The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian Sovereignty

"A misunderstood and sometimes maligned figure, Vincent Massey was one of Canada's most influential cultural policy-makers and art patrons. Best known as Canada's first native-born governor general, he chaired the landmark Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences that led to the creation of the Canada Council. The Force of Culture examines Massey's notion of culture, its conflicted roots in late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century Canadian Protestant thought, and Massey's transformation into a champion of culture as a bastion of Canadian sovereignty." "Karen Finlay's study goes beyond existing literature by examining the role of Massey's Methodist upbringing in instilling an education gospel as the foundation of culture and of a national citizenry. The study also reassesses Massey's reputation as a supporter of the fine arts. As a Methodist, his attitudes towards the arts were ambiguous. He never adopted a purely art-for-art's-sake doctrine, but came to understand that the arts, without being moralizing, could serve moral and cultural purposes: the expression and affirmation of national character and sovereignty."--Jacket.