Extraordinary Canadians:Stephen Leacock

Extraordinary Canadians:Stephen Leacock

Author: Margaret MacMillan

Publisher: Penguin Canada

Published: 2009-03-31

Total Pages: 117

ISBN-13: 0143175211

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Stephen Leacock's satiric masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town captures "the Empire forever" mentality that marked Anglo-Canadian life in the early decades of the twentieth century. Historian Margaret Macmillan—whose books Women of the Raj and Paris 1919 cast fresh light on the colonial legacy—has great affection for Leacock's gentle wit and sharp-eyed insight. The renowned historian examines Leacock's life as a poor but ambitious student who rose to become an economist, celebrated academic, and, most importantly, the beloved humorist who taught Canadians to laugh at themselves.


Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan

Author: Douglas Coupland

Publisher: Atlas and Company

Published: 2010-11-30

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1935633163

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Surveys the life and career of the social theorist best known for the quotation, "The medium is the message, " who helped shape the culture of the 1960s and predicted the future of television and the rise of the Internet.


Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

Author: Stephen Leacock

Publisher: New Canadian Library

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0771093977

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Affectionately combining both the idyllic and ironic, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is Stephen Leacock’s most beloved book. Set in fictional Mariposa, an Ontario town on the shore of Lake Wissanotti, these sketches present a remarkable range of characters: some irritating, some exasperating, some foolhardy, but all endearing. Painted with the skilful brushstrokes of a great comic artist, the delightful inhabitants of Mariposa represent the people of small towns everywhere. As fresh, funny, and insightful today as when it was first published in 1912, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is Stephen Leacock at his best – colourful, imaginative, and thoroughly entertaining.


Extraordinary Canadians Wilfrid Laurier

Extraordinary Canadians Wilfrid Laurier

Author: Andre Pratte

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2013-09-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0143170813

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Wilfrid Laurier is acknowledged as a great prime minister, a superb orator, and a survivor. But he has become more myth than man. André Pratte, chief editorial writer of Quebec’s La Presse, uncovers Laurier’s complexity amid the charged political circumstances of the early 20th century. Laurier tried to unite a newborn country that found itself grappling with the thorny questions of minority rights, regional tensions, and its role in the world. Pratte skilfully reveals a Laurier who did not have to create a special political strategy in order to deal with the realities of Canada. Growing up in French- and English-Canadian cultures, he himself was a mirror of that complexity. Pratte’s Laurier affirms our long and stable history, while recognizing that events are never predictable, and that dialogue, tolerance, and compromise are always necessary.


Stephen Leacock

Stephen Leacock

Author: A. F. Moritz

Publisher: Markham, Ont. : Fitzhenry & Whiteside

Published: 2006-07

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781550415032

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The reputation of Stephen Leacock as Canada's best-loved humorist started with the publication of his Literary Lapses in 1910. Reviewers raved about the book, and by the time his Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town appeared in 1912, Leacock was being hailed as the Canadian Mark Twain and compared to Charlie Chaplin. Despite Leacock's early hardships, what is certain is that the story of this Canadian immigrant is remarkable. A boy who loved to read went on to write more than 60 books. A boy who loved to laugh went on to world celebrity for his gift for making other people laugh. A boy who came to Canada pining for his birthplace went on to choose Canada as his place in the world.


My Remarkable Uncle

My Remarkable Uncle

Author: Stephen Leacock

Publisher: New Canadian Library

Published: 2010-08-03

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0771094140

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This celebrated collection of sketches sparkles with Stephen Leacock’s humour and shines with the warmth of his wit. The comical E.P., star of the title essay, “My Remarkable Uncle,” is a classic Leacock character. He is president of a railway with a letterhead but no rails, and he heads a bank that boasts credit but no cash whatsoever – all of which trouble E.P. not in the least. My Remarkable Uncle, a wonderful smorgasbord of mirth served up by a master of comedy, includes several essays, a short story, a political parable, and personal reflections on a dizzying array of subjects. Here, in rich abundance, are the inspired nonsense and the unerring eye for human folly that have made Stephen Leacock Canada’s most celebrated humorist.


The Uses and Abuses of History

The Uses and Abuses of History

Author: Margaret MacMillan

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2010-12-09

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 184765200X

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The past is capricious enough to support every stance - no matter how questionable. In 2002, the Bush administration decided that dealing with Saddam Hussein was like appeasing Hitler or Mussolini, and promptly invaded Iraq. Were they wrong to look to history for guidance? No; their mistake was to exaggerate one of its lessons while suppressing others of equal importance. History is often hijacked through suppression, manipulation, and, sometimes, even outright deception. MacMillan's book is packed full of examples of the abuses of history. In response, she urges us to treat the past with care and respect.


Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert

Author: John Ralston Saul

Publisher: Penguin Canada

Published: 2010-10-05

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 0143178741

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Canada has no better interpreter than prolific writer and thinker John Ralston Saul. Here he argues that Canada did not begin in 1867; indeed, its foundation was laid by two visionary men, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. The two leaders of Lower and Upper Canada, respectively, worked together after the 1841 Union to lead a reformist movement for responsible government run by elected citizens instead of a colonial governor. But it was during the "Great Ministry" of 1848—51 that the two politicians implemented laws that created a more equitable country. They revamped judicial institutions, created a public education system, made bilingualism official, designed a network of public roads, began a public postal system, and reformed municipal governance. Faced with opposition, and even violence, the two men— polar opposites in temperament—united behind a set of principles and programs that formed modern Canada. Writing with verve and deep conviction, Saul restores these two extraordinary Canadians to rightful prominence.