Tier I Canada Research Chair and former chair of the Canadian Studies Department at Trent University, Dr. Bryan D. Palmer, was recently shortlisted for the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Canada Prize in the Social Sciences (English) for his University of Toronto-published 2009 book, Canada's 1960s: the Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era.

The Trent Connection

Touching on historical, sociological, political, literary, and cultural themes, Professor Palmer’s book takes a multi-disciplinary approach to its subject. According to Prof. Palmer, the book’s fundamental interdisciplinarity bears the stamp of Trent, in that it stems from a second-year course he developed after being awarded the Canada Research Chair in the Canadian Studies Department at the University.

On coming to Trent, says Prof. Palmer, “I was aware that I needed to teach and offer courses in ways that were different than what I had been doing for years.” Prof. Palmer previously held positions in the History Departments of Simon Fraser and Queen’s universities, teaching traditional, disciplinary-bound courses with a focus on working-class history. The success of the book’s multi-disciplinary approach is evidenced in its nomination for awards in both the humanities and the social sciences. In addition to being nominated for this year’s Canada Prize in Social Sciences, the book was awarded Honourable Mention in the Canadian Historical Association's humanities-based John A. Macdonald Prize in 2010.

According to Prof. Palmer, “There was a time when disciplinary boundaries were rather rigid, and crossing them was either dangerous or foolhardy. Trent helped pioneer a way out of those kinds of constraints. These nominations validate the importance of the interdisciplinarity that is associated with Trent, and that is becoming more and more the norm in Canadian scholarship.”

The Book

While each chapter is based on a single lecture, covering a wide range of topics - including the fluctuations of Canada’s dollar, defence issues during the Cuban missile crisis, the Munsinger affair, the 1966 Maple Leaf Gardens boxing match between George Chuvalo and Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali), and the rise of Red Power activism among Canada's diverse native peoples - they are tied together by the book’s overarching theme of Canadian identity in the 1960s. According to Prof. Palmer, “The decade of the 1960s is often seen as a time of frustrated and failed rebellion, in which change was clamoured for but was not achieved.” Prof. Palmer challenges this perception, arguing that in fact, the 1960s were a time of great change in Canada.

“A conventional understanding of Canada prior to the 1960s entailed appreciation of the British connection: Canada was a white settler dominion built on the values of the British Empire,” argues Prof. Palmer. “This was the myth of Canadian identity, and it was put forward in the political, cultural, and intellectual spheres repeatedly. The myth was wearing thin by the 1960s, but was still intact. But the 1960s ended this mythology, and Canada could no longer be seen in the same, conventional (if wrong) ways.”

The Author

Canada Research Chair and Editor of Labour/Le Travail, Prof. Palmer is interested in the Canadian radical tradition, the study of the working class and social movements of opposition, and the relation of history and theory. His writing appears in Canadian and international journals, and has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. He is currently engaged in a number of projects, completing his study of James P. Cannon and the American revolutionary left and continuing to work on his study of Upper Canada in the 1830s.

The Canada Prize

The Canada Prize in the Humanities and the Canada Prize in the Social Sciences recognize scholarly manuscripts that are vital to the growth of humanity's knowledge, and enrich the social, cultural and intellectual life of Canada and the world. Four prizes - two in English and two in French - worth $2,500 each are awarded each year. Eligible titles have been supported by the Federation's Aid to Scholarly Publications Program and the winners selected by a cross-Canada jury of scholars.