The Professionalization of History in English Canada

281 Pages·2005·1.744 MB·English

by  Donald A. Wright

THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF HISTORY
IN ENGLISH CANADA
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DONALD WRIGHT
The Professionalization of
History in English Canada
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
©University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2005
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-3928-6
Printed on acid-free paper
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Wright, Donald A., 1965–
The professionalization of history in English Canada / Donald Wright.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-3928-6
1. Historians – Canada – History – 20th century. 2. History – Study and
teaching (Higher) – Canada – History – 20th century. 3. Historiography –
Canada – History – 20th century. I. Title.
EC149.W73 2005 907’.2’071 C2004-905980-7
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to
its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for
its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the
Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
For Harriet and Frances
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Contents
acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 History as avocation 8
2 From avocation to vocation: the beginnings 28
3 ‘The post-1918 generation’: professionalization continued 52
4 ‘Mr. Newman, manifestly, is not a historian’:
the amateurization of history 82
5 The importance of being sexist: the masculinization of history 97
6 Protecting scholarly independence: a professional imperative 121
7 ‘History cannot be too much professionalized’:
professionalization reconsidered 147
Conclusion 171
notes 175
bibliography 243
index 253
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Acknowledgments
This book, which began as a thesis at the University of Ottawa, could not
have been completed without the support of my supervisor, Dr Michael
Behiels. It is to his patience, encouragement, and insights that I owe
my greatest debt. I would like to thank Dr Donald Davis as well. His
interest in the project from the beginning went beyond the call of duty.
Dr Thomas Bender at New York University deserves thanks for supervis-
ing my research on American philanthropy and the development of the
social sciences in Canada in the pre-Canada Council era.
Throughout the research stage, I was assisted by several archivists:
Harold Averill, University of Toronto Archives; Cheryl Avery, Univer- sity
of Saskatchewan Archives; Tina Bradford, Dalhousie University Archives;
Betty Brock, Stanstead Historical Society Archives; Gordon Burr, McGill
University Archives; Judith Colwell, Canadian Baptist Archives, McMaster
Divinity College; Cheryl Ennals, Mount Allison University Archives; Mary
Flagg, University of New Brunswick Archives; George Henderson,
Queen’s University Archives; John Lutman, J.J. Talman Regional Collec-
tion, University of Western Ontario; Pamela Miller, McCord Museum
Archives; Sue Young Park, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manu-
script Library; Carl Spadoni, William Ready Division, Archives and
Research Collections, McMaster University; Lewis Stubbs, University of
Manitoba Archives; Patricia Townsend, Acadia University Archives; Rich-
ard Virr, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill Uni-
versity; and Anke Voss Hubbard, Rockefeller Archives Center.
Of course, the research for this project would not have been possible
without financial assistance in the form of graduate scholarships and
research grants. These included: a Fulbright Scholarship (1998), a
Rockefeller Archives Center Research Grant (1997), a Social Sciences