History Post-confederation (1867-)
O.D. Skelton
The Work of the World, 1923-1941
- Publisher
- McGill-Queen's University Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2013
- Category
- Post-Confederation (1867-)
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780773542723
- Publish Date
- Oct 2013
- List Price
- $55.00
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780773590021
- Publish Date
- Nov 2013
- List Price
- $34.95
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Description
O.D. Skelton: The Work of the World, 1923-1941 is a lively and compelling trip through the letters, diary entries, and official memoranda of O.D. Skelton, one of the most important and influential civil servants in twentieth-century Canada.
Skelton was a towering foreign policy advisor to Canada's prime ministers and a lonely advocate for the country's independence from Great Britain. His accounts detail his work as he co-operated and clashed with William Lyon Mackenzie King and R.B. Bennett over Canada's participation in the international arena. Norman Hillmer's selection and assessment of Skelton's writings offer a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the federal government as Skelton systematically built up the Department of External Affairs and the Canadian diplomatic service as instruments of the national interest, confronted the Manchurian, Ethiopian, and Czech crises of the 1930s, aligned himself with senior francophone politicians such as Ernest Lapointe and Raoul Dandurand, and watched in despair as Europe and Asia descended into war.
Providing avenues into a time when Canada was struggling to define itself, this collection shows the ways in which O.D. Skelton pushed the country onto the global stage.
About the author
Norman Hillmer is professor of history and international affairs at Carleton University and is a former senior historian at the Department of National Defence. Granatstein and Hillmer have collaborated on five books, including "First Drafts: Eyewitness Accounts from Our Past" and the national bestseller "Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada’s Leaders".
Other titles by
O.D. Skelton
A Portrait of Canadian Ambition
Negotiating Freer Trade
The United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and the Trade Agreements of 1938
In the National Interest
Canadian Foreign Policy and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1909-2009
Battle Lines
Eyewitness Accounts from Canada's Military History
Canada's International Policies
Agendas, Alternatives, and Politics
Canadas of the Mind
The Making and Unmaking of Canadian Nationalisms in the Twentieth Century
The Land Newly Found
Eyewitness Accounts of the Canadian Immigrant Experience
Canada Among Nations, 2004
Setting Priorities Straight
First Drafts
Eyewitness Accounts from Our Past
Canada Among Nations 2001
The Axworthy Legacy