David Frank

My teaching and research interests are in Canadian History, especially labour, social and political history, the history of Atlantic Canada, and film history. I am a past editor of Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region and currently managing editor of its book-publishing partner, Acadiensis Press. I have served as president of the Canadian Committee on Labour History and director of the New Brunswick Labour History Project. I hold degrees from the University of Toronto (Honours, B. A.) and Dalhousie University (M.A. and Ph. D.).

Recent courses at the University of New Brunswick:

History 1315: Canadian History on Film
History 2300: An Introduction to Canadian History
History 3331: The Canadian Worker to 1914
History 3332: The Canadian Worker since 1914
History 5331: Film and History in Canada
History 5335: A History of the Canadian Left
History 6301: The Making of Canadian History
History 6302: Atlantic Canada

Recent books:

Provincial Solidarities: A History of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour (2013). Also published in French as Solidarités provinciales : Histoire de la Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Nouveau-Brunswick

This book was launched at the New Brunswick Federation of Labour Convention on 26 May 2013 in Saint John.

Labour Landmarks in New Brunswick / Lieux historiques ouvriers au Nouveau-Brunswick (2010), with Nicole Lang, Université de Moncton

J.B. McLachlan: A Biography (1999). A prizewinning account of the life and times of the champion of the Cape Breton coal miners.

Recent articles and book chapters:

"McLachlan, James Bryson", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. XVI (2013)

“Organized Labour and the Making of Public Policy in Twentieth-Century New Brunswick”, Journal of New Brunswick Studies/Revue d’études sur le Nouveau-Brunswick, Issue 2 (2011).

“Why Us? The Campaign against Wage Controls in Saint John, New Brunswick, 1975-76”, Mobilizations, Protests and Engagements: Canadian Perspectives on Social Movements, eds. Marie Hammond-Callaghan and Matthew Hayday (Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2008), pp. 211-21.

“Minto 1932: The Origins and Significance of a New Brunswick Labour Landmark”, Acadiensis, XXXVI, 2 (Spring 2007), pp. 3-27.

“In Search of the Canadian Labour Film”, Working on Screen: Representations of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema, eds. Malek Khouri and Darrell Varga (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), pp. 25-45.

Website features:

“James Sugrue”, “Célime A. Melanson”, “James Tighe”, “E.R. Steeves”, “James A. Whitebone”, “Minto 1932”, “Saint John 1976”, “Hot Cargo, 1979”, “Executive Officers of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour” [database]: these and other features on New Brunswick labour history are at www.lhtnb.ca [also presented in French].

Recent reviews and commentaries:

"From the Margins to the Centre: Women in the New Brunswick Federation of Labour", Women Suffrage and Beyond: Confronting the Democratic Deficit (28 July 2013)

Review of Esyllt Jones and Adele Perry, eds., People’s Citizenship Guide: A Response to Conservative Canada (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2011), in Our Times, vol. 31, no. 6 (December 2012-January 2013), pp. 39-41.

“W is for Workers, not Just for War”, StraightGoods.ca, www.sgnews.ca [posted 29 November 2012].

Review of Sean Wilentz, Bob Dylan in America (New York: Doubleday, 2010), in Labour/Le Travail, 68 (Fall 2011), pp. 214-17.

“Don’t forget Equal Opportunity and the Constitution”, Telegraph-Journal, 22 March 2011, p. A9.

Review of Darrell Varga, ed., Rain/Drizzle/Fog: Film and Television in Atlantic Canada (Calgary: Calgary University Press, 2009), Canadian Historical Review, vol. 91, no. 1 (March 2010), pp. 178-80.

Recent graduate supervisions:

Lachlan MacKinnon, “Labour Landmarks in Industrial Cape Breton, 1922-2011” (M.A., 2012)

Donald Nerbas, “The Politics of Capital: The Crisis and Transformation of Canada’s Big Bourgeoisie, 1917-1947” (Ph.D., 2010)

Patrick Marsh, “Machinists of Moncton: The Endeavours of Local 594, International Association of Machinists, 1916-1933” (M.A., 2010)

Kimberley Dunphy, “The Feminization of the Labour Movement in New Brunswick: Women in the New Brunswick Federation of Labour, 1913-1984” (M.A., 2009)

Ashley Harding, “Nathan Cohen is for Mourning: A Cape Breton Play in Toronto, 1953” (M.A. Report, 2009)

Provincial Solidarities