Coming from the ferment of Quebec's Quiet Revolution, Pierre Trudeau had slipped almost unnoticed into Lester Pearson's government. There were funny stories in the press, of course, about the Cabinet Minister who preferred loafers to square-toad oxfords - "but he's really a very intelligent man," some stories continued. Still Trudeau was the "swinger," the unknown political quantity, until he set the country on fire during the Liberal Party convention that saw him emerge as the one political figure in our history who has gripped the entire country's imagination. Was it because he was a bachelor? Was it his youth, or his ability to communicate in both of Canada's official languages? His spirit of adventure? His intellectual prowess? Or was the country ready for someone who could provide the symbol of a new Canadian generation taking over from the old one? All of these things are probably what makes Trudeau great. But never has it been spelled out. John Harbron supplies the missing information about Trudeau the man and Trudeau the force and figure created by the cultural and intellectual climate of Quebec.