Collected Works of George Grant, Vol. 4 -- book review by Ron Dart

Collected Works of George Grant: Volume 4: 1970-1988
Edited by Arthur Davis and Henry Roper
University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 2009

George Grant (1918-1988) is viewed by many as ‘Canada’s greatest political philosopher’. George/Sheila Grant were also Anglicans. There is little doubt that Grant was one of the most preeminent public intellectuals in Canada in the latter half of the 20th century. Few Anglicans in Canada have attained such status.

The fact that Grant was at the forefront of political, artistic, religious, literary and educational life in Canada cannot be missed. The publication of the Collected Works of George Grant began in 2000 with Volume 1, and the recent publication of Volume 4 (more than a 1000 pages) brings to a close a decade of serious sleuth work to compile primary material by Grant.

Collected Works of George Grant: Volume 4: 1970-1988 threads together some of Grant’s finest, most insightful, wisest and most controversial essays. Few have attained Grant’s ability to be compact and concise, incisive and succinct, suggestive and evocative. All the demanding and tough issues are faced and not flinched from in this large and bulky book. Grant was no stranger to the hot button issues in the culture wars, and he cut to the centre and core of the issues again and again.

The many essays in the initial part of Collected Works are more than worth the read, but the final section on “George Grant and Simone Weil”, “Book Reviews Published in the Globe and Mail”, “Lectures at McMaster University in the 1970s-A Selection” are crown jewels and must reads.

Appendix A-B and Appendix 1-2 concludes the tome in a polished and comprehensive manner.

Grant had the unique ability to transcend the tribalism of the intellectual ideologies of the age, and point out, all too clearly, how one and all were enmeshed and enfolded by the prejudices and principles of our age. He attempted, again and again, to unfold the enfolded and, by doing so, highlight how unexamined seeds bears questionable fruit. It is not very liberal for a liberal not to critique liberalism, but few do. Grant was one of the few that did, and, as such, he faced the ire of the guardians of the liberal establishment for doing so. Collected Worls of George Grant: Volume 4 demonstrates, in the most vivid and demanding way, why Grant was, probably, the leading Canadian prophet of the latter half of the 20th century, and why Anglicans have much yet to learn from his subtle and supple mind and imagination.

This is not a book for the faint of heart nor thin of mind. But, mountain peaks are only reached by those who put in the disciplined effort.

Ron Dart

Comments

[Dissertation Proposal]

well its soo good to see this information in your post, i was looking the same but there was not any proper resource, thanx now i have the thing which i was looking for my research.

[custom dissertation]

Excellent Blog every one can get lots of information for any topics from this blog nice work keep it up.