The hero and the historians
Subtitle: historiography and the uses of Jacques Cartier
By: Alan Gordon
Publisher: UBC Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Vancouver
Language: eng
Number of pages: 235
ISBN-13: 9780774817424; 9780774817417; 9780774817431
Subjects: Historiography; Canadian National characteristics; Histoire; Discovery and exploration; French; Historiographie; Canadiens; History; Découverte et exploration françaises
Description: "Historians have long engaged in passionate debate about collective memory and the building of national identities. Alan Gordon focuses on one national hero - Jacques Cartier - to explore how notions about the past have been created, passed on through the generations, and used to present particular ideas about the world in English- and French-speaking Canada. He reveals that the cult of celebrity surrounding Cartier by the mid-nineteenth century reflected a particular understanding of history, one which accompanied the arrival of modernity in North America. This new sensibility shaped the political and cultural currents of nation building in Canada. Cartier was a point of contact between English and French Canadian nationalism, but the nature of that contact had profound limitations."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [216]-231) and index.