VANCOUVER - History, Department of - University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia
Department of History
History 490N
VANCOUVER
Winter 2012
Robert McDonald
Office Hours
Office No. BuTo 1115 M/W 2:00-3:30
Office Phone: 604-822-6307 T/Th 3:0-3:30
E-Mail: robertaj@mail.ubc.ca
1. WHAT THIS COURSE IS ABOUT
History 490N is a seminar course for students who are majoring in History. The goal of the
History 490 sections is to provide History majors with the experience of participating in small
seminars and of conducting primary research. The seminar format means that learning will take
place through student discussion and student presentations. The instructor’s role will be to
facilitate discussion rather than lecture. There will be no course examination.
This seminar will explore themes in the history of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, from
its origins as a place of non-Native settlement to the present day. While readings and student
papers will focus primarily on the core city, research papers can also include historical
experience in the surrounding suburbs. The readings assigned are meant to introduce students to
literature on the subject of Vancouver history, and are but a sampling of the larger body of
writing about the city. A bibliography for HIST 490N is attached to the course description on
the History Department web page. While most of the journal articles and book chapters chosen
for seminar discussion explore Vancouver’s history, for the weeks when students are leading
class discussion they (the leaders) may be expected to draw insights from historical literature
about the urban experience elsewhere in North America. Furthermore, when researching and
writing their research papers students will be expected to ask in what ways Vancouver’s history
was unique, and in what manner it conformed to more broadly defined patterns of historical
experience. In other words, students are required to keep this comparative dimension in mind
when framing and analyzing their research topics about Vancouver.
2. COURSE STRUCTURE
Because History 490N is a seminar, the grade distribution centres on a) the research and writing
of a primary research-based paper and b) student participation.
a) RESEARCH PAPER: The paper will be presented in stages, with a topic and
preliminary proposal due in WEEK 5 (Friday February 3). All students will present
a formal proposal (orally and in a 1-2 page written statement) to their class in Week 9
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(February 28/March 1). The first draft of papers will be presented in classes from
Weeks 12-14 (starting on Tuesday, March 20 and ending Thursday, April 5). Students
who present their papers in Weeks 12 or 13 will have more time to revise and develop
their papers than others who present at the end of the course. The final draft of your
research paper should be no longer than 5000 words (about 16 pages, double-spaced,
12-point font) and is due no later than Friday, April 20, 2012. In Weeks 12-14 each
student will also be asked to present a short verbal critique of one other student’s
research paper.
b) STUDENT PARTICIPATION: Twenty percent (20%) of the course grade will be
given for contribution to in-class discussions in the seminar, with eighty percent (80%)
for other elements. Marks will be distributed as follows:
a) Class participation................................................ 20%
b) Rolf Knight essay………………………………. 5%
b) Essay proposal and bibliography.......................... 10%
c) Seminar readings presentation (written and oral) 10%
d) First draft of research paper............................... 15%
e) Critique of draft of one other student’s paper........ 5%
f) Final Paper............................................................. 35%
Students will be asked to make four presentations in class: 1) for Week 2 everyone
will be asked to make a critical comment on the Major Matthews Collection of the
City of Vancouver Archives (available online) as an historical source; 2) in Week 5
students will present first a preliminary proposal to me only and then in Week 9 a
formal research paper proposal to their class; other students will have read the
proposal through an e-mail submission and will come to class prepared to ask
questions about the proposed project; 3) for four weeks of the course three or four
students per week will lead the discussion based on both the core and supplementary
readings for that week, and will submit a short 4-5 page paper based on the readings;
and 4) in the final classes of the year students will present a ten-minute summary of
the completed first draft of their research papers, to be given orally in one of the
classes in Weeks 12-14.
3. COURSE MATERIALS
a) Course pack of readings in UBC Bookstore
b) Rolf Knight, Along the No.20 Line: Reminiscences of the Vancouver Waterfront
(Vancouver: New Star Books, 2011 [ 1980]). Copies in UBC Bookstore.
c) Online sources: articles through the UBC Library; Matthews Collection primary
source through the City of Vancouver Archives web page; and Writing Centre on the
web page of the UBC History Department.
4. SEMINAR SCHEDULE
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Week 1
Jan 3/5
Week 2
Jan. 10/12
INTRODUCTION
BURRARD INLET SOCIETY: SOURCES
A. Required by all……………………………………………………………………….
1. UBC History Department web page, “Writing Centre,” sections on “Working
with Historical Sources’: a) “Primary Sources”; b) “Secondary Sources”; and
c) “Online Sources.”
2. Robert A.J. McDonald, Making Vancouver: Class, Status, and Social
Boundaries, 1863-1914 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1996), Chapter 1, “Crowded
between Forest and Shore,” pp. 3-33 and 243-248 [available online through
UBC Library].
3. Jean Barman, The Remarkable Adventures of Portugese Joe Silvey (Madeira
Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2004), pp.8, 85-86, and 22-37 (course pack).
4. City of Vancouver Archives, online source: Major Matthews’ Early
Vancouver.
B. Workshop: This week we want to talk about how sources are used in the writing of
history. Start by reading through the History Department’s “Writing Centre”
sections on sources, then read the McDonald and Barman pieces. McDonald’s
chapter is a standard form of historical writing based on primary and secondary
sources. Barman’s book on Portugese Joe Silvey is important for its use of oral
sources. Now go to the online version of Major Matthews’ Early Vancouver. In
one of the seven volumes of evidence in this collection explore, and be ready to
report to class on, some aspect of Burrard Inlet history that is recounted in the
Matthews material and that you think is overlooked or misunderstood by Barman
or McDonald. The point of the exercise is to think about the historical value of a
primary source such as Matthews’ Early Vancouver.
Week 3
Jan. 17/19
COLONIALISM AND IDENTITY IN EARLY VANCOUVER
A. Required by all……………………………………………………………………….
1. Jean Barman, “Erasing Indigenous Indigeneity in Vancouver, “BC Studies,
no.155 (Autumn 2007): 3-30 (available online through the UBC Library under
journals OR through the BC Studies web page).
2. Kay J. Anderson, “The Idea of Chinatown: The Power of Place and Institutional
Practice in the Making of a Racial Category,” in Ian McKay, The
Challenge of Modernity: A Reader on Post-Confederation Canada (Toronto:
McGraw-Hill, 1992): 156-186 (course pack).
3. Alejandra Yoshizawa and Jennifer Yip, “Vancouver’s Chinatown: Past,
Present, and Future” (2009), Video, available online on You Tube (12 minutes);
also available through the online site UBC Instrcc.
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B. Additional for Student Presenters.............................................................................
4. Jordan Stanger-Ross, “Municipal Colonialism in Vancouver: City Planning
and the Conflict over Indian Reserves, 1928-1950s,” Canadian Historical
Review, vol.89, no.4 (December 2008): 541-580 (available online through the
UBC Library under journals OR through the CHR web page).
5. Greg Marquis, “Vancouver Vice: The Police and the Negotiation of Morality,
1904-1935,” in Hamar Foster and John McLaren, eds., Essays in the History of
Canadian Law, vol.VI, British Columbia and the Yukon (Toronto: UTP, 1995),
pp.242-273 (course pack).
C. Assignment for Presenters: Write a 4-5 page (double-spaced) essay identifying the
arguments presented in these four readings and reflecting on what they say, collectively,
about the subject of racism in early Vancouver history.
Week 4
Jan. 24/26
ROLF KNIGHT’S VANCOUVER
For this class all students are asked to purchase, read, and write a short paper on the
recently republished book by Vancouver sociologist and writer Rolf Knight, Along the
No.20 Line: Reminiscences of the Vancouver Waterfront, which was originally published
in 1980. For your paper, which should not exceed four pages (double-spaced with normal
12-point font), identify and comment critically on the portrait of Vancouver that Knight
presents in this book.
Week 5
Jan.31/Feb.2 NO CLASSES: RESEARCH TOPICS PLUS PRELIMINARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE BY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3
Week 6
Feb.7/9
NATURE AND THE CITY
A. Required by all…………………………………………………………………………
1. Sean Kheraj, “Restoring Nature: Ecology, Memory, and the Storm History of
Vancouver’s Stanley Park,” Canadian Historical Review, vol.88, no. 4 (December
2007): 577-612 (available online through the UBC Library under
journals OR through the CHR web page).
2. Frank Zelko, “Making Greenpeace: The Development of Direct Action
Environmentalism in British Columbia,” BC Studies, nos.142/143
(Summer/Fall 2004): 197-239 (available online through the UBC Library
under journals OR through the BC Studies web page).
3. Marie-Eve Daunais, “Vancouver’s Street Trees: A Public Affair,” The Atlas:
Undergraduate Journal of World History, vol.6 (2009): 2-10 (course pack).
B. Additional for Student Presenters…………………………………………………….
4. Arn Keeling, “Sink or Swim: Water Pollution and Environmental Politics in
Vancouver, 1889-1975, “BC Studies, nos.142/143 (Summer/Fall 2004): 69-101
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(available online through the UBC Library under journals OR through the BC
Studies web page).
5. Joel Tarr, “The Metabolism of the Industrial City: The Case of Pittsburgh,”
Journal of Urban History, vol.28, no.5 (July 2002), sections on water and
smoke and Conclusion, pp. 511-532 and 540-541 (available online in the UBC
Library through Sage: Urban Studies and Planning OR through the JUH web
page).
C. Assignment for Presenters: Write a 4-5 page (double-spaced) essay identifying the
arguments presented in these five readings and reflect on how they collectively answer
the question: what is an environmental history of cities?
D. Supplementary: Hollow Tree controversy: see www.SaveTheHollowTree.com
Week 7
Feb.14/16
CIVIC POLITICS AND THE “GREAT FREEWAY DEBATE”
A. Required by all…………………………………………………………………………
1. Danielle Robinson, “Modernism at the Crossroads: The Spadina Expressway
Controversy in Toronto, Ontario, ca 1960-1971,” Canadian Historical Review,
vol.92, no. 2 (June 2011): 295-322 (available online through the UBC Library
under journals OR through the CHR web page).
2. Donald Gutstein, Vancouver Ltd. (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1975), pp.151-166
(course pack).
3. V. Setty Pendakur, Cities, Citizens and Freeways (Vancouver: 1972), chapter 5,
pp.75-80 (course pack).
B. Additional for Student Presenters................................................................................:
4. Donald Gutstein, “Vancouver” in Warren Magnusson and Andrew Sancton,
eds., Civic Politics in Canada (Toronto: UTP, 1983), pp.189-221 (course
pack).
5. William Langford, “’Is Sutton Brown God?’ Planning Expertise and the Local
State in Vancouver, 1952-1973,” unpub. M.A. thesis, UBC, 2011, pp.1-54
(source TBA).
C. Assignment for Presenters: Write a 4-5 page (double-spaced) essay identifying the
arguments presented in these five readings and discuss what these readings tell us, and
perhaps what they don’t tell us, about the “Great Freeway Debate” of the 1960s and
early 1970s.
D. Supplementary: National Film Board of Canada, To Build a Better City (1964),
available online on YouTube [Video].
Week 8
Feb. 21/23
Week 9
Feb.28/1
MID-TERM BREAK
PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH PAPER PROPOSALS
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Joy Dixon and Jeffrey Alexander, in their Nelson Guide to Writing in History, second
edition (2010), write the following about research proposals: “Once you have identified worthwhile
sources and appropriate research questions, it is time to draft a proposal that draws them all
together…here are some general tips on how to approach it. You should begin by outlining your
topic. Describe its importance and discuss your sources, both primary and secondary, in detail.
Summarize the sorts of historical debates that authors have been having about the subject. (This
brief discussion of the existing secondary sources is known as a literature review). Finally,
introduce and discuss your proposed research questions along with any preliminary conclusions
or expectations that have been drawn. These can later be developed into the central argument, or
thesis, of your essay. Of course, your final conclusions may contrast sharply with your initial
expectations. This is one of the things that characterizes good research. Just as a police officer
investigating a crime may have to change hypotheses as she or he uncovers new evidence, you
should also be prepared to discover unexpected and interesting results as you proceed with your
research.” (pp.34-35)
Week 10
Mar.6/8
VANCOUVER AND GLOBALIZATION
A. Required by all…………………………………………………………………………
1. Katharyne Mitchell, Crossing the Neoliberal Line: Pacific Rim Migration and
the Metropolis (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004), chap. 2,
“Vancouver Goes Global,” pp.40-86 and 227-234 (course pack)
2. Daniel Hiebert, “Immigration and the Changing Social Geography of Greater
Vancouver,” BC Studies, no.121 (Spring 1999): 35-82 (available online
through the UBC Library under journals OR through the BC Studies web
page).
3. Charles Montgomery, “Futureville,” Canadian Geographic, May/June 2006:
44- 60 (available online in UBC Library through Academic Search).
Complete).
B. Additional for Student Presenters.................................................................................
4. David Ley, “Between Europe and Asia: The Case of the Missing Sequoias,”
Ecumene, vol.2, no.2 (1995): 185-210 (course pack).
5. Laura Madokoro, “Chinatown and Monster Homes: The Splintered Diaspora
in Vancouver,” Urban History Review, vol.39, no.2 (2011): 17-24 (available
online through the UBC Library under journals OR through the Urban
History Review web page).
C Assignment for Presenters: Write a 4-5 page (double-spaced) essay identifying the
arguments presented in these five readings and discuss how you would evaluate the
insights to be drawn from these readings about the impact of globalization on
Vancouver.
.
Week 11( Mar. 13/15) RESEARCH WEEK: NO CLASSES
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Week 12
Mar. 20/22
Week 13
Mar. 27/29
Week 14
April 3/5
FIRST DRAFT PAPER PRESENTATIONS TO CLASS
FIRST DRAFT PAPER PRESENTATIONS TO CLASS
FIRST DRAFT PAPER PRESENTATIONS TO CLASS
5. RESEARCH PAPERS due: Friday, 20 April 2012
6. POSSIBLE ESSAY TOPICS: This assignment is open to a wide range of potential subjects
about Vancouver’s past. The following are a number of topic ideas that you may want to
consider. You are also encouraged to identify alternatives. One cautionary note must be
considered when defining a topic, however. Research papers must address historical problems in
an analytical manner and must employ primary sources that are readily available to UBC
students. For these reasons some potential ideas may not be feasible. Your preliminary work in
early September, then, must (i) not only identify a good idea but (ii) also determine if the idea is
practical. All topic suggestions should receive my approval before you proceed past the
preliminary stage of your research.
1) Urban recreation: Vancouver’s north shore
2) Housing: “Vancouver Specials”
3) Debate about building heights in Vancouver
4) Public housing (Raymur / Little Mountain)
5) Neighbourhood studies in the interwar years: Mt. Pleasant / Dunbar / West Vancouver
6) The evolution of a street: Hastings Street from Cambie to Main, 1940-1980.
7) Racism and South Asians in Vancouver, the 1980s
8) Police corruption: 1950s
9) D.E.R.A versus City Council, 1970s
10) Blacks in Vancouver, 1920s-1960s
11) Pollution and Fairview Slopes OR False Creek and air pollution, 1920s to 1960s
12) The Federal Government and Vancouver’s waterfront in the Second World War
13) “Urban Indians”: Non-Native response to First Nations residents, 1960s-70s.
14) Vancouver’s response to the unemployed, 1919–1922.
15) Working class suburb: South Vancouver, 1908-1930s
16) From “Skid Road” to the “Downtown Eastside,” 1940s-1970s.
17) Social anxiety about “Juvenile Delinquents” (from the late 1930s to the 1960s, or some
portion thereof) [see BC Newspaper Index for “Juvenile Delinquents”].
18) Stanley Park and tourism: 1920s to 1950s.
19) Changing Perceptions of Vancouver’s Chinatown, 1940s-1980s
20) The Barbequed Meats Controversy in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the 1970s
21) Yip Sang: Vancouver businessman
22) Member of Parliament Douglas Jung, MP, 1957-62
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23) Helena Gutteridge and Civic Politics in the 1930s
24) Explosion of the S.S. Greenhill Park, Port of Vancouver, 1945
25) Mayor William Rathie and the Politics of Development in Vancouver in the 1960s
26) Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Expo ‘86
27) Vancouver’s General Strike, 1919
28) Riots in 1930s Vancouver
29) The Gastown Riot, August 1971
30) Vancouver’s International (Arts) Festival of 1958: Significant?
7. SOURCES: ORAL HISTORY
The sources that we are using in this course are mainly textual. One other types of source, oral
history, also offers potentially fruitful ways to understand past experience in Vancouver. The
value of oral history is that it can generate insights about the lives of ordinary people that are
difficult to find in textual sources such as government documents or newspapers. A good
introduction to the use of interviews for research in family history can be found in through the
UBC Instrcc website. Look for the online piece by Alejandra Yoshizawa, “Listen and Learn:
Oral History at the University of British Columbia.”
8. SOURCES: NEWSPAPERS
Good collections of British Columbia newspapers are available on microfilm on the second floor
level of the Koerner Library and in the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library. A
complete list of UBC’s holdings can be found in a file in the Koerner Library’s Reference
Division. The best sources for newspaper holding are:
1. Hana Komorous, comp. Union Catalogue of British Columbia Newspapers, 3 vols.
(Vancouver, 1987) [ZPN 4917 B72 K65 1987].
OR
2. UBC Library’s On-line Catalogue of British Columbia newspapers [start with file
system UBC Library, then Electronic Resources, and then BC Newspapers].
9. SOURCES: NEWSPAPER INDEXES
You should know about two important B.C. newspapers indexes. Both are on the second floor
of the Koerner Library: the first (BC Newspaper Index) is in the microfilm section on floor 2
(Catalogue No. R. 5065); the second (Colonist Index) a microfiche and is located at the back of
the microfilm section.
(a) B.C. Legislative Library. BC Newspaper Index, 1800–1970 [gap 1910–1915 and
spotty coverage to 1930], 1971–80, 1981– (May 1983). Only Vancouver and Victoria
newspapers, but different papers at different times. [Microfilm R5065]. The gap in the
BC Newspaper Index for Victoria and Vancouver papers after 1910 has been filled
through 1917 by a comprehensive indexing project conducted by the British Columbia
Provincial Library. The new index has not been microfilmed and is available only in the
Provincial Library in Victoria; access is restricted when the legislature is in session.
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(b) An index to the New Westminster Columbian is available at the New
Westminster library, and newspaper clipping files are available at the City of
Vancouver Archives and at the Provincial Archives (in the Vertical File,on microfiche).
10. ARCHIVES IN THE GREATER VANCOUVER AREA: The finding aids of the
archives located in and around Vancouver can be accessed by searching on Google for
“The British Columbia History Internet/Web Site”. At UBC there are two separate
archives: 1) UBC Rare Books and Special Collections, which holds the Chung
Collection; and 2) UBC University Archives. Both have their own web pages and both
are physically located in the lower area of the Barber Library. Many other archives,
including the City of Vancouver Archives, also have their own web pages. These various
archives include:
1. UBC Rare Books and Special Collections, which includes the Chung Collection
2. UBC University Archives
3. City of Vancouver Archives
4. City of Burnaby Archives
5. City of Richmond Archives
6. Japanese Canadian National Museum (Burnaby)
7. Langley Centennial Museum
8. Matsqui-Sumas-Abbotsford Archives
9. Mennonite Historical Society (Abbotsford)
10. Mission Community Archives
11. New Westminster Museum and Archives
12. North Vancouver Museum and Archives
13. Delta Museum and Archives
14. SFU Archives
15. Union of BC Indian Chiefs (Vancouver) manages a Resource Centre which includes a
searchable database to Department of Indian Affairs records (RG-10) and the National
Archives of Canada
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