Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink

In this superb intellectual biography of an important but largely forgotten figure in Quebec’s media and political scene at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink makes a major contribution to Canadian history. Drawing on his mastery of historiography and archival research in four countries, he follows Paul-Marc Sauvalle from his native France to Montreal and Ottawa, via Louisiana and Mexico. In doing so, Lüsebrink highlights traits that remain consistent throughout this eventful life: independence of mind, cosmopolitanism, and liberal convictions. Readers can thus see Sauvalle evolve from his birth in Le Havre to his death in the Canadian capital.

Lüsebrink presents the various contexts in which Sauvalle moved with great erudition and rare elegance of style. Combining a classic biographical approach with a flexible use of the concepts of transnationalism, transculturalism, cosmopolitanism, and liberalism, he shows how Sauvalle’s experiences abroad enabled him to leave a unique mark on the history of Quebec, French Canada, and Canada. Our understanding of the period from the mid-19th century to the aftermath of the First World War is greatly enriched by this biography with its broad peripheral vision.