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The Story of My Life Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada

by Egerton Ryerson

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About this book

The Story of My Life: Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada by Egerton Ryerson opens a vivid window on nineteenth‑century Canada through the voice of one of its most influential educators and clergy. In this candid memoir, Ryerson—Methodist minister, editor, and architect of Ontario’s public school system—recounts formative years, missionary work among the River Credit Indians, the founding and controversies of the Christian Guardian, and decades of engagement in church, education, and provincial politics. Part personal diary, part political chronicle, the book traces themes of faith, reform, and nation‑building as Ryerson navigates debates over church‑state relations, union movements within Methodism, and the practical challenges of creating public institutions in Upper Canada. Readers get detailed sketches of events, thoughtful reflections on leadership, and the texture of everyday life in a young colony, all framed within the broader sweep of Canadian history and political development. Ideal for listeners of history, politics, and biography, this audiobook is essential for anyone curious about the origins of Canada’s public education, the moral and civic debates of the nineteenth century, or the life of a man who shaped public service across six decades.