1984 Fredericton Convocation - Ceremony A
Careless, James Maurice Stockford
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)
Orator: Galloway, David R.
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L to R: Dr. James Downey, James Maurice Stockford Careless
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Source: PR-Convocation, 1984; Photo by Don Johnson
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1984
JAMES MAURICE STOCKFORD CARELESS
to be Doctor of Letters
It has been said that, although God cannot alter the past, historians can, and, if J.M.S. Careless has not actually altered the past, he has, over the past thirty years, caused a profound rethinking about Canadian History. In 1954, he published a seminal essay, "Frontierism, Metropolitanism, and Canadian History," in which he saw the rise of the large city, rather than the old frontier, as being the dominant force in the development of Canada and, when we consider the sprawling influence of enormous urban growth all over the world today, we realize that his words had a prophetic ring. But, in the words of Browning, "Lest you should think he never could recapture / The first fine careless rapture," he certainly did, and, since that time, he has been the author, or co-author, of about twenty books on various aspects of Canadian History, and scores of chapters in books, articles, conference papers, and reports.
With this immense output, he might easily have been forgiven if he had done nothing else but write, but he has, as it were, activated his historical studies as President of the Canadian Historical Association, Chairman of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Director of the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Adviser to the National Film Board Historical Sites, Historical Consultant for the CBC - the list stretches on beyond the frontiers of oratorical description.
Not only can Dr. Careless write and administer, he can also lecture, and frequently does, perhaps remembering the remark of T.H. Huxley that popular lecturing "was one of the very best means of clearing up the obscure corners in one's own mind." He himself has said, "My cardinal principle is, 'never repeat a lecture.' Therefore I don't keep (and often don't make) lecture notes" - a statement which some members of the Kamloops Research Society in Toronto might dispute. But, if Dr. Careless does not keep lecture notes, many of his students do, and, just as Aristotle's Poetics may be students' notes of what Aristotle actually said, so, in the future, the careless note-taking of a Toronto graduate student may be published and become a Canadian classic.
For many people, Dr. Careless is one of the two or three greatest Canadian historians - living or dead. Were I to say that he is the greatest, however, I might find myself in an embarrassing position if this university were to bestow an honorary degree on another Canadian historian in the future. As T.S. Eliot has written, "Time present and time past /Are both perhaps present in time future." J.M.S. Careless has illuminated time past, and we honour him for doing so today.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2
JAMES MAURICE STOCKFORD CARELESS
to be Doctor of Letters
It has been said that, although God cannot alter the past, historians can, and, if J.M.S. Careless has not actually altered the past, he has, over the past thirty years, caused a profound rethinking about Canadian History. In 1954, he published a seminal essay, "Frontierism, Metropolitanism, and Canadian History," in which he saw the rise of the large city, rather than the old frontier, as being the dominant force in the development of Canada and, when we consider the sprawling influence of enormous urban growth all over the world today, we realize that his words had a prophetic ring. But, in the words of Browning, "Lest you should think he never could recapture / The first fine careless rapture," he certainly did, and, since that time, he has been the author, or co-author, of about twenty books on various aspects of Canadian History, and scores of chapters in books, articles, conference papers, and reports.
With this immense output, he might easily have been forgiven if he had done nothing else but write, but he has, as it were, activated his historical studies as President of the Canadian Historical Association, Chairman of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Director of the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Adviser to the National Film Board Historical Sites, Historical Consultant for the CBC - the list stretches on beyond the frontiers of oratorical description.
Not only can Dr. Careless write and administer, he can also lecture, and frequently does, perhaps remembering the remark of T.H. Huxley that popular lecturing "was one of the very best means of clearing up the obscure corners in one's own mind." He himself has said, "My cardinal principle is, 'never repeat a lecture.' Therefore I don't keep (and often don't make) lecture notes" - a statement which some members of the Kamloops Research Society in Toronto might dispute. But, if Dr. Careless does not keep lecture notes, many of his students do, and, just as Aristotle's Poetics may be students' notes of what Aristotle actually said, so, in the future, the careless note-taking of a Toronto graduate student may be published and become a Canadian classic.
For many people, Dr. Careless is one of the two or three greatest Canadian historians - living or dead. Were I to say that he is the greatest, however, I might find myself in an embarrassing position if this university were to bestow an honorary degree on another Canadian historian in the future. As T.S. Eliot has written, "Time present and time past /Are both perhaps present in time future." J.M.S. Careless has illuminated time past, and we honour him for doing so today.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2
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