Recent Class Notes

Books and Beyond

  • Just to Please You 鈥 The Gertrudes

    The Gertrudes

    Just to Please You

    One evening in 2008, a collection of Queen鈥檚 students, faculty, and staff got together at the Grad Club to play music and sing. Today they still play together as The Gertrudes, a Kingston-based 鈥渇olkestra鈥 that describes itself as 鈥渁n old-time saloon party travelling through deep space.鈥 They鈥檝e been joined onstage by more than 100 local musicians over the years, and they鈥檝e performed alongside the likes of Ricky Skaggs and Sarah Harmer. Their fifth studio album, Just to Please You, was released in August.

  • Michael Jabara Carley 鈥 Stalin's Gamble: The search for allies against Hitler, 1930-1936

    Stalin鈥檚 Gamble

    Michael Jabara Carley, MA鈥70, PhD鈥76

    Universit茅 de Montr茅al history professor Michael Jabara Carley, MA鈥70, PhD鈥76, draws on archival evidence from the U.S., the U.K., France, and Russia to unearth new evidence of Joseph Stalin鈥檚 behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts in the years leading up to the Second World War. In Stalin鈥檚 Gamble, released this summer by the University of Toronto Press, he shows how Stalin tried 鈥 and ultimately failed 鈥 to build a defensive alliance against Hitler.

  • Four Bullets, Four Witnesses, Four Liars: The True Story of a Murder and the Trial that Followed

    Four Bullets, Four Witnesses, Four Liars

    Brian Barrie, Law鈥76

    In 1988, Jimmy Strutton was shot four times in a secluded log cabin on the outskirts of Owen Sound, Ont. Each of the four witnesses at the scene told police a different story, and one of them, Mae McEachern, was charged with murder. McEachern鈥檚 defence lawyer, Brian Barrie, Law鈥76, relies on his own memories, as well as trial transcripts and newspaper articles, to bring the crime and the trial to life in Four Bullets, Four Witnesses, Four Liars, now available from Delve Books.

  • David Roberts 鈥 Boosters and Bankers: Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War

    Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada鈥檚 Involvement in the First World War

    David Roberts, Artsci鈥73, MA鈥75

    Most Canadians at the time may not have fought in the First World War, but many of them had a hand in financing it. David Roberts, Artsci鈥73, MA鈥75, explores the surprising popularity of war bonds and how the federal government used them to convince Canadians to fund Canada鈥檚 military commitment in Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada鈥檚 Involvement in the First World War. It tells the story of six bond drives that together raised almost one-third of the country鈥檚 total war costs. Read it now from University of British Columbia Press.

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