People, Politics, and Purpose

236 pages, 6 x 9 in. 978-0-7748-6680-4 HC $89.95 USD / £72.00 GBP also available as an e-book

SERIES: The C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History

The late GREG DONAGHY was the director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. His publications include Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr and Tolerant Allies: Canada and the United States, 1963–1968. P. WHITNEY LACKENBAUER is a professor and Canada Research Chair in the Study of the Canadian North at Trent University. Among his more than fifty books are The Canadian Rangers: A Living History; Breaking Through? Understanding Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic; and China’s Arctic Ambitions and What They Mean for Canada.

CONTRIBUTORS: Stephen Azzi, Jennifer Levin Bonder, Robert Bothwell, P.E. Bryden, Norman Hillmer, Asa McKercher, John Milloy, Galen Roger Perras, Angelika Sauer, Ryan Touhey

Edited by Greg Donaghy and P. Whitney Lackenbauer; foreword by Robert Bothwell

Biography is “not on the periphery of history but in the middle of it,” historian Peter Waite astutely remarked. People, Politics, and Purpose brings the historian’s myriad tools to bear on Canadians, from prime ministers to lumberjacks to Indigenous leaders. Drawing on the rich details of biography – the what – the contributors also address the larger questions of motivation – the so what – that drive history. In the process, they prove the value of analyzing both macro- and micro-dynamics within Canadian politics and society to illuminate the roles of political actors. As such, the biographies in People, Politics, and Purpose are not simply stories about the lives of individuals but critical reflections on subjects who are directly involved in, and affected by, politics in Canada. This book makes for lively reading that stimulates fresh thinking about political biography and the direction of political history more generally.

Edited by Patrice Dutil 978-0-7748-6403-9

Paul Litt 978-0-7748-2264-0