With contributions from some of Canada's leading historians and political scientists, Escott Reid: Diplomat and Scholar offers a fresh perspective on the life and career of one of the most important public intellectuals and diplomats in twentieth-century Canada, critically exploring the tensions between Reid's progressive idealism and the world in which he lived.
Jack Granatstein introduces Reid and the forces that shaped his progressive idealism in the 1920s and 1930s. Hector Mackenzie assesses Reid's contribution to the creation of the United Nations in the mid-1940s, while David Haglund and Stéphane Roussel examine Reid's crucial role in the negotiations to establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Greg Donaghy, Bruce Muirhead, and Alyson King write, respectively, about Reid as high commissioner to India, as an important influence on World Bank policy in the early 1960s, and, finally, as founding principal of York University's Glendon College.
The authors challenge critics who dismiss Reid as an impractical and ineffectual idealist, demonstrating that his approach to policy-making was sophisticated and his idealism tempered by an astute grasp of the competing interests of a range of national and bureaucratic powers. Reid's reflections on Canada's place in the world remain as relevant and provocative today as when he wrote them.

Greg Donaghy is Head of the Historical Section at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and General Editor of its series, Documents on Canadian External Relations. His publications include Tolerant Allies: Canada and the United States, 1963-68, and the edited collection (with Patricia Roy) Contradictory Impulses: Canada and Japan in the 20th Century.

Greg Donaghy's profile page

Stéphane Roussel is assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Canadian Foreign and Defence Policy, Université du Québec à Montréal, and the author of "The North American Democratic Peace: Absence of War and Security Institution-Building in Canada-US Relations, 1867-1958."

Stéphane Roussel's profile page

"This is a worthwhile contribution to the study of Canadian foreign policy in the twentieth century. The contributors take a fresh look at an individual who played an important role and give the reader a broader understanding of some of the key moments in Canadian foreign policy." David MacKenzie, Department of History, Toronto Metropolitan University