What role does history play in contemporary society? Has the frenetic pace of today’s world led people to lose contact with the past? A high-profile team of researchers from across Canada sought to answer these questions by launching an ambitious investigation into how Canadians engage with history in their everyday lives. The results of their survey form the basis of this eye-opening book.

Canadians and Their Pasts reports on the findings of interviews with 3,419 Canadians from a variety of cultural and linguistic communities. Along with yielding rich qualitative data, the surveys generated revealing quantitative data that allows for comparisons based on gender, ethnicity, migration histories, region, age, income, and educational background. The book also brings Canada into international conversation with similar studies undertaken earlier in the United States, Australia, and Europe.

Canadians and Their Pasts confirms that, for most Canadians, the past is not dead. Rather, it reveals that our histories continue to shape the present in many powerful ways.

‘It is safe to conclude that Canada is not facing a national crisis of ignorance when it comes to our history. The authors of Canadians and Their Pasts have done us all a great service by proving that it is time to retire that tedious old clichÉ. - Daniel Francis (Geist summer 2014)

Margaret Conrad is professor emerita in the History Department at University of New Brunswick.

Kadriye Ercikan is a professor of Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology in the Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia.

Gerald Friesen is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Manitoba.

Jocelyn LÉtourneau is Canada Research Chair in the History and Political Economy of Contemporary Quebec and a professor in the Department of History at l’UniversitÉ Laval.

Delphin A. Muise is an emeritus professor in the Department of History at Carleton University.

David Northrup is associate director of the Institute for Social Research at York University.

Peter Seixas is Canada Research Chair in Historical Consciousness and a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia.