Ask the Author: Alvin Finkel
Answered Questions (7)
Alvin Finkel
Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy; Peter Graham, Ian McKay, Radical Ambition: The New Left in Toronto; Peter Frankopan, Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Alvin Finkel
By writing my almost-daily blog.
Alvin Finkel
Being able to communicate with others the ideas that are running around in your head and having the incentive to keep your head crammed with ideas.
Alvin Finkel
Do a ton of reading since that will prepare you for writing. Do a great deal of research so that whatever you are writing, fact or fiction, is based upon more than just personal experience and perspective. Edit yourself ruthlessly, always asking "Who is my audience and how well am I communicating with them rather than just myself."
Alvin Finkel
Materials related to the 1919 general strike and the province of Alberta in my role as president of the Alberta Labour History Institute; a planned book on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
Alvin Finkel
Researching, reading and political activism inspire me to write. I was a journalist before I became an academic and an activist throughout. I've also had a missionary sense about sharing what I've learned through my writing. I find writing easier than breathing and absolutely enjoy producing written materials whether in the form of scholarly or popular books, articles, my Change Alberta blog, or any other form.
Alvin Finkel
As I researched and wrote Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History, I realized that most of what occurred in Canada in the area of social policy was derivative from other countries. I could make use of a wide variety of sources to find out what had happened in other countries but there were no books that provided a comprehensive overall historical perspective. Compassion: A Global History of Social Policy was my effort to provide that comprehensive overview.
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