-great-war-by-beverly-soloway/
  1. Jeff Bowersox, “Did You Know the American World War I Museum is in Kansas City?” 16 December 2014, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2014/12/did-you-know-the-american-world-war-i-museum-is-in-kansas-city/
  1. Jonathan Scotland, “Promises Broken or Politics as Usual?” 27 January 2015, ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/01/promises-broken-or-politics-as-usual/
  1. Teresa Iacobelli, “Passing the Torch: The CBC and Commemoration in 1964 and 2014,” 10 February 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/02/passing-the-torch-the-cbc-and-commemoration-in-1964-and-2014/
  1. Chris Dickon, “An American Legion in the CEF? Crossing Borders during ‘Canada’s’ First World War,” 25 February 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/02/an-american-legion-in-the-cef-crossing-borders-during-canadas-first-world-war/
  1. Zachary Abram, “Sexing Up Canada’s First World War,” 3 March 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/03/sexing-up-canadas-first-world-war/
  1. Jamie Swift, “The Ideological Work of Commemoration,” 9 April 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/04/the-ideological-work-of-commemoration/
  1. Jonathan Weier, “On ‘The Road to 2017’: Reflecting on Canada’s First World War Commemoration Plans,” 27 April 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/04/on-the-road-to-2017-reflecting-on-canadas-first-world-war-commemoration-plans/
  1. Jonathan Weier, “The Second Battle of Ypres and the Creation of a YMCA Hero,” 12 May 2015, ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/05/the-second-battle-of-ypres-and-the-creation-of-a-ymca-hero/
  1. Matthew Barrett, “A Father’s Grief: The Case of Captain Robert Bartholomew,” 16 June 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/06/a-fathers-grief-the-case-of-captain-robert-bartholomew/
  1. Jill Campbell-Miller, “A Monument to the Past? The Never Forgotten National War Memorial Project,” 6 July 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/07/a-recollection-of-the-past-the-never-forgotten-national-war-memorial-project/
  1. David Campbell, Jonathan Roberts, Corey Slumkoski, and Martha Walls, “Heritage vs. History in the Commemoration of War in Cape Breton Highlands National Park,” 7 July 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/07/heritage-vs-history-in-the-commemoration-of-war-in-cape-breton-highlands-national-park/
  1. Dimitry Anastakis, “When writing the First World War comes home: Remembering Pvt. Harold Carter,” 14 July 2015, ActiveHistory.ca, http://activehistory.ca/2015/07/when-writing-the-first-world-war-comes-home-remembering-pvt-harold-carter/

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