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Mr. Bush, Angus, and Me: Notes of an American-Canadian in the Age of UnreasonSteven Edwin LaffoleyNonfiction: Politics, Contemporary History Order this book: |
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Six months after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Steven Laffoley stood at the edge of Ground Zero in New York City. Having emigrated from America 20 years earlier, he had travelled to New York in an effort to find meaning in the terrible event. However, rather than finding meaning at Ground Zero, Steven found the absence of meaning. And in the months to follow he watched as the American government created its own meaning for the event and used it to usher in a new age - The Age of Unreason.
As he began to write and publish his thoughts on the political and cultural events of this new Dark Age, he also began an unexpected journey: a journey to understand his own relationship to America and to Canada. He asked, "What is it to be an American-Canadian in this Age of Unreason?"
To find an answer, Steven travelled to New York, Boston, and throughout New England; to Paris, London, Verdun, and along the roads of Northern Europe; to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, and deep into the boreal forest at the heart of Canada.
Along the way he encountered an odd collection of characters, including bohemian pacifists, soldier-supporting militarists, obese diners, opinionated coffee shop patrons, letter-writing readers, television talking-heads, a cow with cancer, an old Nova Scotian named Angus, and even George W. Bush. With great humour, stark irony, and a deep sense of history and tragedy, Mr. Bush, Angus, and Me tells the compelling tale of what it is to be an American-Canadian in the Age of Unreason.
Born near Boston, Steven Edwin Laffoley moved to Nova Scotia in 1982 where he worked as a curriculum writer, a university professor, and a school principal. As a freelance writer, columnist, and broadcaster, Steven has written dozens of articles and essays for more than 40 print and online magazines and newspapers and has produced columns for the CBC. He lives with his wife and daughter in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Mr. Bush, Angus, and Me is his first book. He is also the author of Hunting Halifax: In Search of History, Mystery and Murder.