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De Ruiter on Macdonald, 'Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada's Past'

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De Ruiter on Macdonald, 'Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada's Past' JHistory de Ruiter on MacDonald, 'Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada's Past' Review published on Wednesday, January 8, 2020 Monica MacDonald. Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada's Past. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019. Illustrations. 288 pp. $34.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-7735-5632-4; $120.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7735-5631-7. Reviewed by Brian de Ruiter (Brock University)Published on Jhistory (January, 2020) Commissioned by Robert A. Rabe Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=54416 Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada’s Past opens with a brief discussion of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) series Canada: The Story of US and shows how that series “prompted debates rooted in a long tradition of Canadian history programming on CBC television” (p. 3). The focus of Monica MacDonald’s investigation is on five different series, which span from the mid-1950s to the early twenty-first century: Explorations (1956-64), Images of Canada (1972-76), The National Dream (1974), The Valour and the Horror (1992), and Canada: A People’s History (2000-2002). This allows MacDonald to engage in an analysis of specific episodes to identify the change and continuity that have been apparent in history programming on the CBC. One continuity that MacDonald identifies is that CBC history programming highlights “ideas about national identity and national unity” by discussing “war, national politics, relations between French and English Canada, and conflict between Canada and the United States.” Furthermore, MacDonald interrogates the decisions CBC producers made regarding the content and presentation styles of their history programming and presents how the latter “led audiences to think about history in certain ways” (p. 4). One of the main ideas MacDonald conveys is that “broadcasting regulation and policy, the imperatives of the television industry and television as a medium, and the professional circumstances of television producers were key to shaping these programs” (p. 5). Furthermore, she highlights how the CBC has used its history programming to show that it has been an important public service to Canadians as it has fulfilled nation-building and educational functions, although she points out that some programs have fulfilled that educational objective better than others. Recasting History is broken up into five chapters with each chapter revolving around one of the abovementioned series. MacDonald uses her introduction to outline the direction that her book will take and to introduce some key government policies, themes, and concepts that appear frequently throughout her book, including the Broadcasting Act; the effects, both real and imaginary, that American programming has had on Canadian audiences; and nation-building, which has been connected to the CBC’s mandate, either implicitly or explicitly. The first chapter, which is the longest, focuses on Explorations, and shows how this series “introduced long-standing patterns in theme, subject matter, interpretation, and presentation” (p. 18). MacDonald draws the reader’s attention to the fact that this was a period of experimentation with questions centering on content and presentation strategies for history programming on television, which ultimately resulted in Explorations foregrounding some of the differing and conflicting interpretations historians have held Citation: H-Net Reviews. de Ruiter on MacDonald, 'Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada's Past'. JHistory. 01-08-2020. https://networks.h-net.org/node/14542/reviews/5691024/de-ruiter-macdonald-recasting-history-how-cbc-television-has-shaped Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 JHistory toward certain events. She sets up the next four chapters of the book by highlighting how “commercialism and competition in the industry” resulted in “greater homogeneity within the programs” that were developed later (p. 65). The second chapter examines the seriesImages of Canada, which was inspired by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) series Civilisation (1969) and was designed to familiarize audiences with a larger span of Canadian history thanExplorations accomplished. MacDonald also devotes some of the chapter to an examination of the five-episode subseriesThe Whitecomers (1973-74), which was a response to the 1968 Broadcasting Act’s call that programming meets “the special needs of geographical regions” (p. 67). MacDonald’s discussion of The Whitecomers allows her to connect it to her broader investigation of change and continuity as she notes “the overall program content does not strongly deviate from past Canadian histories on CBC.... But, unlike some earlier CBC Canadian history programs, there is little overt reference to historical sources or other means to help viewers understand the nature of what is onscreen” (p. 87). The third chapter looks at the development of The National Dream, which MacDonald labels as “a clear celebration of what was considered to be a momentous event [the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway] in the building of Canada” (p. 124). She highlights the role Pierre Berton had in the development of the series and his concerns about historical authenticity, particularly during the dramatic reenactments, and examines decisions made that affected the content and presentation of the series. Two other important elements MacDonald highlights in this chapter are the growing “schism” that developed between historians and CBC producers and the mentality that emerged among some journalists that “they were best equipped, better than professional historians, to bring Canadian history to mass audiences” (pp. 124, 107). The second part of the book picks up on that last point as MacDonald maintains that historians were either brushed aside or had more limited involvement in the productions ofThe Valour and the Horror and Canada: A People’s History. Regarding the former series, the journalists involved believed “they were more objective than historians and better equipped to get at the truth,” while the journalists in the latter series “felt they could better present history to the public” (p. 200). Much of chapter 4, which complements some of the other academic studies onThe Valour and the Horror, revolves around the development of the series, the controversy that it initiated, and the subsequent investigations that MacDonald notes put “into question the nature of the relationship between the CBC and the NFB [National Film Board of Canada],... CBC journalistic practices, its credibility in interpreting Canadian history, and its fitness overall as a public service broadcaster” (p. 127). MacDonald’s major criticism of this series becomes apparent when she states that The Valour and the Horror “fell short either as a work of journalism or as a work of history” (p. 159). She opens the final chapter by describing for the reader the environment in whichCanada: A People’s History was conceived: the Quebec sovereignty movement; the 1991 Broadcasting Act, which outlined the importance of programming to foster a “shared national consciousness and identity”; and the recommendations of the Juneau Committee (pp. 160-61). This chapter delves into some of the decision-making the producers made regarding content and presentation strategies ofCanada: A People’s History, which produced a series that MacDonald maintains “does not stray too far from the nation-building narratives of old” (p. 190). MacDonald’s analysis of these five series allows her to offer critiques and make comparisons among Citation: H-Net Reviews. de Ruiter on MacDonald, 'Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada's Past'. JHistory. 01-08-2020. https://networks.h-net.org/node/14542/reviews/5691024/de-ruiter-macdonald-recasting-history-how-cbc-television-has-shaped Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 JHistory different episodes within a series and across different series. One of the strengths ofRecasting History is that MacDonald is able to delve into specific episodes from these series and offer a critique about what they did well and point out some of the potential problems and omissions of historical content that possibly affect the way the audience interprets history. For example, when MacDonald was assessing how Explorations handled the Winnipeg General Strike, she notes the episode neglected to mention the strike that occurred in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and indicates how that omission, among other factors, helps to reinforce “persistent ideas about Atlantic Canada as a comparatively conservative region” (p. 39). Second, MacDonald highlights certain debates within the CBC regarding commercialization, the best way to fulfill its nation-building mandate, and the degree to which regional production should be used. Furthermore, she also looks at trends that emerged outside of the CBC that affected the public broadcaster and/or its history programming. These trends include the creation of more comprehensive histories and revisions to historical interpretations that historians were initiating, the viewpoints of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the influence foreign programs had on Canadian history programming, and the increasing number of other broadcasters showcasing educational programming. The sources that MacDonald consulted are instrumental in
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