Bureaucratic rationalism, political partisanship and Acadian nationalism: The 1920 New Brunswick history textbook controversy

This doctoral dissertation is a microhistory of a textbook controversy in 1920 New Brunswick, Canada. During a time of post war sensitivity to nationalism and patriotism, public feeling was aroused as the result of a complaint about Myers' General History, a world history textbook with a newly written chapter about the Great War. In the chapter, the American author made no reference to Canada, and overemphasized British and especially American war efforts.;Contextualized in the rich historical literature examining history and citizenship education and the history of education in Canada, this dissertation draws on a wide range of archival sources, most particularly the Board of Education correspondence and New Brunswick newspapers, to explore how questions about history education were interpreted through the lens of the bureaucratic rationality of the educational administrator, the political partisanship of the newspaper editor, and the Acadian nationalism of the Roman Catholic Bishop. The 1920 New Brunswick history textbook controversy contributes to our understanding of the political nature of public memory, and the complex intertwining of religion and language rights within schooling, history education and citizenship in Canada, and in New Brunswick.;A close examination of events over the course of the following six months investigates the public outcry, the bureaucratic response of the New Brunswick Board of Education and the political manoeuvring of the media. Their focus on the original issues of patriotism, citizenship, history education and the role of schooling eventually dissolved into longstanding conflicts over language and religion.