Douglas Hunter's Blog

Did you see the cover story in the most recent issue (December 2019/January 2020) of Canada's History on the Beardmore Viking relics hoax? I wrote the story, which draws on my most recent book, Beardmore: The Viking Hoax that Rewrote History You can learn more about it by visiting the book's page on my website, https://dwhauthor.wordpress.com/portf... There's also an excerpt: https://dwhauthor.wordpress.com/2018/...

I haven't been active on Goodreads since 2012, and a lot has happened since I last checked in:
•Earned a PhD (history) from York University (2015).
•My doctoral dissertation, "Stone of Power," won the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies prize in 2016 for the top dissertation in Humanities, Social Sciences, and Art History
•An updated version of my dissertation, "The Place of Stone," was published by University of North Carolina Press in 2017.The Place of Stone: Dighton Rock and the Erasure of America's Indigenous Past
•I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo, 2015-17. During that time I completed research on the Beardmore Viking relics hoax at the Royal Ontario Museum.
•My book "Beardmore" was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2018.Beardmore: The Viking Hoax that Rewrote History
•In 2018 I signed a contract with McGill-Queen's to write "Jackson's Wars," on the early career of artist A.Y. Jackson and his experiences as a soldier and war artist in World War I, leading up to his cofounding of the Group of Seven. I expect it to be published in 2021. Visit my website (douglas hunter.ca) to learn more

For those of you who care about the academic credibility of my non-fiction (and who know that I returned to higher learning in 2010 to begin a PhD in history at Canada's York University), I've just been named one of Canada's Vanier Scholars, the highest level of doctoral research support in the country. I've also been named the 2012 William E. Taylor Fellow, which recognizes Canada's outstanding doctoral candidate in social sciences and the humanities. Both the scholarship and the fellowship run for three years and will allow me to focus on completing my doctoral research and dissertation.
York University announced my Vanier Scholarship today in this release from the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

http://fgs.news.yorku.ca/2012/07/12/y...

I've just confirmed an invitation to appear March 19, 7 pm at Burlington Central Library as part of The Different Drummer's Engaging Ideas series. I'll be speaking for about 40 minutes on The Race to the New World and taking questions at the end. (Heck, I'll answer questions about other things I've written...)
To learn more, contact The Different Drummer Bookstore in Burlington, Ontario 905-639-0925

Douglas & McIntyre will be publishing The Race to the New World in Canada in spring 2012. The official release date is March 15. The spring catalogue is fresh off the press. Here's the book's page from the digital version.
http://www.bnccatalist.ca/ViewTitle.a...

Russell Potter just reviewed The First Panoramas on his blog The Arctic Book Review. These virtual reality structures of the late 18th and 19th centuries fascinate me. I just ordered a copy of the book and I'll let people know what I think once I've read it.
http://arcticbookreview.blogspot.com/...
The First Panoramas: Visions of British Imperialism

I'm in the process of building a free Google Earth guide to every place name in The Race to the New World, which I think readers will find a nice bonus to the two-page map in the book itself, as it zooms in on features like castles and streets. I have made a first pass through the book and am wrestling with some coding issues for a couple of the descriptive balloons. In time I'd like to expand this into a more elaborate resource with links to web resources. I'll let people know when this is finished and how to get it.

There's another new essay up on the website for The Race to the New World. It's "The German Connection: Behaim, Munzer, and the New World's Discovery." You can read it at http://web.mac.com/dwh5/Site_3/The_Ge...

I have a new essay up on the website for The Race to the New World: John Cabot as "the one from the Indies." I had abandoned an earlier effort to explain the process of translating an early Spanish document, but have come to the subject with what I think is a much more accessible discussion of how I reached this particular translation of a diplomatic letter with aid of Dr. Janet Ritch, a linguist who is an expert in early Spanish and French. I hope it conveys the challenge of working with such early documents. I also propose a radically different interpretation of the letter's meaning.
http://web.mac.com/dwh5/Site_3/%22The...

Today in 1494, Pietro Martire wrote Giovanni Borromeo of Milan and became the first person to apply to Columbus’s discoveries the term that would come to define them: "orbe novo" in the original Latin of the letter—“new world.” So here's to New World (According to Pietro) Day. :)