close up image of a blank journal, opened up to the middle.

Because, let’s face it – who has time to catch up on all the journal articles published in Canadian history?

 

Welcome back to the Best New Articles series, where, each month, I post a list of my favourite new articles! Don’t forget to also check out my favourites from previous months, which you can access by clicking here.

This month I read articles from:

Here are my favourites:

 

Harold Bérubé, “Vendre la banlieue aux Montréalais : discours et stratégies publicitaires, 1950-1970,” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 71, no. 1-2 (Summer 2017): 83-112.

Author’s Twitter: @HaroldBerube

Link: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/haf/2017-v71-n1-2-haf03346/1042788ar/

What it’s about: Based on a detailed analysis of real estate ads for newly-built single-family homes (in both English and French-language daily newspapers), this article explores discourses of suburbanization, modernity, domesticity, and family in Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s. Documenting changes over the course of these two decades, Bérubé is able to examine the role of class in shaping advertising campaigns, how the physical and social environment were increasingly conflated with the home, the specific targeting of male consumers (husbands and fathers), as well as the close similarities between English and French advertising. Acknowledging that this is more representative of the perspective of developers and advertisers, this nonetheless demonstrates that Montreal’s experience with suburbanization was much slower and more cautious than most American cities.

What I loved: Ok, fair warning: I was predisposed to like this one. I mean, advertising and domesticity in postwar Montreal? I was a goner. I also happened to grow up in a house that was built in the suburbs of Montreal in this era. On a more serious note, I am really happy to see research on Montreal that both uses English and French sources, and compares and contrasts the Anglophone and Francophone lived experiences of this time period. This is unfortunately unusual, and I would absolutely love to see more. I also think that this article is an important contribution to our understanding of consumer culture in postwar Canada. And omg, the ads are so wonderful.

Favourite quote:  “Mentionnons enfin cette publicité de la Montreal City and District Bank, parue en 1965, et invitant les lecteurs de The Gazette à profiter pleinement du congé que leur offre la fête du Travail (figure 2). S’adressant aux «millions of hardworking men and women», elle met en scène un homme dormant dans un hamac, dans le jardin de sa résidence, dans un décor qui évoque beaucoup plus Pointe-Claire que Pointe-Saint- Charles.” / Finally, let us mention this advertisement of the Montreal City and District Bank, published in 1965, and inviting readers of The Gazette to take full advantage of the holiday offered by Labour Day. Addressing the “millions of hardworking men and women”, it portrays a man sleeping in a hammock in the garden of his home, in a setting that evokes much more Pointe-Claire than Pointe-Saint-Charles. (p. 91)

Suggested uses: Obviously, historians of postwar Canada will be very interested in this piece. I think that this will be a valuable addition to any syllabus on postwar Canada. It is certainly one that I think many students will like!

 

Javi Castro, “Les Basques et la chasse au phoque du Labrador au XVIIe siècle,” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 71, no. 1-2 (Summer 2017): 137-152.

Link: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/haf/2017-v71-n1-2-haf03346/1042790ar/

What it’s about: This article documents preliminary research by Castro regarding the Basque seal hunt. While the historiography records that the Basque had abandoned Labrador by the end of the sixteenth century, Castro was able to locate oral histories and Spanish-language archival documents that strongly suggest not only the continuation of the Basque seal hunt in Labrador well into the seventeenth century by  sailors out of Mutriku and Deba, but also early contact between the Basque and the Inuit (and the subsequent transfer of technology), and the trade and use of Labrador seal pelts in Basque country.

What I loved: Um, this is so cool. Castro was apparently in the midst of research on windmills and tanneries when he came across the story of a seventeenth-century Inuit kayak preserved in a Basque church. What an amazing find! While this is still preliminary research, I think it is highly suggestive and has the potential to reframe contact history in the North. I think that the obvious next step here would be to go and speak to Inuit communities who live or lived in Labrador to see what their oral histories contain. Especially since it may provide additional information about the following account, and whether or not the Inuit family were kidnapped:

Favourite quote: “À l’église d’Itziar, située sur la côte atlantique près du port guipuzcoan de Deba, un kayak inuit fut conservé pendant 350 ans. L’embarcation fut rapportée du Labrador en 1620 par le capitaine Francisco de Sorarte de Deba, qui a aussi emmené au cours du même voyage une famille inuite, soit les parents et une petite fille. La fille est décédée peu après son arrivée à Deba, tandis que le père, étant malheureux, est retourné au Labrador au cours d’un voyage ultérieur. La mère, quant à elle, s’est adaptée à la vie de Deba et y a passé le reste de ses jours, travaillant comme domestique dans une famille d’armateur. Quant au kayak, il a été coupé à un certain moment et amputé du tiers de sa longueur, par mégarde ou pour pouvoir l’accrocher à l’étroit mur de la sacristie de l’église. Il est visible dans cet état sur une ancienne photographie datant de 1930 environ (figure 1). Il est resté dans l’église jusque vers 1970, quand un curé, de son propre chef, l’a mis à la poubelle. La mémoire de la famille inuite et de sa «Galerilla pequeña, o Canoa» était encore vivante en 1767 dans la famille Aldazabal qui accueillit la mère, tandis qu’un fascicule sur l’église d’Itziar a commémoré la famille inuite en 1927. Notre découverte, au début de 2012, de la photographie du kayak, recensée par le quotidien El Diario Vasco, a contribué à renouveler le souvenir de ce lien tangible entre les Inuits et les Basques au XVIIe siècle.”/At the church of Itziar, located on the Atlantic coast near the Guipuzcoan port of Deba, an Inuit kayak was preserved for 350 years. The boat was brought back from Labrador in 1620 by Captain Francisco de Sorarte de Deba, who also took an Inuit family, parents and a little girl, on the same trip. The girl died shortly after arriving in Deba, while the father, being unhappy, returned to Labrador on a subsequent trip. The mother, for her part, adapted to Deba’s life and spent the rest of her life there, working as a servant in a ship-owning family. As for the kayak, it was cut at a certain time and amputated a third of its length, inadvertently or to hang on the narrow wall of the sacristy of the church. It is visible in this state on an old photograph dating from about 1930. It stayed in the church until about 1970, when a priest, on his own, put it in the trash. The memory of the Inuit family and its “Galerilla pequeña, o Canoa” was still alive in 1767 in the Aldazabal family who welcomed the mother, while a booklet on the church of Itziar commemorated the Inuit family in 1927. Our discovery, at the beginning of 2012, of the photograph of the kayak, recorded by the daily El Diario Vasco, helped to renew the memory of this tangible link between the Inuit and the Basques in the 17th century. (P. 139-140)

Suggested uses: I think that this article will be of interest to any scholars of the history of contact in North America, the North-American world system, environmental histories, transnational histories, or the history of the Basque in Turtle Island. This would probably be a great article to include in a grad course or comps field on the same time period.

 

Leslie McCartney, “’You Need to Tell that True Alberta Johnson Story Like We Know It:’ Meanings Embedded in the Gwich’in Version of the Alberta Johnson Story,” Canadian Journal of Native Studies 37, no. 1 (2017): 201-235.

 

Link: n/a

What it’s about: This article, based on twenty-three life story oral history interviews with Teetťit Gwich’in and Gwichya Gwich’in Elders in Fort McPherson, Tsiieghtchic, Aklavik and Inuvik in the NWT, examines the story of Alberta Johnson (also known as the Mad Trapper of Rat River) as a pivotal moment in Gwich’in history. As McCartney explains, listeners of Gwich’in stories need to be familiar with the “scaffolding” upon which these stories are hung, as well as Gwich’in ways of knowing, context, kinship relationships, traditions and customs, in order to truly understand the message being communicated. While ostensibly about a particular incident, the story of Albert Johnson instead relates the importance of land, kinship, and community among the Gwich’in, as well as the changing lived experience of the Gwich’in following the signing of Treaty 11.

What I loved: McCartney mentions at the beginning of the article that this research was conducted on behalf of the Gwich’in and Social Cultural Institute. What’s more, the late Tsiigehtshik Elder Pierre Benoit specifically asked her to tell this story to the “people down south,” so that they would know the truth. I really appreciated that McCartney provided the scaffolding to help those of us who are not Gwich’in to truly understand the meaning and knowledge contained within the Johnson story. My sincerest thanks to McCartney and Benoit for their wonderful gift.

Favourite quote:  “On many occasions, I was told by Pierre Benoit, after he told particular stories to me, that he had given me that story. It was a gift. He had the right to give it to me because of how he received the story; that is, he received it as a gift from a person who had experienced the story. Now he had given me the story, and now I could tell the story and give it to others if I wished.” (p 221)

And

“In this article, I hope I have told the story to the people down south as Pierre asked me so many times to do. I have now passed his gift on to you, the reader, in hopes that you will understand the Albert Johnson story in a similar way the Gwich’in Elders understand it.” (p. 224)

Suggested uses: This story was intended to be shared with all of us who live in the southern part of Canada.

 

 

Also recommended:

 

Lots of great stuff to read this month! I hope you enjoyed this month’s look at my favourite new articles. If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice. And don’t forget to check back on Sunday for a brand new Canadian History Roundup. See you then!

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