Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times (John A: The Man Who Made Us)
WINNER 2012 – Writers’ Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political WritingWINNER 2012 – Dafoe Book PrizeFINALIST 2011 – Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-FictionFINALIST 2011 – BC National Award for Canadian Non-FictionFINALIST 2011 – Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-FictionFINALIST 2011 – Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-FictionAGlobe and MailBest Book“Having digested prodigious quantities of research, and woven his knowledge into a seamless and stylish whole, Gwyn…has given us a first prime minister for the 21st century…. A towering achievement, a glittering career-capper, and it may prove impossible to beat.”—Ken McGoogan,The Globe and Mail “All the key historical characters are deftly described, which contributes hugely to making this book such an engaging read….Nation Makerbrings a fresh, welcome perspective to the life of our founding father. Anyone who reads it will no longer be able to take this powerful, charismatic, and dedicated man for granted.”—Quill & Quire(starred review) “Gwyn knows how to tell a good story…. This is John A., warts and all.”—Winnipeg Free Press“It was widely expected that the veteran journalist Richard Gwyn would write an extremely readable biography of Sir John A. Macdonald, and he has. It was expected that his books would address many recent Canadian issues, and they do. What particularly surprises and delights students of Canadian political history, however, is the amount of new material Gwyn has uncovered about the life and political times of the country’s first Prime Minister. If he does not know absolutely everything about Sir John A., Richard Gwyn knows far more than any previous biographer, including Donald Creighton. In a tour de force of research, he has mastered the sources, weaves them beautifully into his text, and presents to us a more lifelike, more credible Macdonald than we had previously imagined. In passing Richard Gwyn puts a generation of Canadian political historians to shame with his scholarship and energy. Thanks to him we now have a John A. Macdonald for twenty-first century Canada.”—Michael Bliss“Charming, difficult, far-sighted, devious, Sir John A. Macdonald was a master politician who spoke to Canadians in a way that few others have ever done. Writing with his usual elegance and insight, Richard Gwyn has done full justice to the man whose own story is inextricably interwoven with that of Canada.”—Margaret MacMillan, author ofParis 1919