Biography
Carl C. Berger is Professor Emeritus in Canadian history at the University of Toronto. During his forty years with the University, Prof. Berger published four books, numerous articles and reviews, and edited and contributed to many more books on Canadian history. His 1976 book The Writing of Canadian History: Aspects of English Canadian Historical Writing won the Governor-General’s Award for non-fiction. In 1990 his book The Sense of Power was named one of twenty best books by the Social Science Federation of Canada published since 1940.
In other academic duties, Prof. Berger supervised many graduate students in the completion of doctoral theses in Canadian history. Some of these students are today prominent members of the Canadian academic community, for example, Prof. Gerald Friesen, University of Manitoba, Prof. Douglas Owram, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Principal for UBC Okanagan, Prof. Brook Taylor, Mount St. Vincent University, and Prof. Michael Gauvreau, McMaster University.
In addition to the recognition Prof. Berger has received for his publications, he has also been honoured by his peers. In 1976 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 1984 the Society gave him the J. B. Tyrrell Historical Medal. In its citation for this award, the Society recognized that “Carl Berger has made an original contribution to our understanding of the Canadian past. Almost single handedly he has opened up and illuminated the intellectual history of modern Canada…. Carl Berger has established himself firmly as an innovative scholar and a leading Canadian historian of his generation.”
Carl Berger retired in 2003.