Producing the public past: Canadian history on CBC television, 1952--2002

Canadian history has been a feature of CBC English television since television began in Canada in 1952. Non-fiction history, in documentary and docudrama form, has been a particularly important source of authoritative information on the Canadian past. The aim of Producing the Public Past is to document the general characteristics of this programming as it has evolved over the first fifty years of CBC television and specifically, to assess the role of its production environment in shaping these characteristics.;Canadian history was also valuable in upholding the public service aspects of the CBC mandate. During the 1950s and 1960s especially, this was connected to the educational role of public broadcasting, and to the perception of public broadcasting as a provider of quality television. This changed as the provinces exercised their jurisdiction over educational broadcasting, as the CBC became more commercial, and as the Canadian broadcasting system moved towards an industrial model of production.;Also evaluated in this study is the role of historians in CBC Canadian history programming. In the beginning this relatively small group of scholars was vital to the corporation as advocates of public broadcasting. As important was that they were advocates of an interpretation of the Canadian past largely shared by CBC producers. In general, these versions stressed national themes articulated from a centralist viewpoint, often with the (white, male) individual as the prime agent of past events. While Canadian historiography eventually expanded and diversified from this position, CBC histories did not, suggesting an ideology that in the end was separate from scholarly work.;The establishment of historical lineage has long been in the service of building nationalisms, and Canadian history programming has proven to be an important tool in supporting the nation-building aspect of the CBC mandate. Throughout the study period CBC officials consistently promoted it as proof that in this respect, the national public broadcaster was doing its job.