The manuscript for this book was completed in 1956 but never published. Thirty-five years later, The Passionate Debate presents a remarkably fresh and comprehensive history of the ideas of Quebec nationalism?essential reading if one is to understand current Canadian political events. In The Passionate Debate Oliver demonstrates that there was, during the 1920s and the 1930s, an embryonic left wing in Québécois nationalism, made up of people who put freedom and equality at the very top of their list of political goals. The book traces this thread of left-of-centre thought through Henry Bourassa, Olivar Asselin, the reviewLa Relève, and André Laurendeau, and contrasts it with the right-wing nationalist ideas of Canon Lionel Groulx and most of the contributors to reviews like L'Action française, L'Action nationale and La Nation/ These ideas evolve against the backdrop of the decline of a rural culture and the growth of industrialization in Quebec and the penetration into French Canada of European doctrines, ranging from anti-Semitic French nationalism and fascism to liberal Catholicism and social democratic personalism.In the preface the author clearly outlines where he was a poor prophet in 1956 and how relevant on must fundamental points the book still is today. Included is a previously-unpublished letter from Pierre Elliott Trudeau, written in 1956, which offers an insightful critique of Oliver's manuscript.

Michael Oliver is the author of two monographs on the poet Alden Nowlan, and of a number of creative and critical writings that have appeared in various journals and anthologies. His latest book is a novella called The Final Cause of Love (Poietikos Editions) and he has recently finished writing a suite of twenty-five poems entitled The Poet Orpheus. Oliver knew Kay Smith when he was teaching at UNBSJ, and once shared a poetry reading with her at the New Brunswick Museum-an experience he vividly remembers for the brilliance of her subtle poems and the gracious manner of her reading.

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