Christopher Dummitt

I found this book fascinating, even though it wasn't what I expected. In other words, it isn't a biography -- it's more of a narrative history. The author looks at Canada from the death of Mackenzie King in 1950 to the early 1980s, using decisions about whether/how to publicize Mr. King's diaries as a way to examine political and cultural change during that period. Over that period, as King's beliefs in spiritualism and other details of his personal life were revealed very more fully, we see the rise of individualism and a culture of the self, and the impact these had on Mr. King's reputation. Very thought-provoking.… (mehr)