Snapshots in History: April 22 and 23: Remembering Lester B. Pearson
On April 23, 2013, let us pause to remember Lester Bowles “Mike” Pearson (Born: April 23, 1897; Died: December 27, 1972) who served as Canada’s 14th Prime Minister from April 22, 1963 to April 20, 1968. The one-time diplomat had a distinguished career in Canada’s diplomatic service after which he switched to elected politics and served as Secretary of State for External Affairs under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent from 1948-1957. Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his efforts to resolve the Suez Crisis through the introduction of peacekeeping forces. (He also served as the 8th President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1952.) Mr. Pearson also served as Leader of the Opposition from January 16, 1958 to April 22, 1963. Toronto Public Library collections offer customers access to materials about Lester B. Pearson. Here are some selected examples:
Golden years: encounters with Glenn Gould, Marshall McLuhan, Lester B. Pearson, René Lévesque and John G. Diefenbaker / Eric Koch, 2013. Book.
Former CBC executive and producer and academic Koch focused on five major Canadian personalities who helped to change Canada and define its national identity, namely Gould, McLuhan, Pearson, Lévesque, and Diefenbaker. View a video of the author below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyQG5UmrQgg
Lester B. Pearson / Andrew Cohen, 2008. Book. (Series: Extraordinary Canadians )
Professor and journalist Cohen produced a readable biography on Canada’s 14th Prime Minister, including his time as an academic, a diplomat, and Minister for External Affairs during which time his solution of the 1956 Suez Crisis led to his winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Pearson won'two minority governments in 1963 and 1965 that brought in the Maple Leaf flag, the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact, the Canada Pension Plan, and paved the way for the introduction of universal medicare across Canada.
Lester Pearson's peacekeeping: the truth may hurt / Yves Engler, 2012. Book.
Revisionist Engler asserted that Pearson was in fact a cold warrior who supported the American war in Vietnam and lobbied to send troops to the Korean War in the early 1950s before that as well as supporting colonialism, coups d'état in Guatemala, Iran, and Brazil, and the American invasion of the Dominican Republic. As Prime Minister, Pearson’s government did not take a strong stand against the apartheid regime in South Africa during the 1960s.
Pearson's prize: Canada and the Suez Crisis / John Melady, 2006. Book.
This book coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Suez Crisis in which Lester Pearson as Canada’s foreign minister proposed the introduction of a peacekeeping to separate the warring nations (Egypt versus France, Great Britain, and Israel) that would earn him the Nobel Peace Prize the following year in 1957.
Shadow of heaven: the life of Lester Pearson, volume 1, 1897-1948 / John English, 1989. Book.
Academic English delved into Pearson’s service in the First World War, his time at Oxford, meeting and marrying his wife Maryon, and his service in the diplomatic corps. He resisted entreaties by Prime Minister W.L.M. King to enter politics but was more amenable to serve under Louis St. Laurent.
For more copies, click here or here.
The worldly years: the life of Lester Pearson, volume II, 1949-1972 / John English, 1992. Book.
Academic English’s second volume covered Lester Pearson’s foray into elected politics as Secretary of State for External Affairs under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, his championing of the peacekeeping force that cooled down the 1956 Suez Crisis for which Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize, his humiliation as Opposition Leader facing the Diefenbaker juggernaut in 1958, and his rebuilding of the Liberal Party that resulted in Pearson becoming Prime Minister of a minority government twice.
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