A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & the Rise of Professional Hockey
"An illustration of hockey's special place in the Canadian heart and mind...Harper has written a finely detailed history of the struggle between professionalism and amateurism in early 20th-century Ontario hockey...It includes insightful examinations of class and religion and the roles they played in a country that still saw itself as a pillar of the British Empire, all viewed through the prism of hockey at the dawn of the pro era." (The New York Times)"...the Prime Minister does a good job of taking you back to the country, and the time, that gave birth to the national game." (Globe and Mail)A Great Gameis a "...readable and entertaining historical exposition of the early organizational days of Canada's most beloved sport...[Harper is] an unreconstructed sentimentalist about hockey. He romances the game, focusing on its sepia-toned infancy." (Toronto Star)