James G. Greenlee

Under the influence of mounting foreign competition in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, many Britons sought to bolster England’s world position by reinforcing the unity of the Empire. For the most part their effort were channelled into an attempt to construct a formal political union or federation of Britain’s overseas dominions. However, when the so-called Imperial Federation Movement failed to produce a viable constitutional solution the problem of unity a number of people began to search for an alternative, non-political approach. In this connection a campaign was mounted during the first two decades of the twentieth century that came to emphasise the informal, spiritual ties which supposedly bound the Empire together. This title, first published in 1987, brings to light the assumptions, aspirations and schemes of those predominantly middle-class figures who orchestrated the Imperial Studies Movement at the turn of the twentieth-century. This title will be of interest to students of history and education.

Under the influence of mounting foreign competition in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, many Britons sought to bolster England’s world position by reinforcing the unity of the Empire. For the most part their effort were channelled into an attempt to construct a formal political union or federation of Britain’s overseas dominions. However, when the so-called Imperial Federation Movement failed to produce a viable constitutional solution the problem of unity a number of people began to search for an alternative, non-political approach. In this connection a campaign was mounted during the first two decades of the twentieth century that came to emphasise the informal, spiritual ties which supposedly bound the Empire together. This title, first published in 1987, brings to light the assumptions, aspirations and schemes of those predominantly middle-class figures who orchestrated the Imperial Studies Movement at the turn of the twentieth-century. This title will be of interest to students of history and education.

In 1957, McMaster was a small Baptist enclave of traditional higher learning on the western outskirts of Hamilton. Thirty years later it was home to the only nuclear reactor on a Commonwealth campus and had cultivated a thriving engineering program and a world-class medical school. In the third volume of the university's history, James Greenlee illuminates the core ideas, driving ambitions, and occasionally sharp conflicts that marked this startling transition. Greenlee offers a tightly focused study of the planning, people, and events that gave McMaster its distinctive and bold personality. At the heart of these developments stood President Harry Thode, whose master plan forged a research-intensive institution of medium size, but one capable of surpassing the largest institutions in carefully selected fields. Despite dramatic ups and downs, the remarkable persistence of this model is the key to understanding modern McMaster. For readers interested in the problems of mass education in a democratic age, the origins of revolutionary approaches to medical training, or the tangled relations among a university, its community, and the province, this volume, like the McMaster leaders it follows, has a story to tell.

The authors examine the interaction of missionary organizations with local political powers and with their home government, arguing that in trying to decide which course of action to pursue, missionaries became knowledgeable students of imperial politics and the shifting state of international affairs. They show that leadership of British missionary societies was split between those who wanted to be treated without favouritism by the British government and those who had more aggressive expectations. In doing so they explore the pressures that contributed to the formation of imperial policy and perspective during a significant period of the evolution of the British empire.

Biblical scholar, social critic, and internationalist, Robert Alexander Falconer was also the foremost Canadian university leader of his generation, serving as president of the University of Toronto from 1907 to 1932. James Greenlee's biography chronicles his development as an academic leader and a public man.