O'Callaghan: The Making and Unmaking of a Rebel

John Kendle is a history professor at St. John’s College, University
of Manitoba.

This biography of Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan is the first to be
published in 60 years. It is based on assiduous research and is
attractively written. It will prove a valuable contribution to both
Canadian and American historiography.

Befitting O’Callaghan’s involvement with the Patriotes in Montreal
and Quebec City in the 1820s and the 1830s and his close working
relationship with Louis-Joseph Papineau, two-thirds of the book are
devoted to an analysis of the crucial 11-year period 1826-37, during
which O’Callaghan progressed from being a doctor at the Montreal
General Hospital in 1826 to being a caustic newspaperman and Member of
the Assembly of Lower Canada, intimately caught up in creating an
atmosphere conducive to rebellion. O’Callaghan fled Lower Canada in
1837 and settled in the United States. Although he visited Canada
occasionally and retained a general interest in its political
development, he quickly became caught up in the responsibilities of
historian and historiographer of colonial America. He made a major
contribution to the history of the United States, which laid the basis
for future studies.

Verney is thoroughly at ease with the two main settings of his book,
and he provides sufficient but not overwhelming guidelines, information,
and insight to allow the reader to maintain bearings. Verney’s skills
were put to considerable use in reconstructing O’Callaghan’s early
years.

Nothing of consequence has survived; even O’Callaghan’s birthplace
is unknown. Nonetheless, early chapters on O’Callaghan’s youth in
Ireland and his period of study in Paris are persuasive and evocative
and help us understand the anti-British convictions that fueled his
writings and actions.