The author and historian Allan Levine discusses his recent biography King: William Lyon Mackenzie King, A Life Guided By the Hand of Destiny (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011), with Joseph Planta.

King: William Lyon Mackenzie King, A Life Guided By the Hand of Destiny by Allan Levine. (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: King

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

The author and historian Allan Levine joins me now. His latest book published last fall was the comprehensive, accessible and highly readable King: William Lyon Mackenzie King, A Life Guided By the Hand of Destiny. It’s the first major biography on King in more than 30 years, and it brings to life this complicated, accomplished, fascinating man. King was born in 1874, and dies 75 years later in 1950. He was a lawyer, civil servant, and politician who went on to become Canada’s tenth prime minister serving a total 22 years, first defeating Arthur Meighen in 1921, and replacing Meighen again following the King-Byng Affair. He loses to R.B. Bennett in 1930, and replaces Bennett five years later, serving until 1948. It’s impossible in the few minutes we have with Mr. Levine to go over King’s life, but he does such a fine job in just over 500 pages telling us about King in this book. We’ll ask him how he got to writing it, what’s in the book, and more. Allan Levine has written 11 books, including the award winning Coming of Age, and one of my favourites Scrum Wars. His website is at www.allanlevinebooks.com. He joins me from Winnipeg this day, where he teaches history. The book is published by Douglas & McIntyre. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Allan Levine; Mr. Levine, good morning.

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