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UnbuttonedA History of Mackenzie King's Secret Life |
eBook Available
How Canadians reimagined what a politician should be.
When Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King died in 1950, the public knew little about his eccentric private life. In his final will King ordered the destruction of his private diaries, seemingly securing his privacy for good. Yet twenty-five years after King’s death, the public was bombarded with stories about "Weird Willie," the prime minister who communed with ghosts and cavorted with prostitutes. Unbuttoned traces the transformation of the public’s knowledge and opinion of King’s character, offering a compelling look at the changing way Canadians saw themselves and measured the importance of their leaders’ personal lives.
Christopher Dummitt relates the strange posthumous tale of King’s diary and details the specific decisions of King’s literary executors. Along the way we learn about a thief in the public archives, stolen copies of King’s diaries being sold on the black market, and an RCMP hunt for a missing diary linked to the search for Russian spies at the highest levels of the Canadian government. Analyzing writing and reporting about King, Dummitt concludes that the increasingly irreverent views of King can be explained by a fundamental historical transformation that occurred in the era in which King’s diaries were released, when the rights revolution, Freud, 1960s activism, and investigative journalism were making self-revelation a cultural preoccupation.
Presenting extensive archival research in a captivating narrative, Unbuttoned traces the rise of a political culture that privileged the individual as the ultimate source of truth, and made Canadians rethink what they wanted to know about politicians.
Christopher Dummitt relates the strange posthumous tale of King’s diary and details the specific decisions of King’s literary executors. Along the way we learn about a thief in the public archives, stolen copies of King’s diaries being sold on the black market, and an RCMP hunt for a missing diary linked to the search for Russian spies at the highest levels of the Canadian government. Analyzing writing and reporting about King, Dummitt concludes that the increasingly irreverent views of King can be explained by a fundamental historical transformation that occurred in the era in which King’s diaries were released, when the rights revolution, Freud, 1960s activism, and investigative journalism were making self-revelation a cultural preoccupation.
Presenting extensive archival research in a captivating narrative, Unbuttoned traces the rise of a political culture that privileged the individual as the ultimate source of truth, and made Canadians rethink what they wanted to know about politicians.
Details
352 Pages, 6 x 9
26 illustrations
ISBN 9780773548763
May 2017
Formats: Cloth, eBook
"Christopher Dummitt takes a tremendously imaginative approach. By following the controversy around King's diaries, he creates a unique story, unlike any other I have seen in Canadian historical writing." Doug Owram, University of British Columbia
“More than a revealing portrait of Canada’s longest-serving prime minister, Dummitt’s (The Manly Modern) cultural critique insightfully examines the way changing perceptions of William Lyon Mackenzie King reflect broad changes in North American culture.” Publishers Weekly
“Most Canadians today are vaguely aware of the Weird Willie side of William Lyon Mackenzie King, although as I reread some of the details in Christopher Dummitt’s Unbuttoned: A History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life, I found them as jaw-droppingly hilarious as when I first encountered them. Dummitt has done more than indulge any voyeuristic tendencies in this lively book. Instead of asking what light King’s weirdness throws on Canada, he explores what Canadian reactions to the King story say about our expectations of political leaders. In other words, this is not just about King; it is about us. And although Dummitt is also making a sophisticated argument about the importance of narrative history, he has done it with punchy elegance rather than impenetrable jargon.” Charlotte Gray, The Literary Review of Canada
“The fault in Unbuttoned is that it is too short. Readers will wish Dummitt’s analysis continued until, say, the election of Donald Trump, when it seemed that unbuttoned became unhinged. Maybe next time; Dummitt says he is planning further explorations.” Winnipeg Free Press
“Unbuttoned is a masterpiece of sophisticated storytelling.” Writers’ Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing jury
“Another tell-all King biography this book is not; it is a careful study of the shining attitudes of his executors toward his private diary and it is a probing critique of the changing portrayals of King published after his 1950 death. Unbuttoned reveals a fascinating world of bureaucracy, of feuds and rivalries, of public accountability and personal privacy. Much more than a book about the exposing of King, it is also an admirable study of evolving Canadian social and political values.” Ontario History
“More than a revealing portrait of Canada’s longest-serving prime minister, Dummitt’s (The Manly Modern) cultural critique insightfully examines the way changing perceptions of William Lyon Mackenzie King reflect broad changes in North American culture.” Publishers Weekly
“Most Canadians today are vaguely aware of the Weird Willie side of William Lyon Mackenzie King, although as I reread some of the details in Christopher Dummitt’s Unbuttoned: A History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life, I found them as jaw-droppingly hilarious as when I first encountered them. Dummitt has done more than indulge any voyeuristic tendencies in this lively book. Instead of asking what light King’s weirdness throws on Canada, he explores what Canadian reactions to the King story say about our expectations of political leaders. In other words, this is not just about King; it is about us. And although Dummitt is also making a sophisticated argument about the importance of narrative history, he has done it with punchy elegance rather than impenetrable jargon.” Charlotte Gray, The Literary Review of Canada
“The fault in Unbuttoned is that it is too short. Readers will wish Dummitt’s analysis continued until, say, the election of Donald Trump, when it seemed that unbuttoned became unhinged. Maybe next time; Dummitt says he is planning further explorations.” Winnipeg Free Press
“Unbuttoned is a masterpiece of sophisticated storytelling.” Writers’ Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing jury
“Another tell-all King biography this book is not; it is a careful study of the shining attitudes of his executors toward his private diary and it is a probing critique of the changing portrayals of King published after his 1950 death. Unbuttoned reveals a fascinating world of bureaucracy, of feuds and rivalries, of public accountability and personal privacy. Much more than a book about the exposing of King, it is also an admirable study of evolving Canadian social and political values.” Ontario History
Christopher Dummitt is associate professor of history in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University.
Contents
Illustrations | ix
Preface | xi
PART ONE King, Then and Later
1 Changing Tastes | 3
2 Death of a Statesman | 11
PART TWO Keeping Secrets (or Trying to)
3 Psychic Newsflash | 33
4 The Official Story | 38
5 Striking an Unhappy Medium | 56
PART THREE No One Could Fool the People So Long
6 Statesman or Politician? | 73
7 Blame Freud | 87
8 Ferns and Ostry | 109
9 Official Secrets | 136
PART FOUR On the Precipice
10 End of an Era | 155
11 Close-Up | 168
12 Ravenous for the Remaining Courses | 178
13 Final Spasm of Hypocrisy | 188
14 To Open or Not to Open | 196
PART FIVE The People Unfooled
15 Weird Willie | 205
16 Victorianitis | 221
17 The Cover-Up Is the Story | 236
18 The Greatest Prime Minister? | 258
Conclusion | 264
Postscript | 270
Notes | 273
Bibliography | 309
Index | 321
Illustrations | ix
Preface | xi
PART ONE King, Then and Later
1 Changing Tastes | 3
2 Death of a Statesman | 11
PART TWO Keeping Secrets (or Trying to)
3 Psychic Newsflash | 33
4 The Official Story | 38
5 Striking an Unhappy Medium | 56
PART THREE No One Could Fool the People So Long
6 Statesman or Politician? | 73
7 Blame Freud | 87
8 Ferns and Ostry | 109
9 Official Secrets | 136
PART FOUR On the Precipice
10 End of an Era | 155
11 Close-Up | 168
12 Ravenous for the Remaining Courses | 178
13 Final Spasm of Hypocrisy | 188
14 To Open or Not to Open | 196
PART FIVE The People Unfooled
15 Weird Willie | 205
16 Victorianitis | 221
17 The Cover-Up Is the Story | 236
18 The Greatest Prime Minister? | 258
Conclusion | 264
Postscript | 270
Notes | 273
Bibliography | 309
Index | 321
Author's website
Excerpt in the Toronto Star
Piece by Jim Bronskill in the Globe and Mail
Author's interview with Michael Enright, The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio
Bronskill piece in The Kelowna Daily Courier
Review by Charlotte Gray for The Literary Review of Caanda
Story in the Peterborough Examiner
Author interview and accompanying story from Radio Canada International
Excerpt in the Toronto Star
Piece by Jim Bronskill in the Globe and Mail
Author's interview with Michael Enright, The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio
Bronskill piece in The Kelowna Daily Courier
Review by Charlotte Gray for The Literary Review of Caanda
Story in the Peterborough Examiner
Author interview and accompanying story from Radio Canada International
Finalist
Canada Prizes in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
(2018)
Finalist
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
The Writers’ Trust of Canada
(2017)
Finalist
John W. Dafoe Book Prize
J. W. Dafoe Foundation
(2018)
Canada Prizes in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
(2018)
Finalist
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
The Writers’ Trust of Canada
(2017)
Finalist
John W. Dafoe Book Prize
J. W. Dafoe Foundation
(2018)
