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Articles

Vol. 8 (2017)

Diagnosing Collective Memory Loss: Integrating Historical Awareness into New Brunswick’s Health Care Policy Debate

Submitted
December 7, 2017
Published
2017-11-23

Abstract

This paper is a case study of how public awareness of New Brunswick physician, politician, and public health reformer, William F. Roberts (1869–1938), has faded in and out of historical consciousness. Reflecting the historical mood of the times, his accomplishments have been variously lauded as a bold landmark in the province’s push towards progress and innovation, lamented as a symbol of institutional paternalism, or forgotten altogether. This case shows that historical narratives (or their absence altogether) reveal more about the present in which they are constructed than about the past they describe and is presented as an argument for greater historical contextualization of current health care policy debates.