Title In the province of history : the making of the public past in twentieth-century Nova Scotia / Ian McKay and Robin Bates

Published Montréal ; Ithaca [N.Y.] : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2010] ©2010

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 481 pages) : illustrations, maps Contents How a land without antiquities became the province of history -- This is the province primeval : Evangeline and the beginnings of tourism/history -- All the world was safe and happy : the innocence of Will R. Bird -- Down the twisting path of destiny : the impossible libralism of Thomas Raddall -- Marketing race : Angus L. Macdonald, Tartanism, and the cultural politics of whiteness -- Of runic stones and Lockean dreams : the triumvirate and its treasures, 1935-1964 -- Is the romance ended? Summary Nova Scotia's captivating natural beauty and important place in the history of North America and the Atlantic world make it a premier tourist destination for visitors from around the world. From re-enactments at the Halifax Citadel, monuments to the Explosion of 1917 and Pier 21, and postcards of Peggy's Cove and Cape Breton, the province has cultivated a thriving tourism industry that relies on constructing and marketing the history of the area. In the Province of History studies Nova Scotia's long-standing initiatives to attract visitors, the ways in which the region's history has been presented and misrepresented, and the extent to which even residents have become tourists in their own lives and towns Using archival sources, novels, government reports, and works on tourism and heritage, Ian McKay and Robin Bates look at how state planners, key politicians, and cultural figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, long-time premier Angus L. Macdonald, and novelist Thomas Raddall were all instrumental in forming "tourism/history." The authors argue that Longfellow's 1847 poem Evangeline - on the brutal British expulsion of Acadians from Nova Soctia - became the template for a profit-oriented history that exalted whiteness and excluded ethnic minorities, women, and working class movements A remarkable look at the intersection of politics, leisure, and the presentation of public history, In the Province of History is a revealing account of how a region has both used and distorted its past "In the Province of History gives a highly provocative and sometimes startling insight into the evolution of Nova Scotia's tourism history. McKay and Bates demonstrate expert archival knowledge, while masterfully sustaining an intellectual narrative. This highly anticipated book will inform, inspire, and advance an alternative understanding of Nova Scotian history. The authors are to be congratualted." Gwendolyn Davies, professor and dean emerita, University of New Brunswick --Book Jacket Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-456) and index Notes Print version record Subject Tourism -- Social aspects -- Nova Scotia Heritage tourism -- Nova Scotia -- History -- 20th century Tourism -- Nova Scotia -- History -- 20th century Tourism -- Government policy -- Nova Scotia Culture and tourism -- Nova Scotia Collective memory -- Nova Scotia HISTORY -- Canada -- General. Collective memory Culture and tourism Heritage tourism Historiography Tourism Tourism -- Government policy Tourism -- Social aspects SUBJECT Nova Scotia -- Historiography Subject Nova Scotia Genre/Form History Form Electronic book Author Bates, Robin, 1979- author. ISBN 9780773583313 0773583319

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