In this unusual biography of one of Canada's most well-known public figures, author Frank Milligan traces the intellectual foundations on which Eugene Forsey's world-view was constructed.

Starting with his middle-class Ottawa upbringing, Forsey's philosophical pilgrimage was the product of a deep allegiance to a Christian social gospel, exposure to the radical politics of the labour movement and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and a profound reverence for British Tory constitutionalism.

Milligan weaves these threads together with skill and dexterity. By studying Forsey's beliefs--both religious and political--Milligan unearths the philosophical underpinnings of many of Canada's early-twentieth-century political, economic, religious, and social reform movements.