Up in Ontario

Barry Broadfoot Dies

I read this past week that Barry Broadfoot had died at the age of 77 and I said to myself, "Who is Barry Broadfoot?" Turns out I should have known him, or at least his work. Broadfoot is credited as the writer of some of the best-selling and most-enduring books of Canadian history. He seemed to take it as his mission to collect the stories of the pivotal events of the 20th century.

Broadfoot's first book was Ten Lost Years, a chronicle of the great depression. He followed with Six War Years, about the second world war, The immigrant years: From Europe to Canada, 1945 to 1967, about the influx of immigrants arriving in Canada, and Years of Sorrow, Years of Shame, about the internment of Japanese-Canadians during the second world war.

Looking back on this bibiography, it seems that Broadfoot assumed the duty of documenting the history of Canada that passed in his lifetime. All the events that shaped the nation through the early and middle parts of the 20th century he took as his subject. Or rather, he took as the subject he presented to people; because Broadfoot's method was to go out and ask people to tell him their stories of those times. He recorded them speaking then transcribed the tapes on an old Underwood typewriter. These transcriptions he collected and edited and submitted to publishers as his book. Stories were not credited to individuals. Instead, Broadfoot rolled them all up together to create a collage, as if the people spoke in one voice, directly through the text.

The resulting books manage to bridge the gap between the events of history and the lives of the people who lived through the times. The dates we remember are given a context by the quotidienne experience of ordinary people: history told through the memories of the man on the street.

I confess that I am fascinated by this type of storytelling. I have added a number of Barry Broadfoot books to my Christmas list. Many of his titles are out of print, but the great reserve of the Advanced Book Exchange will locate them for you if you so desire. Give them a look and find the human dimensions to history.