Celtic Lightning: How The Scots And The Irish Created A Canadian

Celtic Lightning: How The Scots And The Irish Created A Canadian image
ISBN-10:

1443425516

ISBN-13:

9781443425513

Author(s): McGOOGAN, Ken
Released: Oct 04, 2016
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
to view more data

Description:

An exploration of Canadian roots and identity from bestselling author Ken McGoogan

With Celtic Lightning, Ken McGoogan asks the question: Who do we think we are? He argues that Canadians have never investigated the demographic reality that informs this book―the fact that more than nine million Canadians claim Scottish or Irish heritage. Did the ancestors of more than one quarter of our population arrive without cultural baggage? No history, no values, no vision? Impossible.

McGoogan writes that to understand who we are and where we are going, Canadians must look to cultural genealogy. He builds on the work of Richard Dawkins, who contends that ideas and values (“memes”) can be transmitted from one generation to another. Scottish and Irish immigrants arrived in Canada with values they had learned from their forebears. And they did so early enough, and in sufficient numbers, to shape an emerging Canadian nation.

McGoogan highlights five of the values they imported as foundational: independence, democracy, pluralism, audacity and perseverance. He shows that these values are thriving in contemporary Canada and traces their evolution through the lives of thirty prominent individuals―heroes, rebels, poets, inventors, pirate queens―who played formative roles in the histories of Scotland and Ireland.

In the nineteenth century, two charged traditions came together in Canada. That reconnection, Scottish and Irish, sparked Celtic lightning … and gave rise to a Canadian nation.

Low Price Summary






Top Bookstores


























We're an Amazon Associate. We earn from qualifying purchases at Amazon and all stores listed here.

DISCLOSURE: We're an eBay Partner Network affiliate and we earn commissions from purchases you make on eBay via one of the links above.

Want a Better Price Offer?

Set a price alert and get notified when the book starts selling at your price.

Want to Report a Pricing Issue?

Let us know about the pricing issue you've noticed so that we can fix it.