Goldwin Smith

Born in Reading, England, in 1823, Goldwin Smith was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. He built an early reputation as a brilliant scholar and went on to become Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, where he also took part in debates about university reform.

In the late 1860s he crossed the Atlantic, taught at Cornell University, and later settled in Toronto. There he became a major voice in Canadian and North American public life through essays, books, lectures, and journalism.

Smith wrote on history, politics, and the future of Canada, and he was known as an energetic, often combative commentator. Though many of his views were disputed, his influence was wide, and he remained an important literary and intellectual presence until his death in Toronto in 1910.