John Ralston Saul Books In Order

Field Trilogy Books In Order

Baraka (1983)
The Next Best Thing (1986)
The Paradise Eater (1988)

Novels

The Birds of Prey (1977)
Dark Diversions (2012)

Non fiction

Voltaire Bast*ards (1992)
The Doubter’s Companion (1994)
The Unconscious Civilization (1995)
Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1997)
On Equilibrium (2000)
The Collapse of Globalism (2005)
Joseph Howe & the Battle for Freedom of Speech (2006)
A Fair Country (2008)
Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin (2010)
The Comeback (2014)
John Ralston Saul 4-Book Bundle: Reflections of a Siamese Twin, A Fair Country, The Comeback, Lafontaine Baldwin Lectures (2017)

Field Trilogy Book Covers

Novels Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

John Ralston Saul Books Overview

Voltaire Bast*ards

Argues that the rationalist political and social experiments of the Enlightenment have degenerated into societies dominated by technology and a crude code of managerial efficiency. These are societies enslaved by manufactured fashions and artificial heroes, divorced from natural human instinct.

The Unconscious Civilization

Knowledge, The Enlightenment believed, could protect us from the follies of ideology. But Saul maintains that ‘knowing’ has not made us ‘conscious’. Instead we have become increadingly passive, our society increadingly conformist. These are no easy solutions to this problem, Saul say, but change is still possible. ‘Winner of the Govenor General’s Award’

Reflections of a Siamese Twin

In Reflections of a Siamese Twin, Saul turns his eye from a reinterpretation of the Western world to an examination of Canada itself. Caught up in crises political, economic, and social Canada continues to flounder, unable to solve or even really identify its problems. Instead, we assert absolute differences between ourselves: we are English or we are French; Natives or Europeans; early immigrants or newly arrived, from the east or from the west. Or we bow to ideologies and deny all differences in the name of nationalism, unity, or equality. In a startling exercise in reorientation, John Ralston Saul makes sense of Canadian myths real, false, denied and reconciles them with the reality of today’s politics, culture, and economics.

On Equilibrium

Is it moral to sacrifice one’s life for a higher goal? Why do many in the U.S. think it admirable to join the army but despicable for Palestinians to sign up with Hamas? How can we actually determine ‘evil’ and ‘good’ in the daily world? These practical questions cut to the heart of what it means to be human. John Ralston Saul, in his matter of fact discussion of six basic human qualities ethics, common sense, intuition, imagination, memory, and reason confronts basic concepts in a manner not done since Thomas Paine more than two centuries ago. In an easy to understand style, Saul explains why essential qualities of being human cannot exist in isolation but instead depend on and enrich each other. On Equilibrium persuasively explores morality and how it can be used to foster equilibrium for the self and achieve an ethical society.

The Collapse of Globalism

Revised and updated, with a new introduction, ‘The Collapse of Globalism‘ is ‘a triumph…
reminding us what the global economy really is something that humans have created…
This is the start of a new debate’ ‘Forbes’. Globalization, like many great ideologies before it, is dead. Despite the almost religious certainty with which it was conceived, nation states have not become extinct, international trade has not created real wealth that has spread across society and many dictatorships have not changed into democracies. In this groundbreaking book, the distinguished philosopher John Ralston Saul examines where we go from here. As the hope of global prosperity fades and the problems of immigration, terrorism and the collapsing economy cause the world’s nations to rethink their relationships, Saul’s exhilarating investigation into The Collapse of Globalism is essential and timely.

Joseph Howe & the Battle for Freedom of Speech

On 20 March 2004, John Ralston Saul delivered the inaugural Joseph Howe lecture at King’s College School of Journalism in Halifax, Nova Scotia. One of Canada s foremost thinkers on issues of media, politics and society, Saul spoke to the legacy of Joseph Howe, his famous defense in 1835, and of his contributions to a distinctly Canadian position on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. His speech recalls a time when political debate was prioritized in society and covered by the media, and when the democratic foundations of this country were first articulated and then pursued via social reforms. We re curious. And we re actually not in a rush, says Saul of our current situation. Why then, with the collective level of education and individual life expectancy steadily on the rise, have we not allocated more time to engaging in public debate of ideas and to covering these debates in the media? Why, when the creation of Canada as a country is still remembered as the result of all night discussions and passionate engagement, have we not chosen to continue discussion simply as a means of maintaining an active, conscious citizenry? Saul applauds the examples of responsible, courageous investigative journalism in evidence today, and urges a wider move away from the results focused, low content buzz that comprises so much of mainstream media both in print and on television, and which stands in direct contradiction with participatory democracy and with freedom of the press. Cutting through murky constructs like intellectual property rights and access to information, he identifies the journalistic challenge of locating shapes in the mass of information and beneath the misleading hype around secrets. In a style that is highly articulate, humorous and emphatic, John Ralston Saul provides a succinct, relevant look at Canadian history, our current whereabouts, and an ambitious rally for participatory democracy and intelligent media for the future.