Coady Book Launch

Conundrum Press is thrilled to invite you to join us for the launch of Donald Calabrese’s debut title COADY!

Moses Coady (1882-1959), was a Roman Catholic Priest born in Margaree, Nova Scotia who famously inspired and led The Antigonish Movement: the co-operative education / economic movement that spread internationally during the mid-twentieth century. COADY explores Moses Coady’s personal triumphs and misgivings alongside a contemporary historian’s attempt to reconcile the spirit of Twentieth Century revolutionary economics with the vanishing political resistance of post-industrial Atlantic Canada. The Antigonish Movement blended adult education, cooperatives, microfinance and rural community development to help small, resource-based communities around Canada’s Maritimes to improve their economic and social circumstances. A group of priests and educators, including Coady, led this movement from a base at the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University (St. F.X.) in Antigonish, NS. The credit union systems of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI owe their origins to the Antigonish Movement, which also had an important influence on other provincial systems across Canada.

Unlike other biographical work on COADY and the Antigonish Movement, Cape Breton native Calabrese uses archival material and the Coady papers to focus on private misgivings and personal struggles in addition to his contributions to the co-operative movement and social justice. It is also a metahistory that asks questions about how we mythologize our past and form our cultural identities.

WHEN: Thursday, September 10, 6:30pm
WHERE: Eltuek Arts Centre, Sydney

Many thanks to Eltuek Arts Centre and On the Same Page Books for hosting!