Programme for the 87th Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association

The Canadian Historical Association has published the programme for its 87th Annual Meeting, to be held at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, from 2 to 4 June 2008. The programme includes the following presentations of note to those interested in Canadian military history:

Andrew Burtch, Carleton University / Canadian War Museum, "Selling Canada: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation International Service, the Cold War, and Psychological Warfare, 1950-1970";

Mike Carroll, Grant McEwen College, "From National Self-Interest to International Peace: Canada and the United Nations Emergency Force";

Christian Champion, McGill University, "Colonial masculinities, military intellectuals, and the construction of national sentiment, 1925-29" (in category titled "Masculinity and Canadian Politics");

Tim Cook, Carleton University / Canadian War Museum, "Antiheroes, Soldiers' Culture and Negotiations of Power among Canadian Soldiers in the Great War";

Helen Dewar, University of Toronto, "Canada or Guadeloupe?: Conceptions of Empire in French and British Discussions of Peace Terms during the Seven Years' War";

Mark Humphries, University of Western Ontario, "On the Border of Cowardice: Defining Deviance during the Great War";

Chris Madsen, Royal Military College of Canada / Canadian Forces College, "Organizing a Wartime Shipyard: The Union Struggle for a Closed Shop at West Coast Shipbuilders Limited 1941-44";

Craig Leslie Mantle, University of Calgary, "Negotiating the Parameters of Power: Disobedience in the Canadian Expeditionary Force";

Colin McCullough, York University, "'No Axe to Grind in Africa': Violence, Racial Prejudice and Media Depictions of the Canadian Peacekeeping Mission to the Congo, 1960-1964";

Francine McKenzie, University of Western Ontario, "Peacemaking before the Second World War: Canadian Intervention in the Ethiopian Crisis of 1935";

Victor Rabinovitch, Canadian Museum of Civilization, "The Bomber Command Controversy and the Canadian War Museum: Perspectives of a Museum Administrator";

Kevin Spooner, Wilfrid Laurier University, "Race, (De)Colonization, and Canadian Peacekeeping in the Congo";

Meryn Stuart, University of Ottawa, "Military Nursing Sisters and Sexuality: The Letters and Diaries of F.W.W. Nurse Helen Fowlds";

as well as the business meeting of the Canadian Committee on Military History.

Military History Speakers' Series at WLU for Winter 2008

Note: Whitney Lackenbauer's presentation below has been delayed and will be rescheduled at a later date.

The Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Department of History at the University of Waterloo are co-sponsoring their Military History Speakers' Series for Winter 2008. The presentations in Canadian military history include:

Dr. Roger Sarty, Wilfrid Laurier University, "Forgotten Battles: Recovering the Story of Canada's Fight Against the U-Boats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1942-1944", 31 January, 7.00 p.m., University of Waterloo, Centre for Environmental and Information Technology, Room 1015;

Dr. Whitney Lackenbauer, St. Jerome's University, University of Waterloo, "Battlegrounds: The Canadian Military and Aboriginal Lands", 4 March, 7.00 p.m., Laurier Military Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University, 232 King Street;

Major Brent Beardsley, Canadian Forces Leadership Institute, "Lessons Learned from the Rwandan Genocide", 26 March, 7.00 p.m., University of Waterloo, exact location TBD.

New Books (February 2008) at Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada has released its new books list for February 2008. The list includes the following items of interest (including some that had not yet been released for sale) with respect to Canadian military history:

Peter Anderson, I, that's me: Escape for a German Prisoner-of-War Camp, 1915 (Reprint) (Ottawa: CEF Books, 2008);

Karen D. Davis, Women and Leadership in the Canadian Forces: Perspectives and Experience (Winnipeg: Canadian Defence Academy, 2007);

Robert Malcomson, Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813 (Montreal: Robin Brass Studio, 2008);

John Ernest Skuce, CSEF: Canada's Soldiers in Siberia, 1918-1919 (Reprint) (Ottawa: CEF Books, 2008); and

Andrew Theobald, The Bitter Harvest of War: New Brunswick and the Conscription Crisis of 1917 (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2008).

New book on the Broken Arrow story

Calgary historian Norman Leach has sent me a press release for his latest book, Broken Arrow: America's First Lost Nuclear Weapon, published by Red Deer Press in February 2008. The press release asks: "Did an atomic bomb lie undetected for years in coastal British Columbia?" The story Leach tells concerns the crash in northern British Columbia of an American B-36 bomber on a flight from Alaska to San Francisco in February 1950. Questions surround the presence of a nuclear weapon onboard the aircraft, its fate, the fate of the crew, and what actually happened during the flight and crash of the B-36. For further information on the book contact Val Burke-Harland, Associate Publisher, Red Deer Press, at val@reddeerpress.com or (403) 509-0803.

New Book on the Military History of Quebec City

A presentation was held this week at the Artillery Park Heritage Site in Quebec City by the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Josée Verner, to launch a new book, Québec, ville militaire, 1608-2008 / The Military History of Quebec City, 1608-2008. A collaborative effort by Parks Canada (André Charbonneau, Yvon Desloges and Larry Ostola) and Department of National Defence (Serge Bernier and Jacques Castonguay) historians, the book was published by Art Global out of Montreal. Its launch comes as part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City.

Book on Canadian and Newfoundland Women and the First World War

A call for papers on Canadian and Newfoundland Women and the First World War has been issued. As the press release notes:

As the literature on the First World War continues to grow, women’s experiences of this period remain largely obscure. This is particularly the case for Canadian and Newfoundland women, most of whom were non-combatants geographically separated from the battlefields by vast distances. Women were not bystanders in the war, quietly knitting for the duration: they were actively engaged in wartime society (and even part of the military, in the case of Nursing Sisters), deeply affected by the vagaries of war. The aim of this collection is to bring together major elements of women’s wartime experience, as a step towards meaningfully (re-)inserting women into the historical narratives of Canada and Newfoundland at war, 1914-1918.

The organizers of the project, Sarah Glassford (sglassfo@uottawa.ca) and Amy Shaw (amy.shaw@uleth.ca), invite submissions from scholars "whose work addresses any of the multiple ways in which women in Canada and/or Newfoundland experienced and responded to the First world War. We particularly invite work which reflects the racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious, class, and/or regional differences found among women in the two Dominions at that time."

Anyone interested needs to send an abstract of 250 to 500 words re their proposed paper and a one page CV to either editor in Word, WordPerfect, or PDF format, by 1 April 2008. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by 15 May 2008. The accepted papers need to 5,000 to 7,000 words aimed at a university level audience, formatted according to the Chicago style, no later than 1 October 2008.

Book review of Hoffmeister biography

Geoffrey Hayes, Department of History, University of Waterloo, has written a very interesting review of Douglas E. Delaney's The Soldiers' General: Bert Hoffmeister at War (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005) on the H-Canada discussion network.

Upcoming Canadian Museum of Civilization Lecture

The next presentation in the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation Internal Brown Bag Speaker Series will feature Pamela Peacock, from Queen's University, speaking on "Redcoats and Petticoats: Interpreting the Lives and Work of Women within a British Garrison at Fort Henry National Historic Site". The talk will take place on Thursday, 13 March 2008, at 12.00-1.00 p.m., in the Cascades Salon, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 100, rue Laurier, Gatineau, Quebec. For further information you can contact Rhonda Hinther, Curator, Western Canadian History, at rhonda.hinther@civilization.ca

Latest issue of the Canadian Military Journal

The Autumn 2007 (vol.8, no.3) issue of the Canadian Military Journal / Revue militaire canadienne has been published and, as usual, contains some material of particular interest to readers of Canadian military history, including:

Major Alex D. Haynes, "The Development of Infantry Doctrine in the Canadian Expeditionary Force: 1914-1918" / "Le développement de la doctrine de l'infanterie au sein du Corps expéditionnaire canadien : 1914-1918";

Commander Ian C.D. Moffat, "Forgotten Battlefields - Canadians in Siberia 1918-1919" / "Les champs de bataille oubliés - les Canadiens en Sibérie, 1918-1919";

as well as a couple of book reviews of note.

The Legion's Legacies website

I recently discovered a new (to me, at least) website built to incorporate visitor-submitted stories of Canada's veterans. The Legion's Legacies, describes itself as follows:

Our new online community allows everyone to post online stories of Canadian war veterans. Proud Canadians, who want to embrace the ideals that are brought forth on Remembrance Day, can share what it means to them personally.

This is your chance to share a family story, or adopt a veteran, post a tribute to our Canadian Forces and contribute to Canada's Legacy...by posting tributes of their sacrifice for our freedom.

The result of this ongoing project - will be a growing volume of connected stories, pictures, songs, educational resources and videos; a kind of Facebook meets YouTube for Remembrance.

A great resource for families, educators, students and veterans. No post is too small or seemingly insignificant. We encourage everyone to participate. Our tribute section is not meant to be legalistic in it's nature. It's about sharing what we (as Canadians) know and in some cases believe to be true. If your grandmother baked cookies for the young men on the front lines or worked in a munitions factory or served with the Resistance in Europe, she deserves to be remembered on our site! If your grandfather was a merchant sailor who bravely sailed the Atlantic Ocean during the war, or worked at home in the Civil defence corps, he deserves to be remembered on our site too!

This website includes the tributes, of course, but also links to other educational, historical, and military websites, as well as detailed instructions on how to post a tribute.

Museum exhibit on The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery

Tina Peplinskie, a reporter with The Daily Observer, has written a piece on the newspaper's website noting the opening of a travelling exhibit on the history of The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. The exhibit, titled "Canada's Gunners: The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery", is now open to the public at the CFB Petawawa Military Museum in Petawawa, Ontario. The exhibit includes artefacts and interactive technology from the collection of The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery Museum in Shilo, Manitoba. The CFB Petawawa Military Museum website has further details about opening hours and the length of time the exhibit will be hosted in the museum.

75th Annual Meeting of the Society for Military History

The draft program for the 75th Annual Meeting of the Society for Military History, to be held at Weber State University from 17 to 19 April 2008, has been posted online. Much to chose from, many very interesting looking sessions and papers. With respect to scheduled presentations in the field of Canadian military history, the pickings are pretty slim, but include:

Alexander Herd, University of Calgary, "Normative Rules, Pragmatic Rules: The Intellectual Development of Canadian Army Training from the Second World War to the Korean War";

Roch Legault, Royal Military College of Canada, "Confrontation in the Making: The Path to Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Lower Canada, 1821-1837"; and

Tabitha Marshall, Memorial University of Newfoudland, "Frontier Health: British Soldiers at Forts Niagara, Detroit and Michilimackinac during the American Revolution".

19th Military History Colloquium at the University of Waterloo

The call for papers for the 19th Military History Colloquium has been issued by the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, the Department of History of the University of Waterloo, and the Department of History of St. Jerome's University. This year's conference will be held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, from 1 to 3 May 2008. The topics for proposals can range widely through the breadth of Canadian military history and can cover all aspects of the subject. All scholars are welcome to submit proposals for papers, but grad students and recent grads are "especially encouraged to submit". One-page proposals should be submitted to Mike Bechthold via e-mail at mbechthold@wlu.ca by fax at 519-886-5057 or by snail mail at the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. The deadline for proposals is 22 February 2008.

Canadian Blog Awards 2007 - the final post

As you can see from the graphic in this post - and in the right column of the blog - The Cannon's Mouth finished 3rd in the "Best Military Blog" category of the Canadian Blog Awards 2007. My thanks to all of you who voted for this blog, as well as to the organizers of the Canadian Blog Awards for their work in recognizing the wide range of Canadian bloggers. There's some pretty amazing work being done out there - check them out. My congratulations to all those military bloggers who were nominated, especially to the winner in the category - The Torch - and the second place finisher - Military Mom at Home. Who knows, maybe next year the organizers of the award will institute a category for Canadian history blogs.

Once again, thanks for your support!