Could post about a thousand pix about this place, and each would deserve about a thousand words.  Here' s a couple of pix: Venice is sinking, no doubt, but I'm pretty sure the tilt to the left here is my sloppy camerawork. More substance soon. But if you get the chance, don't pass on either Rome or Venice. Next stop a little off the beaten path ..read more

So it turns out bopping around Italy with my girl is more appealing than stopping to tap out one-finger posts on a tablet when we have wifi. So much to see, so much to eat, so many steps to tally.  Gotta rest sometime. However: We spent a few days in Rome under wonderful blazing sun and mid 20s temperatures.  Stayed in a charming residential neighborhood and saw a lot of the classics: Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and some quieter places too.  Liked this 'look what's down at the end of the street' shot. Then we jumped on one of these Frecciarossa high-speed trains an ..read more

Another one of the books I have been wanting to devote more time to is Gerald Friesen's enormous biography of the 19th century indigenous premier of Manitoba: The Honourable John Norquay, Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesman, just appearing from University of Manitoba Press It's a remarkable book:  a political biography of a familiar-looking kind.  Except the subject is indigenous, an English-speaking Metis raised in a mostly traditional life with indigenous grandparents all over his family tree  -- and therefore a new and fresh kind of political biography.   ..read more

I have been meaning to take a deep dive into Thomas Peace's big new book The Slow Rush of Colonization: Spaces of Power in the Maritime Peninsula 1680-1790.  But it's a book that demands quite a bit of undivided attention -- and I have not had a whole lot of that recently. (More on that tomorrow.) But I'm already impressed. Peace is covering a period that starts when there has already been a century of so of contact between Europeans and the indigenous peoples and nations of what is now eastern Canada.  It ends another century later, in what is still the remote past of Canadian his ..read more

  Yesterday the eclipse was fabulous in Burlington, Ontario, not far from Toronto and (unlike Toronto) just inside the edge of the zone of totality. I took this picture before the moon completely eclipsed the sun and everything got cool and dark and amazing. But by then I preferred to watch than try to photograph. Just as the eclipse was gathering strength, the clouds vanished from the western half of the sky -- so my happily gazing family (above) had an unobstructed view. Eclipse anywhere near you?  It's worth making time for it ..read more

Strong issue of Canada's History just out for April-May. This year is the hundredth anniversary of the formation of the Canadian Air Force.  Created in full peacetime, oddly enough: Royal Canadian Air Force, est. 1924. The magazine seizes the moment with a bunch of spectacular full colour art of Lancaster bombers and Sopwith Camel fighters and all the rest.   Two well told Second World War stories, both improved by blending in the interest of descendants's pursuit of knowledge about the exploits of their family members.    So the air force's grim Battle of Berli ..read more

I've been busy with other things and can't keep up with my reading at all. So starting today, here come a few book notes: books that may remain a little while longer on my to-read pile, but may get a longer look if/when... My friends at UBC Press were kind enough to send me a copy of Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War, just coming out. With the recent income tax histories, we know about the arrival of one means of potentially financing Canada's huge commitments to the First World War.  Roberts focusses on another:  the Victory Bond, which ev ..read more

Earlier this month I logged on to hear Peter Neary to give a Yorkminster Park talk on the 75th anniversary of Newfoundland's accession to confederation. But he was unable to give it. David MacKenzie stepped in very ably. Today Peter Neary's obit appeared in the Globe and Mail. Son of Bell Island, Newfoundland, he was a long time professor at Western University and the author of many publications in Newfoundland history.  Also in the Globe obits: Edward Roncarelli, not a historian but the son of Frank Roncarelli, historically significance for the legal case of Roncarelli versus Duplessis ..read more

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