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Grappling with the GAPE: A Canadian Perspective
Jack S. Blocker Jr
Huron University College
University of Western Ontario
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For a variety of reasons, the study
and teaching of both United States1 history in general and
the history of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era in particular
should be thriving in Canada more than in other nations. Geographic
proximity and shared language would advance this probability,
even if the pervasive presence of American mass media did not.
For students in Canadian colleges and universities, a combination
of exposure to American doings through television and little prior
academic opportunity to explore the history of the United States
often whets an appetite for study at the post-secondary level.
Interest in the GAPE arises ø if for no other reason ø from the
fact that during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, both Canadians and Americans witnessed the emergence
of corporate capitalism as a, perhaps the, principal shaper of
their societies. At the last count in December 2001, Canada contained
the largest concentration of H-SHGAPE subscribers outside the
United States (25).2
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In some respects, as I will try
to show, the study and teaching of GAPE history is thriving in
Canada. Reports of research and teaching reveal widespread interest
in and exploration of a broad range of subject matter within the
period. College and university instructors note that some adjustments
are helpful in teaching the subject matter to their students compared
to American students, but those who have taught in both countries
claim broad similarities in their approaches to the two sets of
learners, not radical differences. Yet many post-secondary institutions
do not offer a course in GAPE history, and in those that do there
is no agreement on its chronological boundaries. This lack of
consensus on periodization should be troubling, I believe, for
an association of scholars whose group identity rests upon chronology.
It reveals that we as GAPE historians have yet to develop an overarching
conceptualization of United States history during the late nineteenth
and twentieth centuries which can periodize and guide teaching,
as well as foster development of an array of suitable instructional
resources. If this is a problem, then it is one that confronts
teachers and students of the GAPE wherever they operate.
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Teaching
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