The force of culture
Subtitle: Vincent Massey and Canadian sovereignty
By: Karen A. Finlay.
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 334
Subjects: Massey, Vincent, 1887-; Massey, Vincent, 1887- -- Political and social views.; Statesmen -- Canada -- Biography.; Art patrons -- Canada -- Biography.; Art and state -- Canada -- History -- 20th century.; Politics and culture -- Canada -- History -- 20th century.; Nationalism -- Canada -- History -- 20th century.; Canada -- Cultural policy.; Canada -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.; Canada -- Politics and government -- 20th century.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "A misunderstood and sometimes maligned figure, Vincent Massey was one of Canada's most influential cultural policy-makers and art patrons. Best known as Canada's first native-born governor general, he chaired the landmark Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences that led to the creation of the Canada Council. The Force of Culture examines Massey's notion of culture, its conflicted roots in late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century Canadian Protestant thought, and Massey's transformation into a champion of culture as a bastion of Canadian sovereignty." "Karen Finlay's study goes beyond existing literature by examining the role of Massey's Methodist upbringing in instilling an education gospel as the foundation of culture and of a national citizenry. The study also reassesses Massey's reputation as a supporter of the fine arts. As a Methodist, his attitudes towards the arts were ambiguous. He never adopted a purely art-for-art's-sake doctrine, but came to understand that the arts, without being moralizing, could serve moral and cultural purposes: the expression and affirmation of national character and sovereignty."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Character, citizenship, and culture : Massey's "other Canada"; title: A Methodist educator, 1908-1921; title: A national platform for education, 1920-1926; title: Becoming "art-minded", 1902-1930; title: Nationalizing the arts, 1922-1935; title: The state and the arts : British models, 1935-1946; title: Arm's length : culture, the state, and Canadian sovereignty, 1946-1951; title: The force of culture.