ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: 1995
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

U dobrom stanju

Rogue Tory: The Life and Legend of John G. Diefenbaker
by Denis Smith

Hardcover
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Macfarlane Walter & Ross (October 26, 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 702 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0921912927
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0921912927
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.1 ounces

Winner of the Dafoe Book Prize
Winner of the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography

1995 marked the 100th anniversary of that most charismatic and enigmatic public figure, the thirteenth prime minister of Canada, John George Diefenbaker. Beloved and reviled with equal passion, he was a politician possessed of a flamboyant, self-fabulizing nature that is the essential ingredient of spellbinding biography.

After several runs at political office, Diefenbaker finally reached the Commons in 1940; sixteen years later he was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. In 1958, after a campaign that dazzled the voters, the Tories won the largest majority in the nation’s history: the Liberal party was shattered, its leader, Lester Pearson, humiliated by an electorate that had chosen to “follow John.”

Diefenbaker’s victory promised a long and sunny Conservative era. It was not to be: instead Dief gave the country a decade of continuous convulsion, marked by his government’s defeat in 1963 and his own forced departure from the leadership in 1967, a very public drama that divided his party and riveted the nation. When Diefenbaker died in 1979, he was given a state funeral modeled - at his own direction - on those of Churchill and Kennedy. It culminated in a transcontinental train journey and burial on the bluffs overlooking Saskatoon, alongside the archive that houses his papers - the only presidential-style library built for a Canadian prime minister.

Canadians embraced the image of Dief as a morally triumphant underdog, even as they were repelled by his outrageous excesses. He revived a moribund party and gave the country a fresh sense of purpose but he was no match for the dilemmas of the Cold War of Quebec nationalism, or the subtleties of the country’s relations with the United States.

This compelling biography, illuminating both legend and man and the nation he helped shape, was among the most highly praised books of the year.

******

Beloved and reviled with equal passion, John George Diefenbaker, thirteenth prime minister of Canada, remains one of the nation’s most enigmatic public figures. He was Dief, the Chief, or just plain John to Canadians everywhere; as a defence lawyer in prairie courtrooms, on the hustings, and in parliament he displayed the flamboyant nature that makes a legend - and a mesmerizing biography.

After five unsuccessful runs at political office in Saskatchewan, Diefenbaker finally reached the House of Commons in 1940. Sixteen years later he became leader of the Conservative party and led it to a surprising minority victory in 1957. Nine months later, after a campaign that dazzled the country, he won the largest majority in Canadian history. The Liberal Party was shattered and its new leader, Lester Pearson, was humiliated.

Diefenbaker’s triumph seemed to promise a long and sunny Conservative era. Instead, he gave the country a decade of continuous convulsion, marked by cabinet defections, electoral defeat, and his own forced departure from the leadership in 1967, a very public drama that divided his party and riveted the nation. For a decade and more, the old warrior hovered in parliament, the scourge of both Liberal governments and his own successors. When Diefenbaker died in 1979, he was given a state funeral modelled - at his direction - on those of Churchill and Kennedy. Thousands gathered to see his funeral train cross
the nation for his burial on the bluffs overlooking Saskatoon, alongside the archive that houses his papers - the only presidential-style library built for a Canadian prime minister.
Canadians embraced the image of John Diefenbaker as a morally triumphant underdog even as they rejected him as their political leader. He revived a moribund party and gave the country a fresh sense of purpose. He established compassion and equal justice as principles of national policy. He was a platform performer of unrivalled showmanship; but that great talent disguised the complexities of character that brought him down: his insecurity, his erratic temperament, his indecisiveness and his zeal for power.
Diefenbaker’s stubborn pride both weakened him politically and endeared him to Canadians, and in the end his long life turned into epic. This compelling and timely biography, drawing for the first time on the full range of personal papers and cabinet documents of the period, illuminates the man, the legend, and the nation he shaped.

Denis Smith is a writer who teaches political science at the University of Western Ontario. He has held senior administrative posts at both UWO and Trent University, has edited the Canadian Forum and the Journal of Canadian Studies, and is the award-winning author of three previous books, among them Gentle Patriot: A Political Biography of Walter Gordon (1973) and Diplomacy of Fear: Canada and die Cold War, 1941-1948 (1988). He is an Albertan by birth who grew up on the prairies.