Canadians and Their Pasts

"The data and analysis in Canadians and Their Pasts are, to my knowledge, totally unique; but more important, they have a host of implications for all those professionals whose work is related to Canadians' engagement with the past - teachers and professors, museum professionals, preservationists, media producers, and broadcasters, among others. This book presents an important and sometimes quite surprising set of findings in an accessible way, and this is no mean feat." -- Kevin O'Neill, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University

What role does history play in contemporary society? Has the frenetic pace of today’s world led people to lose contact with the past? A high-profile team of researchers from across Canada sought to answer these questions by launching an ambitious investigation into how Canadians engage with history in their everyday lives.

What role does history play in contemporary society? Has the frenetic pace of today’s world led people to lose contact with the past? A high-profile team of researchers from across Canada sought to answer these questions by launching an ambitious investigation into how Canadians engage with history in their everyday lives. The results of their survey form the basis of this eye-opening book.

Canadians and Their Pasts reports on the findings of interviews with 3,419 Canadians from a variety of cultural and linguistic communities. Along with yielding rich qualitative data, the surveys generated revealing quantitative data that allows for comparisons based on gender, ethnicity, migration histories, region, age, income, and educational background. The book also brings Canada into international conversation with similar studies undertaken earlier in the United States, Australia, and Europe.

Canadians and Their Pasts confirms that, for most Canadians, the past is not dead. Rather, it reveals that our histories continue to shape the present in many powerful ways.