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The skillful blend of McGee's own words and Wilson's analysis will surely make even the most disinterested student of history feel at least a tiny bit prouder to be Canadian. Quill & Quire

Altogether, both volumes make up a remarkable work of research and lucid writing, a compelling narrative of the man and his era. David Wilson conveys a sympathetic understanding of the tumult of real politics, the contradictions of real people, and the contributions of McGee to the ideals of this country. Victor Rabinovitch, Literary Review of Canada The skillful blend of McGee's own words and Wilson's analysis will surely make even the most disinterested student of history feel at least a tiny bit prouder to be Canadian. Quill & Quire A magnificent achievement. The narrative has tension and momentum, even though we know the final tragic scene. This is the triumphant finale of years of scholarship and must rank as one of the great historical biographies of our time. Liam Kennedy, Queen's University, Belfast As in his impressive first volume, David A. Wilson's task has been to understand a personality who seemed 'congenitally incapable of walking a straight line' (p. 11)...He was 42 when he died: how might he have responded to the Pacific Scandal and Louis Riel? This splendid biography provides material for speculation. British Journal of Canadian Studies

"""Altogether, both volumes make up a remarkable work of research and lucid writing, a compelling narrative of the man and his era. David Wilson conveys a sympathetic understanding of the tumult of real politics, the contradictions of real people, and the contributions of McGee to the ideals of this country."" Victor Rabinovitch, Literary Review of Canada ""A magnificent achievement. The narrative has tension and momentum, even though we know the final tragic scene. This is the triumphant finale of years of scholarship and must rank as one of the great historical biographies of our time."" Liam Kennedy, Queen's University, Belfast ""The skillful blend of McGee's own words and Wilson's analysis will surely make even the most disinterested student of history feel at least a tiny bit prouder to be Canadian."" Quill & Quire ""The second and final volume of David A. Wilson's biography, The Extreme Moderate, discusses McGee's emergence as the leading Irish-Canadian politician and chief publicist of confederation. It is political rather than a personal biography, with only oblique references to McGee's heavy drinking. The chapters on Fenianism will be of particular interest to Irish readers. McGee became a force for moderation while developing a Burkean aversion to revolution. His constitutional conservative model for Canada brought him into conflict with militant Irish nationalism... Wilson, a Toronto history professor, has written the definitive biography of McGee."" - Brendan O Cathaoir, Irish Times, June 16th 2012 ""A magnificent achievement. The narrative has tension and momentum, even though we know the final tragic scene. This is the triumphant finale of years of scholarship and must rank as one of the great historical biographies of our time."" Liam Kennedy, Queen's University, Belfast ""As in his impressive first volume, David A. Wilson's task has been to understand a personality who seemed 'congenitally incapable of walking a straight line' (p. 11)...He was 42 when he died: how might he have responded to the Pacific Scandal and Louis Riel? This splendid biography provides material for speculation."" - Ged Martin, British Journal of Canadian Studies, Spring 2013"

A magnificent achievement. The narrative has tension and momentum, even though we know the final tragic scene. This is the triumphant finale of years of scholarship and must rank as one of the great historical biographies of our time. Liam Kennedy, Queen's University, Belfast The skilful blend of McGee's own words and Wilson's analysis will surely make even the most disinterested student of history feel at least a tiny bit prouder to be Canadian. Quill & Quire [Wilson] demonstrates persuasively that D'Arcy McGee, erratic but often brilliant, was the poet, the orator and the most profound thinker of Canadian colonial politics. While Macdonald was a supreme practitioner of politics as the art of the possible, Mc

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David A. Wilson is coordinator of the Celtic Studies Program and a professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto.

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