Presentation by Christopher Dummitt at the Between Postwar and Present Day Canada Conference

University enrollment in history majors has slid farther and faster than most any other humanities discipline. Yet, popular engagement with history is thriving through podcasts and documentaries. The Agenda discusses what's going on, particularly in a time that desperately needs reliable historical knowledge?

Canadian historian Christopher Dummitt talks about the diary of Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s diary – a 30,000-page diary documenting his private life in obsessive detail – and the gradual process through which its intimate contents became known to the public. With commentary from two members of the prize jury (Taiaiake Alfred and Joseph Heath) and an introduction from House of Commons curator Johanna Mizgala. Dummitt was a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for this book. This video was produced by Shaw Communications for the 2018 Politics and the Pen event.

In his latest book, "Unbuttoned," Christopher Dummitt charts how within a matter of years former prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King went from being a great statesman to an eccentric in the eyes of the Canadian public. Dummit joins The Agenda to discuss King's transformation and what it revealed about a changing Canadian society.