The Vanishing Past: Making the Case for the Future of History

by Trilby Kent

History isn’t just a it’s the subject. So why aren’t we treating it that way? Part personal essay, part investigation featuring commentary from leading educators and historians, The Vanishing Past is a heartfelt defence of a subject we malign at our peril and an impassioned manifesto for its restoration to the centre of education. A lively, accessible primer for anyone interested in how we learn to be human–and how one subject, above all others, defines our very humanity.

Genres: History, World History, Nonfiction

186 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2022

About the author

Trilby grew up in cities in Canada, the United States and England. After studying History at Oxford University and Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics, training as a maps specialist at a London auction house and pursuing journalistic work from Belgium to the Philippines, she began writing fiction for adults and young adults. This led to an AHRC studentship to complete a PhD in Creative Writing, which produced her second adult novel. Her second book for children, STONES FOR MY FATHER, won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Africana Book Award in 2012 and has since been included on CBC Writes’ 100 YA Books That Make You Proud To Be Canadian. Her third novel for young readers, ONCE, IN A TOWN CALLED MOTH will be published in September 2016.

Trilby now lives in Toronto, where she continues to write fiction, review books for the Globe and Mail and Quill and Quire, teach creative writing at the University of Toronto and Humber College, and freelance as a writer and editor.

Reviews

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The people and events of history may be rooted in the past, but how we talk about those things, what we write about them, and how we teaches (in other words, how we practice history as the record of human experience) tells us a lot about who we are and what we value right now. It’s easy to think of all those who came before us as either foolish or luckless enough to have lived in a time that’s not the present. But conditioning ourselves to believe that we’re the exception is, at best a naive and, at worst, a fatal mistake. Thinking of ourselves as a chapter in an as-yet unwritten history book, on the other hand, is likely to force deeper self-reflection. Whose stories will we champion? What values will we defend? What models will we offer ensuing generations?
History gives us this power. No other subject helps us to understand so comprehensively what it is to be human. No subject is more vital to our very humanity.
That’s why it was so shocking to read, in September 2020, that almost two-thirds of surveyed Americans between the ages of eighteen and thirty-nine did not know that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and more than one in ten believed Jews caused the Holocaust. In a survey commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Guardian reported, 23 pr cent of respondents said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, or had been exaggerated, or they weren’t sure. Twelve percent said they had definitely not heard, or didn’t think they had heard, about the Holocaust.
The implications of this kind of ignorance are staggering...

Well I’ve read some horror stories this year but that excerpt knocks all the other books off the shelf. I was fortunate enough to have been educated in Canada at a time when history and arts and social science programs were well funded and supported, but sadly today we are fighting provincial tendencies to support big business rather than education. The author goes on to say that here in Canada at the time of printing, “the Ontario social studies curriculum for Grades One to Eight contains not a single mention of the Holocaust.” She touches on the practice of book banning based on age-appropriateness, rather than thinking of ways to present painful subjects right from the beginning “to give students the time to digest and absorb valuable knowledge in order to finally be able to interpret this stories in a critical and empathetic way."
Among other points the author makes, an important one is just how easy it is to rewrite the past and do it so convincingly - and I agree, look at the popularity of the musical Hamilton. And anyone who knows anything about Canadian history, or at least who has any common sense, would have recognized this kind of historical revision after watching the Netflix series Anne with an E, which should have started off with a disclaimer saying “Some of these events would never have happened in real life, they’re just here to make you feel good.”
Among the notes I took while reading this book I've found the following: "If you're only taught one story, that's the story you grow into. Homeschooling on narrow religious principles gives a child only one story that may be untranslatable to present society, and handicaps them when they're presented with any of the infinite other stories of history."
As a very topical aside, the author recommends a 2012 book called Side by Side: A Parallel History of Israel-Palestine by Sami Adwan and Dan Bar-On which she says stands as a powerful example of an expansive, creative and constructive approach to a situation facing us right now. (And which at the very least would avoid what Washington Post political cartoonist Michael de Adder portrayed as “the race to say something stupid about the Israel-Hamas war.”) I also recommend looking closely at the reading lists at the end of the book. I'm currently looking out for Who Killed Canadian History? by J. L. Granatstein.
Robert Danisch, Professor, Department of Communication Arts, University of Waterloo, in an article for Conversation Canada, recently wrote: "The humanities should teach about how to make a better world, not just criticize the existing one.”

There appears to be a common thread linking the extraordinary events of the last few weeks: the horrific attacks in Israel; the continuing war in Ukraine...The only way to move beyond a cursory understanding of these events and determine how Canada should respond is through an understanding of the history that surrounds them. And yet we live in a society where knowledge of the past no longer seems to be in vogue.
This isn’t about mocking the lack of historical knowledge of ordinary Canadians.
No, this is about our democracy and the fact it can’t function properly when its citizens don’t have a basic understanding of history.
-From a Standard article, 16 Oct 2023 by John Milloy, former Liberal MPP and Cabinet minister

***And this excerpt is from last winter but is SO relevant right now:
Teaching kids about the Holocaust earlier can help combat antisemitism, educators say: In Ontario, the provincial government recently announced that Holocaust learning will be a mandatory part of the Grade 6 social studies curriculum, starting in the fall. Toronto Globe and Mail, January 26, 2023.

And a painfully perceptive meme I saw today: “I’m pretty sure 40 years of civics classes taught by football coaches is what got us here."
I highly recommend this short book to everyone in North America. 5 stars.

ETA this article from today's (November 2, 2023) Standard:

Ontario is expanding mandatory Holocaust education in Grade 10, including to add learning about contemporary impacts of rising antisemitism. Education Minister Stephen Lecce says it will help to combat a rise in hate and promote the fundamental Canadian values of democracy, freedom, civility and respect. The government says that starting in September of 2025, the Grade 10 history course will explicitly link the Holocaust to extreme political ideologies — including fascism — antisemitism in Canada in the 1930s and 1940s, and the contemporary impacts of rising antisemitism. Last year, the government announced mandatory learning on the Holocaust would be included in Grade 6.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little primer about the challenges facing the subject of history. Trilby Kent discusses how the subject should be given extensive curriculum space, taught outside of general social studies and explored in cycles throughout grades 1-12. Suggestions such as the need to teach content rather than focusing on pedagogies is vital to growing interest among pupils. Lastly, Trilby highlights the importance of context, chronology and place, and that they should be utilized to create a framework for further research and deep thinking. I appreciate how Mrs.Kent reveres the talent of current educators, but recognizes that many were educated with a fragmented approach to history, and became educators in an era of activism and grievance politics which could present as liabilities. This title takes a centrist approach, with extensive input from professional historians such as J.L. Granatstein and Margaret McMillan. The reading list following the main text is a great resource for teachers, students and general readers alike.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern and critical cry for the importance of teaching history in a world of misinformation. Plus it's Canadian!

[Trina · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a skinny one it took me a while! I have a BA in History, but haven't taught a history course in 20 years. I found the exploration interesting but also disjointed as it is about country-wide education, but seemed to focus heavily on one province.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent discussion of the subject - I highly recommend this book to profs, teachers, parents, students of all ages - those who teach and those who study history - and especially those who don't.

"History isn't just a subject: it's THE subject."

We avoid/dismiss this to our peril.

[Dylan]

The Vanishing Past makes a compelling case - but, unfortunately, I don't think it's going to reach many readers. The sad truth about this book - and books of a similar nature - is that only persons who already agree with it are going to choose to read it.

It would be great to see this book - or excerpts of this book - on curricula as an appeal for the merits of History but I fear that students, especially students at the high school level, at which only a single History course is mandatory, will care. The thing is, we need to make someone care - in an age where the arts are underfunded and underappreciated, we need to accept that value is not solely measured in the dollars that persons contribute to the economy and that a well-educated and well-informed populace is significantly more valuable.

[Anne White · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I firmly agree with the need to bring history back into school curriculum and into our everyday experience, I'm not sure that this book alone would be enough to convince me of the reasons for that, or, perhaps, to suggest much practical help in implementing it (other than providing children of all ages with worthwhile and accessible history books). I was somewhat confused by the author's admiration for the books of Susan Wise Bauer, and her repeated point about the need to remember and learn from horrendous events of the twentieth century, but then by her assertion that she is not at all conservative or religious, or even particularly supportive of homeschooling as an alternative to the current educational mess.

However, there were several very good points made, especially the "bittersweet" realization by twelfth-grade history students that they should have started this learning much earlier. I also liked her point that the questions historians ask about an era or an event will change across time; for instance, earlier studies of a country that seemed to be failing would ask what had caused that situation; but if that same country later began to grow in power, later historians would look at those earlier events to see if the later developments could also have been foreseen.

So, the book is perhaps not something I would recommend to those in my cohort (preaching to the choir), but it might be a good doorway book for someone who has noticed that yes, there is a problem, and who wants to know more about taking it seriously.