A transnational history of how Indigenous peoples mobilised en masse to support the war effort on the battlefields and the home fronts.

Terry Copp’s tireless teaching, research, and writing has challenged generations of Canadian veterans, teachers, and students to discover an informed memory of their country’s role in the Second World War. This collection, drawn from the work of Terry’s colleagues and former students, considers Canada and the Second World War from a wealth of perspectives. Social, cultural, and military historians address topics under five headings: The Home Front, The War of the Scientists, The Mediterranean Theatre, Normandy/Northwest Europe, and The Aftermath. The questions considered are varied and provocative: How did Canadian youth and First Nations peoples understand their wartime role? What position did a Canadian scientist play in the Allied victory and in the peace? Were veterans of the Mediterranean justified in thinking theirs was the neglected theatre? How did the Canadians in Normandy overcome their opponents but not their historians? Why was a Cambridge scholar attached to First Canadian Army to protect monuments? And why did Canadians come to commemorate the Second World War in much the same way they commemorated the First? The study of Canada in the Second World War continues to challenge, confound, and surprise. In the questions it poses, the evidence it considers, and the conclusions it draws, this important collection says much about the lasting influence of the work of Terry Copp. Foreword by John Cleghorn.

Part history and part social commentary, this book examines the repatriation of Canada's WWII veterans with a collection of essays by 11 historians. Topics include the administration of the return of Canadian soldiers from Europe after VE--Day, the philosophy and benefits of the Veterans Charter, veterans' rights, educational opportunities for returning vets, and the rehabilitation of veterans with disabilities. Includes bandw photographs. Appends the complete text of Back to Civil Life, a 1946 repatriation manual. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

It was the “Good War.” Its cause was just; it ended the depression; and Canada’s contribution was nothing less than stellar. Canadians had every reason to applaud themselves, and the heroes that made the nation proud. But the dark truth was that not all Canadians were saints or soldiers. Indeed, many were sinners. In this eye-opening and captivating reassessment of Canadian commitment to the cause, some disturbing questions come to light. Were citizens working as hard as possible to back the war effort? Was there illegal profiting from the conflict? Did Canadian society suffer from a general decline of “morality” during the war? Would women truly “back the attack” in new factory jobs and the military, and then quietly return home? Would unattended youth produce a crisis with juvenile delinquency? How would Canada reintegrate a million veterans who, policy-makers feared, would create a social crisis if treated like their Great War counterparts? The first-ever synthesis of both the patriotic and the problematic in wartime Canada, Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers shows how moral and social changes, and the fears they generated, precipitated numerous, and often contradictory, legacies in law and society. From labour conflicts, to the black market, to prostitution, and beyond, Keshen acknowledges the underbelly of Canada’s Second World War, and demonstrates that the “Good War” was a complex tapestry of social forces – not all of which were above reproach.

Bryce chronicles in splendid detail how the tiny and overburdened department in Ottawa worked behind the scenes to deal with the critical public policy challenges that accompanied World War II and postwar reconstruction. Canada's financial aid made it possible for Britain to wage an effective war and then deal with the destruction it wrought. Bryce details how Canada's Department of Finance can also be credited with overcoming some of Britain's most pressing balance-of-payments problems after the war.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST for the 2021 Ottawa Book Awards 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. By the end of the 20th century, Canada's experiences in the war were largely framed as a series of disasters. Canadians seemed to want to talk only of the defeats at Hong Kong and Dieppe or the racially driven policy of the forced relocation of Japanese-Canadians. In the history books and media, there was little discussion of Canada's crucial role in the Battle of the Atlantic, the success of its armies in Italy and other parts of Europe, or the massive contribution of war materials made on the home front. No other victorious nation underwent this bizarre reframing of the war, remaking victories into defeats. 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.

The Second World War transformed Canada and its place in the world. The outbreak of war in September 1939, following a decade of economic crisis and the rise of aggressive dictatorships, drew Canada into a second global conflict. Canadians ultimately served in virtually every theatre of operations, while the home front mobilized to support the war effort. This souvenir catalogue highlights the Museum's Second World War Gallery. From the powerful to the intimate, artifacts that have borne witness to the conflict ? including artwork, weapons, uniforms, archival documents and photographs ? help show how the war affected Canada and Canadians.