Canadian Military History

Colonel G.W.L. Nicholson's Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 was first published by the Department of National Defence in 1962 as the official history of the Canadian Army’s involvement in the First World War. Immediately after the war ended Colonel A. Fortescue Duguid made a first attempt to write an official history of the war, but the ill-fated project produced only the first of an anticipated eight volumes. Decades later, G.W.L. Nicholson - already the author of an official history of the Second World War - was commissioned to write a new official history of the First. Illustrated with numerous photographs and full-colour maps, Nicholson’s text offers an authoritative account of the war effort, while also discussing politics on the home front, including debates around conscription in 1917. With a new critical introduction by Mark Osborne Humphries that traces the development of Nicholson’s text and analyzes its legacy, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 is an essential resource for both professional historians and military history enthusiasts.

Is Canada really "a peaceable kingdom" with "an unmilitary people"? Desmond Morton says no. This is a country that has been shaped, divided, and transformed by war - there is no greater influence in Canadian history, recent or remote. Through the Cold War, the Gulf War, and after, Canadians had to make difficult decisions about defence and foreign policy, and these events have shaped the country, developing our industries, changing the role of women, realigning our political factions, and changing Canada's status in the world.

Companion vol. to Establishing a legacy.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A masterful telling of the way World War Two has been remembered, forgotten, and remade by Canada over seventy-five years. The Second World War shaped modern Canada. It led to the country's emergence as a middle power on the world stage; the rise of the welfare state; industrialization, urbanization, and population growth. After the war, Canada increasingly turned toward the United States in matters of trade, security, and popular culture, which then sparked a desire to strengthen Canadian nationalism from the threat of American hegemony. The Fight for History examines how Canadians framed and reframed the war experience over time. Just as the importance of the battle of Vimy Ridge to Canadians rose, fell, and rose again over a 100-year period, the meaning of Canada's Second World War followed a similar pattern. But the Second World War's relevance to Canada led to conflict between veterans and others in society--more so than in the previous war--as well as a more rapid diminishment of its significance. The Fight for History is about the efforts to restore a more balanced portrait of Canada's contribution in the global conflict. This is the story of how Canada has talked about the war in the past, how we tried to bury it, and how it was restored. This is the history of a constellation of changing ideas, with many historical twists and turns, and a series of fascinating actors and events.

In wartime, capturing the hearts and minds of the citizenry is arguably as important as victory on the battlefield. The Information Front explores the Canadian military’s use of public relations units to manage news during the Second World War. These specialized units were responsible for providing sufficient and positive news coverage to Canadians at home. This fascinating study traces the transformation of an emergent PR organization into an efficient publicity machine. It also scrutinizes news coverage and PR activities during major Canadian operations at Dieppe, Sicily, and Normandy to reveal how the military used censorship and propaganda to rally support for the war effort.

This book traces the history of women in the Canadian military, including: their service as nurses in the late 19th & early 20th century (in the North West Rebellion, the Yukon Field Force, and the South African War); the creation of a military nursing service & participation in the First World War; creation of women's divisions in the armed forces in World War II; women war artists; demobilization & then re-establishment of women's organizations in the post-war period; military nursing in the Korean War and the rest of the 1950s; decline in women's military participation to 1965; and the subsequent expansion of women's military roles toward achieving gender equality.

"The first comprehensive history of the Aboriginal First World War experience on the battlefield and the home front. When the call to arms was heard at the outbreak of the First World War, Canada's First Nations pledged their men and money to the Crown to honour their long-standing tradition of forming military alliances with Europeans during times of war, and as a means of resisting cultural assimilation and attaining equality through shared service and sacrifice. Initially, the Canadian government rejected these offers based on the belief that status Indians were unsuited to modern, civilized warfare. But in 1915, Britain intervened and demanded Canada actively recruit Indian soldiers to meet the incessant need for manpower. Thus began the complicated relationships between the Imperial Colonial and War Offices, the Department of Indian Affairs, and the Ministry of Militia that would affect every aspect of the war experience for Canada's Aboriginal soldiers. In his groundbreaking new book, For King and Kanata, Timothy C. Winegard reveals how national and international forces directly influenced the more than 4,000 status Indians who voluntarily served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force between 1914 and 1919--a per capita percentage equal to that of Euro-Canadians--and how subsequent administrative policies profoundly affected their experiences at home, on the battlefield, and as returning veterans."--Publisher's website.

Many Canadians see the role their country’s military plays in Afghanistan as an anomaly. However, this assumption is far from the truth. As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has commented, "Canadians are fierce fighters." Fortune Favours the Brave certainly proves this point in a collection of essays that showcases the fighting spirit and courage of Canada’s military. Daring actions featured in the book include the intrepid assault on the Fortress of Louisbourg and the cat-and-mouse struggle between Canadian partisans and Rogers’s Rangers in the Seven Years’ War in the 1750s; the seesaw battle for the Niagara frontier in the War of 1812; an innovative trench raid in the First World War; the valiant parachute assault to penetrate the Third Reich in the Second World War; the infamous battle at Kap’yong in the Korean War; covert submarine operations during the Cold War; the Medak Pocket clash in Croatia in the early 1990s; and Operation Medusa in Afghanistan.