Marginal man : the dark vision of Harold Innis
With Marginal Man, Alexander John Watson provides the first in-depth intellectual biography of Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952), the great Canadian economic historian and communications visionary. Melding biography and analysis, he explores in detail the links between key events in Innis's life and scholarly influences, and the intellectual syntheses that Innis produced." "Watson illustrates and reconciles Innis's movement from rural Ontario to the centre of Canadian and international scholarship, followed by his relegation to the margin by scholars who did not understand his political project and the essential consistency of his scholarship and vision. Based on exhaustive research including interviews and reviews of archival sources, the book is a product of a methodology that reflects that of Innis himself, emphasizing oral tradition and 'dirt' research." "Innis's thought is remarkably relevant to today's world, and Marginal Man discusses his foresight with regards to technological changes - such as the arrival of the Internet - as well as historical changes including the end of the Cold War and the beginnings of today's unipolar world order
Biographies
xiii, 525 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm
9780802094780, 0802094783
144092501
Introduction: The Innisian Puzzle
Part One: From the Margin, 1894-1939
1. The 'Herald' of Otterville, 1894-1913
2 The Great War, 1914-1918
3. One of the Veterans, 1919-1923
4. The Search for a New Paradigm, 1920-1929
5. The Great Betrayal, 1930-1940
Part Two: To the Margin, 1940-1952
6 Hunting the Snark
7 A Telegram to Australia: Innis's Working Methods
8. Innis and the Classicists: imperial Balance and Social-Science Objectivity
9 Time, Space, and the Oral Tradition: Towards a Theory of Consciousness
10. At the Edge of the Precipice: The Mechanization of the Vernacular and Cultural Collapse
11. Cassandra's Curse