Social Criticism : : The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice and Other Essays / / Stephen Leacock; ed. by Alan Bowker.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Leacock, Stephen,
• HerausgeberIn: Bowker, Alan,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1973
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (145 p.)

Stephen Leacock, long celebrated as Canada's foremost humorist and social satirist, has received little recognition for his considerable accomplishments as a serious thinker and social critic. In fact, Leacock was a professor of political economy, and more than half of his writings addressed the pressing issues of his day. This volume represents the neglected aspect of Leacock's career, gathering together his writings on a range of subjects, including imperialism, education and culture, religion and morality, feminism, prohibition, and social justice.The collection begins with 'Greater Canada: an appeal,' which dates from 1907, when Leacock was a popular lecturer advancing the cause of imperialism. Bowker points out that, for Leacock, imperialism was more a spiritual mission than a political agenda, representing the opportunity to unite Canadians, to inspire allegiance to a lofty tradition, and thereby to combat the threat of materialism, urbanism, fragmentation, and continentalism. These themes resurface in subsequent essays, culminating in The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice, which was published in 1920. Carefully selected, and prefaced with an updated introduction to Leacock's life and work, these essays contribute to our understanding of Leacock and illuminate his role as a major figure in Canadian intellectual history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- An introduction -- Selected Bibliography -- Postscript -- Greater Canada: an appeal -- Literature and education in America -- The apology of a professor: an essay on modern learning -- The devil and the deep sea: a discussion of modern morality -- The woman question -- The tyranny of prohibition -- The unsolved riddle of social justice -- 1. The troubled outlook of the present hour -- 2. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- 3. The failures and fallacies of natural liberty -- 4. Work and wages -- 5. The land of dreams: the Utopia of the socialist -- 6. How Mr Bellamy looked backwards -- 7. What is possible and what is not