Heroines and History is a comparative study of the images of Laura Secord and Madeleine de Vercheres, symbols respectively of the nationalism of English-Canadian and French-Canadian loyalism and national identity. The authors explore the relations of gender, race/ethnicity, and imperialism in defining national identity and shaping the past by looking at such things as the role of local historical societies, the formation of narratives of Loyalism and the War of 1812 in school texts, the use of historical figures in the services of twentieth-century consumer capitalism (e.g. the...

Heroines and History is a comparative study of the images of Laura Secord and Madeleine de Vercheres, symbols respectively of the nationalism of English-Canadian and French-Canadian loyalism and national identity. The authors explore the relations of gender, race/ethnicity, and imperialism in defining national identity and shaping the past by looking at such things as the role of local historical societies, the formation of narratives of Loyalism and the War of 1812 in school texts, the use of historical figures in the services of twentieth-century consumer capitalism (e.g. the...