Writing History: A Professor's Life

by Michael Bliss

Overview

One of Canada’s best-known and most-honoured biographers turns to the raw material of his own life in Writing History. A university professor, prolific scholar, public intellectual, and frank critic of the world he has known, Michael Bliss draws on extensive personal diaries to describe a life that has taken him from small-town Ontario in the 1950s to international recognition for his books in Canadian and medical history. His memoir ranges remarkably widely: it encompasses social history, family tragedy, a critical insider’s view of university life, Canadian national politics, and, above all, a rare glimpse into the craftsmanship that goes into the research and writing of history in our time.



Whether writing about pigs and millionaires, the discovery of insulin, sleazy Canadian politicians, or the founders of modern medicine and brain surgery, Michael Bliss is noted for the clarity of his prose, the honesty of his opinions, and the breadth of his literary interests.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459700086
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	09/20/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	10 - 11 Years

About the Author

Michael Bliss, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, has written numerous books in the fields of Canadian politics, medicine, and business, including the Governor General’s Award–nominated Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal and Sir William Osler: A Life in Medicine. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Michael Bliss, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, wrote numerous books in the fields of Canadian politics, medicine, and business, including the Governor General’s Award–nominated Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal and Sir William Osler: A Life in Medicine. He died in 2017.

What People are Saying About This

J.L. Granatstein

Michael Bliss is the very model of a modern historian — a fine scholar who is also constantly engaged in the public debates of our times. In his splendid Writing History, Bliss tells us how he does both history and controversy, and much about himself as well, and all in brilliant prose.

Editorial Reviews

Weaving his private life, politics, social movements, university affairs and his professional career into a unified texture, supported by decades of journal writing where he vented and recorded his life, Bliss offers an engaging memoir, fast paced and well written and very hard to put down.

Literary Review of Canada

…a readable, entertaining, and at times, surprising chronicle of the life (so far) of one of Canada’s best known academics.

UniversityAffairs