William Christian – författare

The many published volumes of the writings of Harold Adams Innis testify to his extraordinary grasp of the ordering principles of human history. The notes that he left at the time of his death provide a new and revealing profile of the inner workings of this restless and relentless mind.Innis maintained, added to, and corrected, in the last seven years of his life, a single system of cross-referenced notes, which came to be called the Idea File. Before his death in 1952 he collected these notes into a single numbered collation. In this edition the material has been arranged in chronological order to give a sense of the development of Innis's ideas and concerns.Innis's interests were many and varied, and this collection of some 1500 notes covers an encyclopedic range of topics. The different lines of Innis's investigations converge, however, in his interest in basic political and cultural issues and in his fundamental concern for the preservation of individual freedom and creativity. At heart Innis was a moralist whose hatred of oppressive social institutions led him to examine them from many angles. It is a fascinating odyssey. Every reader will be refreshed and enriched by sharing Innis's life-long intellectual adventure.

When George Grant delivered Philosophy in the Mass Age over the CBC radio network early in 1958, it was an immediate hit. He criticized the Western notion of progress and affirmed the role of philosophy in teaching and assisting people in understanding. Robert Fulford described it then as stunningly effective: 'Grant's talks, obviously the product of a supple and curious mind, were models of their type - learned but clear, original but persuasive, highly personal but intensely communicative.'Grant's analysis of lhe paradox of modernity is no less intriguing today. The need to reconcile freedom with the moral law 'of which we do not take the measure, but by which we are measured and defined' is still an issue in our times.William Christian has restored the text of the original 1959 edition. He has supplemented it with material from the broadcast version of the lectures, including a ninth lecture, not previously published, in which Grant responded to listeners' questions. The controversial introduction to the 1966 edition appears as an appendix.

George Grant was one of Canada's foremost political and religious thinkers. In his published writings, Grant was a careful and guarded writer, but in his letters he was frank and spontaneous, expressing ideas and opinions that he hesitated to convey in print. Grant's letters are remarkable for their continuity – about twelve hundred letters survive from 1923 to his death in 1988 – and for their quality. For more than fifty years, he favoured his correspondents with his observations about international relations, Canadian politics, religion, literature, and philosophy. William Christian has selected some three hundred letters, postcards, telegrams, and journal entries which reveal much about Grant – both the troubled man and the daring thinker.His correspondence begins with the letters from his early years at Upper Canada College and his undergraduate days at Queen's University, followed by letters from London during the Second World War, when he struggled with the conflict between his pacifism and his sense of duty. The middle section includes letters that describe his life at Dalhousie in the 1950s, his resignation from York University, and his hopes to create in the department of religion at McMaster University a kind of fifth column that would preserve a university within the multiversities he thought had taken over higher education in Canada. The later letters feature his remorseless attacks on what he felt were the perfidies of Trudeau during his long tenure as prime minister.

Called the most forceful voice of philosophic radicalism that Canada has so far produced, George Grant was a prolific writer, engaged by subjects ranging from Canadian politics to ancient philosophy. The George Grant Reader is the first book to bring together in one volume a comprehensive selection of his work, allowing readers to sample the whole range of his interests.The reader includes selections from all phases of Grant's career, beginning with The Empire: Yes or No? (1945) and ending with an article on Heidegger, left unfinished at the time of his death in 1988. Forty-six essays, grouped into six sections, encompass his views on politics, morality, philosophy, education, technology, faith, and love. Also featured are Grant's writings on those who most influenced his thought, ranging from St Augustine to Karl Marx and Simone Weil. A number of his more disturbing essays are also included such as his controversial writings on abortion. The editors' substantial introduction places the articles in the wider context of Grant's life and thought.This long-overdue collection contains classic works, little-known masterpieces, and previously unpublished material. The volume is an ideal starting point for those who have never read Grant as well as an indispensable reference for Grant specialists.