Call for Papers on "War and Peace in Canadian History" Conference

The 2008 annual conference of the British Association for Canadian Studies History Group is scheduled to take place at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London, England, on Friday, 11 July 2008, under the theme of "War and Peace in Canadian History". The one-day conference is open to anyone interested in Canadian history and is expected to include scholars from Canada, Great Britain and the United States. Proposals for papers twenty minutes in length are welcome on any aspect of the conference's theme. The press release notes: "It is anticipated that topics will range from the very broad, e.g. peacekeeping in Canadian history to the quite specific, e.g. Canada's current role in Afghanistan. Proposals relating to Quebec will be especially welcome in view of the 400th anniversary this year of the founding of Quebec City. Proposals relating to other anniversaries, e.g. the Munich agreement of 1938, will also be welcome." The deadline for submissions is 30 April 2008 and should be a maximum of 300 words plus curriculum vitae. Registration will be free for presenteres, and 20 Pounds for other attendees. The point of contact is Tony McCulloch, Director of Canadian Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 1QU, by e-mail at tony.mcculloch@canterbury.ac.uk.

Conference on « la guerre et la ville »

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on « la guerre et la ville » to be held at the Université du Québec à Montréal on 13 November 2008. The release goes in to great detail about the conference:

Tout au long des siècles, l'histoire des guerres est associée à celle des villes. Lors de conflits, les cités sont souvent le lieu de refuge des populations. Par le développement d'infrastructures défensives ou le casernement de troupes, la guerre marque de son emprunte la cité en lui léguant, entre autres, des infrastructures militaires qui peuvent influencer son urbanisme et sa forme urbaine.

Le milieu urbain peut souffrir de la guerre, soit parce qu'il constitue un enjeu de conquête ou encore parce qu'il représente une aire de résistance à éliminer ; Québec en 1759, Washington en 1814 et Sarajevo dans les années 1990 en sont trois exemples. Lorsque la guerre se déroule en ville, l'espace urbain est réputé plus meurtrier pour les soldats, les obligeant, par exemple, à développer des tactiques spécifiques à ce contexte. La guerre a également des effets sur les frontières politiques, dont celles des villes (Berlin, après 1945 - Jérusalem, après 1948, etc.), ainsi que sur les populations qui les habitent.

Même lorsque les populations urbaines des pays en guerre se trouvent loin des conflits, leur vie est affectée par ceux-ci. Les restrictions (rationnement, pratiques de consommation, etc.), la mobilisation pour le soutien à l'effort de guerre (les industries de guerre, leurs travailleurs et leurs logements, les organismes d'assistance publique, etc.) et la présence des soldats sont des éléments qui modifient la vie sociale (culturelle, loisirs, etc.) et les comportements urbains. En temps de guerre, la ville est un lieu d'expression (manifestations patriotiques, etc.), de contestation et de débats publics sur la guerre (crises de la conscription, émeutes, manifestations anti-guerre, etc.).

Enfin, la ville est un lieu de mémoire et de commémoration de la guerre. On y retrouve des monuments (dédiés aux soldats, à une bataille, etc.), on y célèbre des héros militaires, on y parade (défilés militaires, etc.) et on s'y souvient (célébration du jour du Souvenir, etc.). La ville abrite aussi des musées militaires, des anciens ouvrages militaires devenus lieux patrimoniaux, une toponymie rappelant des événements et des personnes liées à la guerre qui marquent, par leur présence, la trame urbaine.

L'objet de ce colloque est de mettre en lumière la question de l'implication de la ville dans la guerre, mais aussi de l'impact de la guerre dans la ville. Les communications traitant de cette problématique pour le Québec et le Canada, ainsi que celles traitant d'autres aires géographiques à travers le monde, depuis l'Europe moderne jusqu'à nos jours, sont les bienvenues. Les résultats de ces échanges offriront certainement des possibilités de comparaison stimulantes et permettront d'enrichir la réflexion sur cette thématique.

Hosted by la Chaire Hector-Fabre d'histoire du Québec and le Laboratoire d'histoire et de patrimoine de Montréal, the organizers request submissions via e-mail before 28 April 2008, consisting of a title and presentation abstract of 250 words maximum, as well as a biographical note. E-mail submissions are to be sent to Isabelle Bisson-Carpentier or Mourad Djebabla at chaire-hector-fabre@uqam.ca.

Articles on Canadian Aboriginal Military History

I was recently able to get copies of a couple of recent publications from the Canadian Defence Academy Press, both concerning Aboriginal Canadians in Canadian military history.

Aboriginal Peoples and Military Participation: Canadian and International Perspectives (2007), edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer, R. Scott Sheffield and Craig Leslie Mantle, contains the following Canadian (as well as several non-Canadian subject) articles:

Robert Alexander Innes, "'I'm on Home Ground Now. I'm Safe': Saskatchewan Aboriginal Veterans in the Immediate Postwar Years, 1945-1946";

P. Whitney Lackenbauer, "Teaching Canada's Indigenous Sovereignty Soldiers...and Vice Versa: 'Lessons Learned' from Ranger Instructors";

Jaime Mishibinijima, "Aboriginal Identity, Leadership and Values in the Profession of Arms"; and

R. Scott Sheffield, "Canadian Aboriginal Veterans and the Veterans Charter after the Second World War".

Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Military: Historical Perspectives (2007), was edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Craig Leslie Mantle and contains the following articles:

Philip H. Godsell, "Red Men Dig Up the Hatchet (1941)";

Donald E. Graves, "His Majesty's Aboriginal Allies: The Contribution of the Indigenous Peoples of North America to the Defence of Canada during the War of 1812";

Bernd Horn, "'A Necessary Evil?': Indians as Allies in the Struggle for North America, 1754-1760";

P. Whitney Lackenbauer, "Canada's Northern Defenders: Aboriginal Peoples in the Canadian Rangers, 1947-2005";

P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Katharine McGowan, "Competing Loyalties in a Complex Community: Enlisting the Six Nations in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1917";

P. Whitney Lackenbauer and R. Scott Sheffield, "Moving Beyond 'Forgotten': The Historiography on Canadian Native Peoples and the World Wars";

John Moses, "The Return of the Native: Six Nations Veterans and Political Change at the Grand River Reserve, 1917-1924";

Grace Poulin, "Invisible Women: Aboriginal Servicewomen in Canada's Second World War Military";

D.C. Scott, "The Indians and the Great War (1919)"; and

R. Scott Sheffield, "Indifference, Difference and Assimilation: Aboriginal People in Canadian Military Practice, 1900-1945".

Last two issues of the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies

The Centre of Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary continues to produce its online Journal of Military and Strategic Studies. The focus of this periodical is, typically, oriented to current or future studies. However, sometimes it contains articles specifically directed at subjects in Canadian military history. This includes the following pair of articles from the summer 2007 and winter 2008 issues:

Ryan Flavelle, University of Calgary, "Help or Harm: Battle Exhaustion and the RCAMC during the Second World War" [direct PDF link]; and

P. Whitney Lackenbauer, "Carrying the Burden of Peace: The Mohawks, the Canadian Forces, and the Oka Crisis" [direct PDF link].

Latest issue of Canadian Historical Review

I've had a chance to look through the latest issue (vol.88, no.4, Dec 2007) of The Canadian Historical Review. No articles in this issue on Canadian military history subjects, but Donald R. Hickey's Don't Give Up the Ship: Myths of the War of 1812, Yves Tremblay's Volontaires : Des Québécois en guerre (1939-1945) and James A. Wood's We Move Only Forward: Canada, the United States, and the First Special Service Force 1942-1944 are the subjects of book reviews.

Michael D. Stevenson's "Recent Publications Relating to Canada", as usual, reveals several books and articles in Canadian military history recently published, including:

Tim Cook, "The Politics of Surrender: Canadian Soldiers and the Killing of Prisoners in the Great War", Journal of Military History, vol.70, no.3 (2006): 637-665;

Paul Dickson, "The Tragedy at Puys", MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, vol.18, no.2 (2006): 70-80;

Phil Giffin, "A Family Memoir: The Men of #2 Company, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, 1915", Manitoba History, vol.53 (2006): 45-49;

Joseph T. Jockel, Canada in NORAD, 1957-2007 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007);

Paul Morley, "An Air Gunner's Story", Journal of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society, vol.44, no.2 (2006): 54-59 and 72-73; and

Jon Parmenter and Mark Power Robison, "The Perils and Possibilities of Wartime Neutrality on the Edges of Empire: Iroquois and Acadians between the French and British in North America, 1744-1760", Diplomatic History, vol.31, no.2 (2007): 167-206.

Upcoming book on Sir Arthur Currie

Mark Humphries, a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario, sent me a message to let me know about an upcoming publication of his about to hit the streets. Mark has edited The Selected Papers of Sir Arthur Currie: Diaries, Letters, and Report to the Ministry, 1917-33 (Waterloo: Laurier Centre of Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, 2008). As the press release notes:

Sir Arthur Currie is Canada's most famous military commander. Probably the best corps commander of the Great War, Currie was also paranoid, insecure, and aloof. His personality won him few friends and many enemies. At the same time he was a devoted husband and father and protective of the reputation of the men who had fought under his command. Introduced and edited by Mark Humphries, this collection brings together selections from Currie's private diary (1917-1919), his correspondence (1917-1933), and his complete final Report to the Ministry.

This is the first time that Currie's papers have been published together in a single collection. What emerges is a vivid, human portrait of Sir Arthur Currie the individual and the troubled times in which he lived. Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook), Robert Borden, Harry Crerar, A.F. Duguid, Douglas Haif, Arthur Meighen, Edward Kemp, J.H. MacBrien, Mackenzie King, Victor Odlum, and George Perley are just some of the important figures with whom Currie maintained a voluminous correspondence. Currie's letters to them as well as various provincial premiers, religious, and political figures illuminate not only events at the front, but also Canada's war at home and the legacy of the Great War for Canadian society.

The book will be available for the LCMSDS Press of Wilfrid Laurier University and definitely looks like a must read.

A Reader's Guide to Canadian Military History

Library and Archives Canada has revised its online guide to publications in Canadian military history, "From Colony to Country: A Reader's Guide to Canadian Military History". In addition to the implementation of a new design, two new campaign themes - the Rebellions of 1837-38 and the Second World War - and material on Aboriginal Soldiers in the First World War has been incorporated. The revised series of campaigns discussed include: Canadian Military History: An Overview; War of 1812; Rebellions of 1837 and 1838; Northwest Campaign; South African War; First World War; and, Second World War. As the site notes, "Each military campaign has been divided into ten new subsections that contain texts, notes and bibliographic references." These subsections are: general references, government and the military, troops and traditions, personal stories, aboriginal peoples, multicultural communities, women, art, music and literature, commemorations, and web research.

Latest issue of The Northern Mariner

Vol. xvii, no. 1 (January 2008) of The Northern Mariner is out. This issue doesn't contain much of direct relevance to Canadian military history, mostly just a review of Jonathan Moore's Archaeological and Historical Investigations of Three War of 1812 Wrecks in Kingston, Ontario: HMS St. Lawrence, HMS Kingston and HMS Burlington, a very interesting sounding study dealing, as the title notes, with both the historical and archaeological aspects of the topic.

Index for Histoire Sociale / Social History

The website for the academic journal Histoire sociale / Social History, in addition to provide all kinds of information on the journal has an article index online for the issues published from 1994 to 2005. A quick perusal for material on Canadian military history reveals a handful of articles:

Kathryn McPherson, "Carving Out a Past: The Canadian Nurses' Association War Memorial", issue no.58;

Sean Mills, "French Canadians and the Beginning of the War of 1812: Revisiting the Lachine Riot", issue no.75;

Robert Rutherdale, "Send-offs during Canada's Great War: Interpreting Hometown Rituals in Dispatching Home Front Volunteers", issue no.72; and

George Sheppard, "'Wants and Privations': Women and the War of 1812 in Upper Canada", issue no.55.

Latest issue of The War of 1812 Magazine

The latest issue (no.8, February 2008) of The War of 1812 Magazine has been published online. The contents include:

Donald E. Graves, "Some Additions to Donald Hickey's List of 'The Top 25 Books on the War of 1812'" and "'For want of this precaution ... so many Men lost their Arms': Official, Semi-Official and Unofficial American Artillery Texts, 1775-1815", Part 4: "'Rouges et bleus': The French Artillery and its Literature, 1700-1800";

John R. Grodzinski, "Reproduction American Colours in the Great Hall at the Royal Hospital Chelsea";

Jon Latimer, "Smuggling and Contraband in the War of 1812";

Chris Wattie, "The War of 1812 Revisited"; and

a book review of Dianne Graves, In the Midst of Alarms: The Untold Story of Women and the War of 1812.