Review of William Pinar, Moving Images of Eternity

Bryan Heystee

William Pinar’s 2019 book Moving Images of Eternity: George Grant’s Critiqueof Time, Teaching, and Technology presents a much-needed and welcomeaddition to scholarship on one of Canada’s most significant philosophers. Widelyrecognized as a major conservative thinker and public intellectual, George Grant(1918–1988) came to national prominence in Canada with the 1965 publicationof Lament for a Nation, which argued that due to the twin effects of liberalismand technological dynamism, it was no longer possible for Canada to existindependent of the expanding American empire. 1 This book and his other publicengagement were so broadly received that he became a household name and theparadigm for a distinctly Canadian political term (“red tory”).2 Despite this, onlya handful of monographs have been published on Grant, and Pinar’s book is thefirst published after the completion of the Collected Works of George Grant in2009. As a result, Moving Images of Eternity represents the first effort to makefull use of the resources available in the Collected Works and to expand on themwith the help of a modest body of secondary literature. Whereas previousscholarship depended on work available only at the National Archives or tointimates of Grant and his family, Moving Images takes a significant first step inpublic discussion of Grant using publicly available materials. Moving Imagesseeks to provide an account of Grant’s understanding of education, teaching, andthe curriculum, and to place that account in conversation with both secondaryliterature on Grant and a host of other scholars and thinkers working on the sameor related issues. At 459 pages, Moving Images is a success in this regard, thoughit invites and requires further work, both elaborations of certain themes andrebuttals to some of Pinar’s bolder claims. Moving Images proves an engagingread for those already quite familiar with Grant as it takes a new approach