杏吧原创

Skip to Content

Charlotte Gray launches new book tonight

Charlotte Gray
Photo credit Valberg Imaging

Adjunct Research Professor is launching her new book The Promise of Canada .

The excerpt below is from the Writers Festival website where the full text and event details can be found.

On the eve of Canada鈥檚 sesquicentennial celebrations comes a richly rewarding new book from acclaimed historian Charlotte Gray about what it means to be Canadian. Readers already know Gray as an award-winning biographer, a writer who has brilliantly captured significant individuals and dramatic moments in our history. Now, in The Promise of Canada, she weaves together masterful portraits of nine influential Canadians, creating a unique history of the country over the past 150 years.

What do these people鈥攆rom George-脡tienne Cartier and Emily Carr to Tommy Douglas, Margaret Atwood, and Elijah Harper鈥攈ave in common? Each, according to Charlotte Gray, has left an indelible mark on our country. Deliberately avoiding a 鈥渢op down鈥 approach to our history, Gray has chosen people whose ideas have caught her imagination, ideas that over time have become part of our collective conversation. She also highlights many other Canadians, past and present, who have added to the ongoing debate over how we see ourselves, arguing that Canada has constantly reimagined itself in every generation since 1867.

Beautifully illustrated with evocative black and white images and colourful artistic visions of our country, The Promise of Canada is a fresh take on our history that offers fascinating insights into how we have matured and yet how鈥150 years after Confederation and beyond鈥攚e are still a people in progress. Charlotte Gray makes history come alive as she opens doors into our past, our present and our future, inspiring and challenging readers to envision the Canada they want to live in.