With compelling insight, Canada 1919 examines the year following the Great War, as the survivors attempted to right the country and chart a path into the future. Veterans returned home full of both sorrow and pride in their accomplishments, wondering what would they do and how they would fit in with their families. The military stumbled through massive demobilization. The government struggled to hang on to power. And a new Canadian nationalism was forged. This book offers a fresh perspective on the concerns of the time: the treatment of veterans, including nurses and Indigenous soldiers; the place of children; the influenza pandemic; the rising farm lobby; the role of labour; Canada’s international standing; and commemoration of the fallen. Canada 1919 exposes the ways in which war shaped and changed Canada – and the ways it did not.

Tracing the influence of popular political and social movements of the time, including the Mental Hygiene, Arts and Crafts, and Settlement House movements, Judith Friedland tells the stories of pioneering women in the field and describes how they established professional associations, workshops, and educational programs. She highlights the help they received from male physicians, which gave them access to those with decision-making power, and examines their work in both rural and urban environments with those from different economic and ethnic backgrounds. An informative look at the origins of a field that now has over thirteen thousand practitioners in Canada, Restoring the Spirit is also the compelling story of the rise of working women and their crucial contributions to the history of health care.

Articles ranging widely with politics, economics, and social history contain some of the most recent scholarship in the field of post-Confederation Ontario history, encompassing both traditional and newly emerging topics.