Larry Ostola talks to Allan Greer about his book, Before Canada: Northern North America in a Connected World.

Showcasing the exciting work of historians, archaeologists, and literary scholars who are rewriting North America’s ancient past.

Long before Confederation created a nation-state in northern North America, Indigenous people were establishing vast networks and trade routes. Volcanic eruptions pushed the ancestors of the Dene to undertake a trek from the present-day Northwest Territories to Arizona. Inuit migrated across the Arctic from Siberia, reaching Southern Labrador, where they met Basque fishers from northern Spain.

As early as the fifteenth century, fishing ships from western Europe were coming to Newfoundland for cod, creating the greatest transatlantic maritime link in the early modern world. Later, fur traders would take capitalism across the continent, using cheap rum to lubricate their transactions. The contributors to Before Canada reveal the latest findings of archaeological and historical research on this fascinating period. Along the way, they reframe the story of the Canadian past, extending its limits across time and space and challenging us to reconsider our assumptions about this supposedly young country. Innovative and multidisciplinary, Before Canada inspires interest in the deep history of northern North America.

Allan Greer is professor emeritus of history at McGill University.

Image Credit: MQUP

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Before Canada: Northern North America in a Connected World

Lisa Pine speaks to Richard Overy about his life in history and the history of his life.
Richard Overy was educated at Caius College, Cambridge. He taught at Cambridge from 1972 to 1979 at Queens' College and from 1976-79 as a University Assistant Lecturer. From 1980 to 2004 he taught at King's College, London where he was made professor of Modern History in 1994. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (1977), Fellow of the British Academy (2000) and Fellow of King's College (2003). In 2001 he was awarded the Samuel Elliot Morison Prize of the Society for Military History for his contribution to the history of warfare. In September 2004 he took up appointment as Professor of History at the University of Exeter.

Richard specializes in the history of the Hitler and Stalin dictatorships, the Second World War, air power in the twentieth century, German history from c 1900. He has published extensively on the history of World War II and Nazi Germany. 'The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia' (Penguin 2005), won the 2004 Wolfson History Prize and the 2005 Hessell-Tiltman Prize.

The host of A Historian's Life, Lisa Pine, is an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her main research interests are the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. She was educated at the London School of Economics and was awarded her PhD from the University of London in 1996. She is the author of 'Nazi Family Policy, 1933-1945' (1997), 'Hitler’s “National Community”: Society and Culture in Nazi Germany' (2007, 2017), 'Education in Nazi Germany' (2010), 'Debating Genocide' (2018) and (with Kees Boterbloem) 'Soviet and Nazi Posters: Propaganda and Policies' (2025). She is the editor of 'Life and Times in Nazi Germany' (2016), 'The Family in Modern Germany' (2020) and 'Dictatorship and Daily Life in Twentieth-Century Europe' (2022). She has also published numerous journal articles and chapters in books on her areas of expertise. She is currently editing a new book, 'Food and Food Policies in European Dictatorships,' for publication by Bloomsbury Academic. She is co-editor (with Peter C. Caldwell) of the book series 'German History in Focus' (Bloomsbury Academic).


A Historian's Life - Richard Overy with Lisa Pine 2023 11 15

The story of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation and its Historical Committee—and its fifty-year fight to recover and rewrite its history—is the focus of Rose Miron’s award-winning book Indigenous Archival Activism. Miron’s research and writing are shaped by materials found in the tribal archive and ongoing conversations as part of her more-than-a-decade-long reciprocal relationship with the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation. Miron is not Mohican and is careful to consider her own positionality and reflects on what it means for non-Native researchers and institutions to build reciprocal relationships with Indigenous nations in the content of academia and public history, offering a model both for tribes undertaking their own reclamation projects and for scholars looking to work with tribes in ethical ways. Here, Miron is joined in conversation with Jennifer O’Neal.



Rose Miron is vice president of research and education at Newberry Library in Chicago and author of Indigenous Archival Activism: Mohican Interventions in Public History and Memory, winner of the National Council for Public History Book Award and the Book of Merit Award from the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Jennifer O’Neal is assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon.



Praise for the book:

“A necessary volume on the intersection of Indigenous knowledge loss, recovery, and production in the context of settler colonialism.” 
—Jacki Thompson Rand, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“a must-read for archivists, researchers, and tribal historians working with/in Indian Country.”
—Shannon Martin, Lynx Clan, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians; former director, Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways


Indigenous Archival Activism: Mohican Interventions in Public History and Memory by Rose Miron is available from University of Minnesota Press.


Public history, memory, and building a tribal archive.

Immerse yourself in Canada’s history! Witness to Yesterday episodes take listeners on a journey to document a time in Canada’s past and explore the people behind it, its significance, and its relevance to today. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. To learn more about the Society and Canada’s history, subscribe to our newsletter at https://bit.ly/news_WTY.

A selection of Podcast episodes from the Institute of Historical Research:
• A Historian's Life
• History in Conversation

New tracks tagged #historians