Keith Johnston
My writing about history and culture has appeared in the LA Times, Maclean's and Slate, been featured on CBC Radio's Tapestry and chatted about on Slate's Political Gabfest.
The Globe And Mail
Spurred to action by Trump’s trade war, I bought Calixa Lavallée’s sword
The composer of Canada's anthem wanted his homeland to become the 39th state. 145 years later, I bought a piece of his annexationist past.
MacLean's
The tragic story of a Canadian vaccine trailblazer
He was called a “savant” and a “savior,” thought a contender for a Nobel Prize and named alongside John Steinbeck as an American “genius whose work will live on through the centuries.” Four years later he was dead of a heart attack, though one former colleague called it a suicide.
The Gazette
The contrasting legacies of two sibling mayors from Montreal
Jean-Louis Beaudry devoted his life to public service, but few Montrealers know about him. In L.A., meanwhile, kid brother Prudent continues to be venerated.
Routledge
City festivals and social connection: post-plague lessons from 17th-century Naples
Chapter in Mike Duignan, ed., Events and Society: Bridging Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2025).
mental_floss
11 Wonderful Old Words for Lunch
There are many kinds of lunch. There are brown-bag ones, three-martini ones, power ones, and working ones. There are ones “for wimps” and ones for “ladies,” though, alas, there are no “free” ones.
uphere.ca
Who Was Sylvia Grinnell?
The extraordinary life of a New York heiress who rallied Civil War troops, persuaded senators to fund a polar expedition and gave her name to an arctic river she never saw with her own eyes.
Slate
How the Union Army’s Beloved Marching Song Became a French Christmas Favorite
An abolitionist standard, now with nutmeg.
thestar.com
How these Canadian masked maestros are conducting experiments in multimedia and livestreams to make orchestral music relevant during pandemic
Conducting an orchestra is among the most rarefied and coveted positions in the performing arts. But during the pandemic, it’s a job that’s been upended like everyone else’s.
“It’s very unsettling because we don’t know how to do our jobs in the way we’ve always done them,” says Rosemary Thomson, Music Director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. “But there’s two sides to that coin.”
Hamilton Spectator
The tenor who seduced and swindled a city
Herbert Cumberland Wilson was a man of extraordinary musical gifts, but also many misdeeds.
saultthisweek.com
The ‘Sault’ part stuck but the full name has had its days
City’s history has seen multiple variations since Champlain named the site after a seditious royal who backed the wrong Duke.
atlasobscura.com
Why 1920s L.A. Went Wild for a 19th-Century Scottish Novelist
On a hot November day in 1926, a 13-year-old boy dressed as the Pied Piper led more than 1,000 children not out of town, but to the Central Library of Los Angeles.
independent voter network
The 18th-Century Reason Biden's VP Pick Should Be a Night Owl
It's all about a love of lucubration.
* Featured on Slate's Political Gabfest
mental_floss
7 People Killed by Musical Instruments
We’re used to taking it figuratively. One “slays” on guitar, is a “killer” pianist, or wants to “die” listening to a miraculous piece of music. History, though, is surprisingly rich with examples of people actually killed by musical instruments.