Lord Durham's Report: Text Abridged by Gerald M. Craig (Volume 208)

by Gerald M. Craig, Janet Ajzenstat, Guy Laforest

In his famous 1839 call to reform, John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be accorded responsible government by uniting the two provinces under a single legislative assembly - a union which would also bring about the assimilation of the French-Canadians. The Report has been criticized ever since - from British imperialists who found it dangerously liberal to French Canadians who despised Durham for his presumed racism. This new edition of Gerald Craig's abridgement retains his 1963 introduction and adds essays that debate Durham's political assumptions and goals, re-examine the philosophical and historical context in which the Report was created, and review the Report's reception and influence. Janet Ajzenstat reconsiders the report in the context of nineteenth-century debates about the relation between culture and political institutions, arguing that Durham should be seen as a progressive universalist opposed to the divisions of race and creed who wanted to give more freedom to French- and English-Canadians alike. Guy Laforest re-examines the report in terms of British liberal imperialism and twentieth-century English-Canadian perspectives to argue that Durham was a one-sided sociologist and the first in long line who used liberalism for imperialist purposes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics

262 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 1963

About the author

Gerald M. Craig (1916-1988) was a professor of history at the University of Toronto. He studied at the University of Toronto and the University of Minnesota, where he earned his Ph.D. after serving in the Second World War.

Reviews

[Andrew Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Hey Queenie,

Thanks for making me dictator of the French! It was a good thing you did because these people are dumb dumb dumb dumb duuuummb. And boy do they wish they were English. The English themselves may be smarter and more prosperous but they are finding it a teeny bit frustrating when they elect the Reformers and they have all of their legislation shot down by the Tories (or the 'official party' as we call them, *wink* *wink*) who we have appointed to run the actual government. Also, remember when we said that we'd set aside land for "protestant clergy"? Well... the Anglicans sort of thought that meant just them and the other, more popular churches are not so happy. Anyway, I think we should try to wipe French culture off the face of the continent by making one big 'Canada' where the English get greater representation than the French. Oh, but also, that representation should mean something and Canada should get to make its own government.

See ya soon!

Durry"