Citizens and Nation: An Essay on History, Communication, and Canada

by Gerald Friesen

Overview

Grandmother Andre told stories in front of a campfire. Elizabeth Goudie wrote a memoir in school scribblers. Phyllis Knight taped hours of interviews with her son. Today's families rely on television and video cameras. They are all making history.

In a different approach to that old issue, 'the Canadian identity,' Gerald Friesen links the media studies of Harold Innis to the social history of recent decades. The result is a framework for Canadian history as told by ordinary people. Friesen suggests that the common peoples' perceptions of time and space in what is now Canada changed with innovations in the dominant means of communication. He defines four communication-based epochs in Canadian history: the oral-traditional world of pre-contact Aboriginal people; the textual-settler household of immigrants; the print-capitalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the screen-capitalism that has emerged in the last few decades. This analysis of communication is linked to distinctive political economies, each of which incorporates its predecessors in an increasingly complex social order.

In each epoch, using the new communication technologies, people struggled to find the political means by which they could ensure that they and their households survived and, if they were lucky, prospered. Canada is the sum of their endeavours. "Citizens and Nation" demonstrates that it is possible to find meaning in the nation's past that will interest, among others, a new, young, and multicultural reading audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442690844
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	04/28/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Gerald Friesen is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Manitoba.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 3

Part 1 Oral-Traditional Societies

1 Genealogy and Economy 11

2 Interpreting Aboriginal Cultures 31

Part 2 Textual-Settler Societies

3 Elizabeth Goudie and Canadian Historical Writing 57

4 Family Chains and Thunder Gusts 81

Part 3 Print-Capitalist National Societies

5 Phyllis Knight and Canada's First Century 107

6 Literate Communication and Political Resistance 139

Part 4 Screen-Capitalist Societies

7 Roseanne and Frank Go to Work 167

8 Culture and Politics Today 186

Conclusion 217

Notes 231

Illustration Credits 293

Index 295

What People are Saying About This

Mary Vipond

'The [book's] contribution is in its innovation and originality. It is unique, thought-provoking and challenging.'

M. Brook Taylor

'This [book] revives a field - that of a national synthesis - long dormant. It does so in a way that attempts to harness the best of intentions of the previous generation of historians with the best of research of today's generation of historians. It gives an original spin to old ideas and new approaches ... I have not read such a thought-provoking work on Canadian history in a long time. It made me angry on occasion; it also inspired me to think anew.'

Editorial Reviews

'[ Citizens and Nation is an engaging and evocative book, written for the general reader as well as the academic... The significance of this book rests in its unique treatment of the Canadian identity, as it places the common people at the centre of the story and demonstrates the pivotal role they have played in shaping Canadian institutions and values. Friesen's version of Canadian history is not about grand and monumental acts, but about the people who managed to survive, provide for their families, engage with their communities and see the value of their own traditions. He looks to the least powerful, at least in conventional terms, for the clues to what makes Canada a nation.'

—Acadiensis

'Gerald Friesen elevates the debate over the character of national history to a higher plain in this thought-provoking, insightful, and at times brilliant book. Friesen not only answers why the old history no longer resonates in the minds of so many Canadians, but also proposes means by which to restore history in an era dominated by the screen capitalism.'

—Canadian Book Review Annual

'This is a book which must be read by anyone seriously interested in Canadian (however you define it) history.'

—Labour

'The [book's] contribution is in its innovation and originality. It is unique, thought-provoking and challenging.'

—Mary Vipond, Department of History, Concordia University

'This [book] revives a field - that of a national synthesis - long dormant. It does so in a way that attempts to harness the best of intentions of the previous generation of historians with the best of research of today's generation of historians. It gives an original spin to old ideas and new approaches... I have not read such a thought-provoking work on Canadian history in a long time. It made me angry on occasion; it also inspired me to think anew.'

—M. Brook Taylor, Department of History, Mount Saint Vincent University

From the Publisher

'This is a book which must be read by anyone seriously interested in Canadian (however you define it) history.'

Labour

'Gerald Friesen elevates the debate over the character of national history to a higher plain in this thought-provoking, insightful, and at times brilliant book. Friesen not only answers why the old history no longer resonates in the minds of so many Canadians, but also proposes means by which to restore history in an era dominated by the screen capitalism.'

Canadian Book Review Annual

'[Citizens and Nation is an engaging and evocative book, written for the general reader as well as the academic... The significance of this book rests in its unique treatment of the Canadian identity, as it places the common people at the centre of the story and demonstrates the pivotal role they have played in shaping Canadian institutions and values. Friesen's version of Canadian history is not about grand and monumental acts, but about the people who managed to survive, provide for their families, engage with their communities and see the value of their own traditions. He looks to the least powerful, at least in conventional terms, for the clues to what makes Canada a nation.'

Acadiensis