MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 04011cam a22004458a 4500
001 013351807-8
005 20121109190728.0
008 120427s2012 oncab b 001 0beng
016 $a2012902399X
020 $a9780195449549
020 $a0195449541
035 0 $aocn793158416
040 $aNLC$beng$cNLC$dCDX$dOCLCO$dFDA
043 $an-cn---
045 $aw0w5
050 4 $aF1032.B36$bC76 2012
055 0 $aFC471 B36$bC76 2012
082 04 $a971.04092$223
100 1 $aCross, Michael S.
245 12 $aA biography of Robert Baldwin :$bthe morning-star of memory /$cMichael S. Cross.
260 $aDon Mills, ON :$bOUP Canada,$cc2012.
300 $axii, 430 p. :$bill, maps ;$c24 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $a1. The Blessed Hour, January 1859 -- 2. Living in Memory -- 3. I Am Not So Certain of My Future as Others Seem To Be -- 4. A Better Irishman -- 5. This Struggle between Good Government and Evil Government -- 6. The Apple of Discord -- 7. Home -- My Own Dear Home -- 8. A New Definition of Loyalty -- 9. An Enthusiast -- Almost a Fanatic -- 10. Leave Those Confounded Politics Alone -- 11. Turning Everything into Responsible Government -- 12. There Must Be No Question of Races -- 13. An Enlarged View Must Be Taken -- 14. The Phrase or the Content -- 15. Anglo-Saxons to the Struggle -- 16. Un Jeu d'Enfants -- 17. Infidels, Socialists, and Others -- 18. A Reckless Disregard of First Principles -- 19. Hanging by a Most Precarious Thread.
520 $a"The quest for responsible government took place in turbulent times. The "very strange" personality driving this quest, Robert Baldwin, comprises the stuff of narrative so compelling it seems at times less history than novel. Baldwin's intervention in Canadian history was momentous, and in this account history is intertwined with Baldwin's enigmatic private life.
520 $aDecades of research by historian Michael Cross has unearthed new insight into this highly complex, troubled, and exceptional man. In Cross's exploration, Baldwin inhabits an intricate emotional world, entangled with reflections on past and future. Cross' narrative flows with elegant non-linearity, reflecting Baldwin's own fluid psychological chronology; the memory of his wife Eliza, who died comparatively young, haunted Baldwin's often distressed mental landscape. In fact, the first chapter may contain one of the biggest surprises in any recent historical biography - taking place a month after Baldwin's death.
520 $aEven so, the book is full of comedy and charm. Cross is a delightfully polished writer, with a remarkable knack for character. Lord Sydenham is a "coxcomb" and a "rake" in the original sense of the words; Lord Elgin is an "unprepossessing little man" but with "steely determination," "a countenance stern in its frame of iron-grey muttonchops"; Louis LaFontaine is "handsome and charming but irritatingly pretentious." Interactions with the deep thinking and duty-bound Baldwin are at times chaotic collisions of markedly different personalities.
520 $aThe book covers events such as the War of 1812, the 1841 Union of the Canadas, and mass migration of Irish famine refugees; it also contains a detailed chronology, portraits, maps, and paintings. Here is not just a vision of an unsettled Canada that will take many readers aback, but also an encounter with a fascinating, "very strange" personality whose profound influence changed Canadian history forever."--pub. desc.
600 10 $aBaldwin, Robert,$d1804-1858.
600 10 $aBaldwin, Robert,$d1804-1858$xPsychology.
650 0 $aPoliticians$zCanada$vBiography.
650 0 $aLawyers$zCanada$vBiography.
651 0 $aCanada$xHistory$y1791-1841.
651 5 $aCanada$xHistory$y1841-
651 0 $aCanada$xHistory$y1841-1867.
650 0 $aStatesmen$zCanada$vBiography.
651 0 $aCanada$xPolitics and government$y1841-1867.
899 $a415_565461
988 $a20120914
906 $0OCLC