The British empire was dismantled after the end of the Second World War
/0 Comments/in MCHS Stories, Newsletter/by Jaan PillI was in elementary school in Montreal in 1955 when the ‘Richard Riot’ occurred in that city. The event, on March 17, 1955, was named after Maurice Richard, the star player for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League. In later years it was described as a key factor in Quebec’s Quiet Revolution of […]
Study tracking 2.5 million students over 20 years links good teachers to lasting gain
/0 Comments/in MCHS Stories, Newsletter/by Jaan PillI found this January 2012 New York Times article, about research that links good teachers to lasting gains, of interest. The article reports that a large-scale study – tracking 2.5 million students over 20 years – found that public school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores appear to have a lasting positive effect […]
Show and Tell Evening – January 17, 2012 – Long Branch Library
/0 Comments/in Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillThe next meeting of the Long Branch Historical Society will be at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, January 12, 2012. Meetings are held at the Long Branch Library, 3500 Lake Shore Blvd. West. The meeting will feature a Show and Tell Evening of Artifacts and Memorabilia. You don’t need to be a member to attend our […]
The first Crusade: Military leadership entails the management of violence
/0 Comments/in Newsletter/by Jaan PillAmong the books I’ve been reading with regard to military history is Armies of heaven: The first Crusade and the quest for apocalypse (2011). Jay Rubenstein does a commendable job of citing sources in such a way that the story is driven forward at a steady pace, covering vast amounts of ground while maintaining the […]
Karolyn Smardz Frost (2007) documents the story of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn who “stole themselves” from slavery
/0 Comments/in Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillFurther details regarding Mimico’s Town Hall
/0 Comments/in Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillI’m pleased to share with you the following comments from Paul Chomik: “There is not, and never has been a community named ‘Mimico-by-the-Lake’. That is simply the name of Mimico’s second Business Improvement Area (BIA) which does not contain or represent any residents – it only represents some of Mimico’s businesses. The community should never […]
The Mimico Town Hall was located on the east side of Church Street north of Mimico Avenue
/0 Comments/in Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillI have revised a previous post, which was based on information that had been earlier communicated to me. The revised paragraph now reads as follows: As I understand, the “heart” of Mimico is usually considered to be Mimico Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd West. A twelve-storey building is going up on Superior Avenue. The Municipal […]
We’ve put together a 26-minute online video about Colonel Samuel Smith and his homestead
/0 Comments/in Long Branch, Newsletter/by Jaan PillThe story of Colonel Samuel Smith and the efforts to keep his homestead site in public hands are highlighted in these speaking notes for an October 2011 talk about the colonel. The sale of Parkview School, announced in August 2011, turned out to be a ‘good news’ story, thanks to the efforts of Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP […]
With recent German heritage films, according to Anne Fuchs (2008), bad history emerges as a good story. I have added updates to this Dec. 18, 2011 post.
/0 Comments/in Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillPhantoms of War in Contemporary German Literature, Films and Discourse (2008) is part of a publishing series at the University of Birmingham entitled New Perspectives in German Studies. The paragraph I have chosen to focus upon is on p. 143 of Chapter 5, which is entitled: “Narrating Resistance to the Third Reich: Museum Discourse, Autobiography, […]