Cold War Misogyny: Fear of Momism on Both Sides of the Iron Curtain

Selling over three billion tickets annually, the Soviet film industry became a fault line of postwar cultural contestation where filmmakers built stories around male protagonists who felt disoriented by a world that was becoming increasingly suburbanized, rebellious, consumerist, household-oriented, and scientifically complex. In this post, Marko Dumančić discusses his new book, Men Out of Focus: The Soviet Masculinity Crisis in the Long Sixties, and examines some of the period’s most controversial movies.

Rethinking Filostrato’s Wisdom

The Decameron, now nearly seven hundred years old, has seen something of a resurgence in recent years that testifies to the enduring power of Boccaccio’s masterpiece to speak to new audiences and to find compelling relevance even at a great distance from its immediate medieval context. In this post, Michael Sherberg, editor of The Decameron Fourth Day in Perspective, offers his perspectives on one of the greatest works of Italian literature.

Commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we commemorate the tragedy that occurred during the Second World War and honour the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, as well as the millions of other victims of Nazism. We continue to publish groundbreaking scholarship on the Holocaust and in this post, we share some of our recent publications with you on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

An Excerpt from J.L. Granatstein’s New Book: “Canada at War”

War can subject nations and their peoples to immense strain, and the dangers both tear societies apart and transform attitudes at a great pace. J.L. Granatstein’s new book Canada at War examines the impact of both world wars on Canada and Canadians by examining conscription, foreign policy, and politics, with William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving prime minister, acting as the book’s central figure. In this post, we share an excerpt from chapter sixteen of the book.

Christmas in Icelandic Winnipeg, 1920

Between 1870 and 1914 almost one-quarter of Iceland’s population migrated to North America, forming enclaves in both the United States and Canada. Released earlier in the year, The Viking Immigrants maps the transformation of Icelandic North American culture over a century and a half and reveals the hidden histories behind everyday traditions. In this post, author L.K. Bertram takes us back in time to 1920 and explores the Christmas traditions of a bustling Icelandic neighbourhood in Winnipeg 100 years ago. Cozy up and enjoy!