Andre Laurendeau

André Laurendeau was the most widely respected French-Canadian nationalist of his generation. The story of his life is to a striking degree also the story of French-Canadian nationalism from the 1930s to the 1960s, that period of massive societal change when Quebec evolved from a traditional to a modern society. The most insightful intellectual voice of the nationalist movement, he was at the tumultuous centre of events as a young separatist in the 1930s; an anti-conscription activist and reform-minded provincial politician in the 1940s; and an influential journalist, editor of the Montreal daily Le Devoir, in the 1950s. At the same time he played an important role in Quebec's cultural life both as a novelist and playwright and as a well-known radio and television personality. In tracing his life story, this biography sheds indispensable light not only on the development of Laurendeau's own nationalist thought, but on his people's continuing struggle to preserve the national values that make them distinct.