John Ralston Saul

posted by localmc | August 25, 2010

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He is particularly known for his commentaries on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of managerially/technocratically led societies; the confusion between leadership and managerialism; military strategy, in particular irregular warfare; the role of freedom of speech and culture; and his critique of contemporary economic arguments

Born in Ottawa, Saul studied at McGill University in Montreal and at King's College London where he wrote on the modernization of France under Charles de Gaulle and earned his Ph.D in 1972. After helping to set up the national oil company Petro-Canada, as Assistant to its first Chair, he published his first novel. In 2009 he was elected president of International PEN. He succeeded Jiří Gruša, a dissident Czech writer. He became interested in PEN after spending extended periods of time in North Africa and South-East Asia in the 1980s, where he witnessed fellow writers there suffering government suppression of freedom of expression.
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