Marginal Man

by Watson, Alexander John

• ISBN13: 9780802094780
• ISBN10: 0802094783
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

With Marginal Man, Alexander John Watson provides the first in-depth intellectual biography of Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952), the great Canadian economic historian and communications guru. Melding biography and analysis, Watson presents, in unprecedented detail, the links between key events in Innis' life and scholarly influences, and the intellectual synthesis that Innis produced.Watson illustrates and reconciles the great thinker's movement from rural Ontario to the centre of Canadian and international scholarship, followed by his relegation to the margin by scholars who did not understand his political project and the essential consistency of his scholarship and vision. Based on exhaustive research including interviews and reviews of archival sources, the book's methodology reflects that of Innis himself, emphasizing oral tradition and 'dirt' research.Innis' thought is remarkably relevant to today's world, and Marginal Mandiscusses his foresight with regards to technological changes - such as the arrival of the internet - as well as historical changes including the end of the Cold War and the beginnings of today's unipolar world order. This book is an extraordinary work of scholarship in its own right, as well as an essential companion to the work of its subject, one of Canada's most important minds.Works by Harold A. InnisHistory of the Fur Trade in Canada The Bias of Communication

Author Biography

Alexander John Watson is the president and C.E.O. of CARE Canada.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Innisian Puzzle

From the Margin, 1894-1939

The lsquo;Heraldrsquo; of Otterville, 1894-1913

The Great War, 1914-1918

One of the Veterans, 1919-1923

The Search for a New Paradigm, 1920-1929

The Great Betrayal, 1930-1940

To the Margin, 1940-1952

Hunting the Snark

A Telegram to Australia: Innisrsquo;s Working Methods

Innis and the Classicists: Imperial

Balance and Social-Science Objectivity

Time, Space, and the Oral Tradition: Towards a Theory of Consciousness

At the Edge of the Precipice: The Mechanization of the Vernacular and Cultural Collapse Cassandrarsquo;s Curse

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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