Negotiating the Past is a history of the Canadian federal government's historic parks and sites program. C.J. Taylor traces the progress of the program through its beginning with nationalist organizations in the 1880s, its formal establishment in 1919, and its full bloom in the 1960s. He examines the continuing attempts to establish a policy for the preservation and treatment of federally recognised heritage properties and argues that the program was affected by the dynamic interplay between the heritage movement and its various local componenents, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, the National Parks Branch, and elected officials. This process of negotiation, "the politics of historic sites," explains how competing regional, local, racial, and ethnic perspectives on the importance of events in Canadian history determined the selection, interpretation, and development of historic sites.