Featured Articles

Subscribers only Here's the contents page:

JASON KENNEY, SWORN in as Alberta Premier on Apr. 30, should not only cancel the revised social studies curriculum drafted under Rachel Notley since 2016. He should scrap the extant 2005 curriculum too, and do what he can to shift the teaching philosophy behind it. Kenney re-entered the History Wars with finely-calibrated counterattacks in 2016-17, renewed this year on Feb. 16, against “social engineering and pedagogical fads.” He should now bring forward the reserve guns. Mandatory testing to the end of Grade 12 is laudable and should continue. The deeper problem lies in the current thematic approach to history and civics,...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Below this article by Dr. John Robson we are pleased to include part of the ensuing debate that occurred partly online with Professor R. Blake Brown and conclude with a comment from Canada's foremost firearms rights expert, Professor Gary Mauser.    Armed Canadians — A Brief History JOHN ROBSON reveals that Canadians have just as much a tradition of the right to bear arms as any other country   TO SUGGEST THAT Canadians have a long and glorious tradition of liberty is to invite ridicule. Surely you have mistaken us for someone else, you risk being told. Especially if you add...

RIP David Twiston Davies, 1945-2020, a Contributing Editor to The Dorchester Review since 2013. Born in Montreal and educated in England, this charming gentleman of the old school, a great devotee of the enduring civilizational legacies of the Empire-Commonwealth, and a Roman Catholic, was best known for his output over many years at the Telegraph.co.uk where, together with Hugh Massingberd, he made an art form of enchanting and inspiring obituaries, including those of late servicemen, explorers, geniuses, and eccentrics from across the Commonwealth. I will miss his bimonthly telephone calls and contributions to the magazine. On May 3, of cancer. RIP. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/05/04/david-twiston-davies-colourful-journalist-spent-40-years-daily/ And here...

Originally published as "Teaching History as Self-Doubt" by "Rhetor" in The Dorchester Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2011 (print edition)   "A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." – Alexander Pope, “Essay on Criticism”   It is heartening to see national history curricula for schools the subject of lively debate in Australia and the United Kingdom. This is not happening in Canada, where interest is confined to a few enthusiasts: Canada’s History dedicated a special issue to teaching last year, but many educators are not well-trained and the provinces consign history to the muddle...