A bold new telling of the defining battle of the Great War, and how it came to signify and solidify Canada's national identity.Why does Vimy loom so large in Canada's identity—and should it? Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian and a RBC Taylor Prize winner, examines the battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 and the way the memory of it has evolved over a hundred years. Vimy is unlike any other battle in Canadian history: it has been described as the "birth ...

‘From Fromelles to the final advance — war as it was lived, in the words of the men who faced it.’One battalion. Three years of war. Ordinary men under relentless pressure.‘I was eighteen when I was first sent into battle at Fromelles… War is both the silliest and cruellest activity that a man can get mixed up in. It breaks my heart even now to think of it.’— Walter Herbert ‘Bert’ Bishop, 55th BattalionIn 1915, news from Gall...

From our country's most important war historian, a vital history of the legacy of the Great War and the reverberating impact it has had on Canada since.The Western Front has dominated the culture and memory of the Great War. The lethal power of modern weapons in the form of rapid-firing rifles, scything machine guns, and devastating artillery fire lacerated flesh and shattered bone. Finally, on November 11, 1918, the guns went silent when the beaten German forces s...

From our country's most important war historian, a gripping account of the turbulent relationship between Canada and the US during the Second World War. The two nations entered the war amidst rivalry and mutual suspicion, but learned to fight together before emerging triumphant and bound by an alliance that has lasted to this day.When the Second World War broke out in 1939, it set in motion a deadly struggle between the Axis powers and the Allies, but also fraught ...

There have been thousands of books on the Great War, but most have focused on commanders, battles, strategy, and tactics. Less attention has been paid to the daily lives of the combatants, how they endured the unimaginable conditions of industrial warfare: the rain of shells, bullets, and chemical agents. In The Secret History of Soldiers, Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian, examines how those who survived trench warfare on the Western Front found entertainment, solace, relief,...

***WINNER OF THE 2023 OTTAWA BOOK AWARD**SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 TEMPLER MEDAL FOR BEST BOOK*From Canada’s top war historian, a definitive medical history of the Great War, illuminating how the carnage of modern battle gave birth to revolutionary life-saving innovations. It brings to light shocking revelations of the ways the brutality of combat and the necessity of agonizing battlefield decisions led to unimaginable strain for men and women of medicine wh...

NATIONAL BESTSELLERFINALIST FOR THE OTTAWA BOOK AWARDSA 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 ...

In 1915, news of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing and the slaughter at Gallipoli stirred tens of thousands of young men to go to war.They answered the call and formed battalions of the Australian Imperial Force. By the time the new recruits were combat ready, the campaign at Gallipoli had ended. Their battlefields became the muddy paddocks of France and Belgium.Based on eyewitness account, Eyewitnesses at the Somme traces the story of one of these battalions, the 55th, fro...

Korea was the first hot war of the Cold War. It was also Canada’s most significant military engagement of the twentieth century following the two world wars. Canada and the Korean War gathers leading scholars to explore the key themes and battles of a seminal yet understudied conflict.Canada had little stake and less interest in Korea before 1950, but the risk the conflict posed to the fragile postwar order was deemed too great for the country to stand on the sidelines. Al...

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 o...

Co-winner of the 2014-2015 Charles P. Stacey AwardTim Cook, Canada’s leading war historian, ventures deep into World War Two in this epic two-volume story of heroism and horror, of loss and longing, sacrifice and endurance.Written in Cook’s compelling narrative style, this book shows in impressive detail how soldiers, airmen, and sailors fought—the evolving tactics, weapons of war, logistics, and technology. It gauges Canadian effectiveness against the skil...

**Winner of the 2016 Ottawa Book AwardThe magisterial second volume of Tim Cook's definitive account of Canadians fighting in the Second World War.**Historian Tim Cook displays his trademark storytelling ability in the second volume of his masterful account of Canadians in World War II. Cook combines an extraordinary grasp of military strategy with a deep empathy for the soldiers on the ground, at sea and in the air. Whether it's a minute-by-minute account of a gruelling art...