Global Force

Global Force

Author: David Forsyth

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1474402747

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This volume emerged from an international research colloquium jointly organised by National Museums Scotland and the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies, University of Edinburgh, funded by the Scottish Government and administered by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Historians and museum curators from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were invited to join with their Scottish counterparts to consider the functioning, and the meaning, of 'military Scottishness' in different Commonwealth countries and in Britain from the late Victorian period to the present day, with a particular focus on the impact of the First World War. Another key objective was to throw light on the 'hidden' culture of social networking which potentially operated behind local regiments and military units amongst Scotland's global diaspora. This edited collection provides a comparative overview of the nineteenth century emergence of military Scottishness and explores how the construction and performance of Scottish military identity has evolved in different Commonwealth countries over the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, it looks at the ways in which Scottish volunteer regiments in Commonwealth countries variously sought to draw upon, align themselves with or, at certain key moments, redefine the assertions of martial identity which Highland regiments represented.


Nova Scotia at War, 1914–1919

Nova Scotia at War, 1914–1919

Author: Brian Douglas Tennyson

Publisher: Nimbus+ORM

Published: 2017-11-21

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 177108524X

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An in-depth historical study of Nova Scotia’s role in WWI and its lingering impact on the region, its people, and its economy. Though the First World War ended in 1918, it continued to haunt Canada for generations. In Nova Scotia at War, 1915-1919, historian Brian Douglas Tennyson examines what was, for the people of Canada, an unprecedented period collective military trauma. As Tennyson demonstrates, the war effort didn’t end with the brave soldiers and sailors who went overseas. It also touched the lives of civilians who worked in the fishery, on the farms, and in the forests, coals mines, and steel mills. A specialist in early twentieth-century Canadian political history, Tennyson examines the economic impact of the war with incisive clarity. In an often overlooked cost of the conflict, it shattered Nova Scotia's dream of becoming the Atlantic gateway and the industrial heartland of Canada. This volume includes 30 black and white photos.


Shot at Dawn

Shot at Dawn

Author: Julian Putkowski

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 1990-12-31

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 147381815X

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This groundbreaking work of military history reveals the unsettling truth about British Army executions during WWI. The issue of military executions during the war has always been controversial, and embargoes have long kept historians from researching it. Julian Putkowski has spent decades uncovering the stories of mutinies and soldiers accused of desertion, and of the executions that followed. In Shot at Dawn, Putkowski and co-author Julian Sykes shed light on a practice that for too long has been shrouded in secrecy. They show that trials were grossly unfair and incompetent. Many of the condemned men had been soldiers of exemplary behavior, courage, and leadership who cracked under the dreadful strain of trench warfare. This acclaimed book is the authority on this shameful legacy.


Unwanted Warriors

Unwanted Warriors

Author: Nic Clarke

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2015-10-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0774828919

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Unwanted Warriors uncovers the history of Canada’s first casualties of the Great War – men who tried to enlist but were deemed “unfit for service” by medical examiners. Condemned as shirkers for not being in uniform, rejected volunteers faced severe ostracism. Nagging guilt, coupled with self-doubt about their social and physical worth, led many of these men to divorce themselves from society ... or worse. Nic Clarke draws on the service files of 3,400 rejected volunteers to examine the deleterious effects that socially constructed norms of health and fitness had on individual men and Canadian society. He considers the mechanics of the military medical examination, the psychical and psychological characteristics that the authorities believed made a fighting man, and how evaluations changed as the war dragged on. He also brings to light the experiences of those who deliberately claimed disability to avoid service – a minority within the large population of rejected volunteers who felt denigrated, if not emasculated, by their exclusion from duty.


Canadian Churches and the First World War

Canadian Churches and the First World War

Author: Gordon L. Heath

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2014-01-13

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1625641214

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Most accounts of Canada and the First World War either ignore or merely mention in passing the churches' experience. Such neglect does not do justice to the remarkable influence of the wartime churches nor to the religious identity of the young Dominion. The churches' support for the war was often wholehearted, but just as often nuanced and critical, shaped by either the classic just war paradigm or pacifism's outright rejection of violence. The war heightened issues of Canadianization, attitudes to violence, and ministry to the bereaved and the disillusioned. It also exacerbated ethnic tensions within and between denominations, and challenged notions of national and imperial identity. The authors of this volume provide a detailed summary of various Christian traditions and the war, both synthesizing and furthering previous research. In addition to examining the experience of Roman Catholics (English and French speaking), Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Mennonites, and Quakers, there are chapters on precedents formed during the South African War, the work of military chaplains, and the roles of church women on the home front.


Staff Ride Handbook For The Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863 [Illustrated Edition]

Staff Ride Handbook For The Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863 [Illustrated Edition]

Author: Dr. Christopher Gabel

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1782899359

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Includes over 30 maps and Illustrations The Staff Ride Handbook for the Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863, provides a systematic approach to the analysis of this key Civil War campaign. Part I describes the organization of the Union and Confederate Armies, detailing their weapons, tactics, and logistical, engineer, communications, and medical support. It also includes a description of the U.S. Navy elements that featured so prominently in the campaign. Part II consists of a campaign overview that establishes the context for the individual actions to be studied in the field. Part III consists of a suggested itinerary of sites to visit in order to obtain a concrete view of the campaign in its several phases. For each site, or “stand,” there is a set of travel directions, a discussion of the action that occurred there, and vignettes by participants in the campaign that further explain the action and which also allow the student to sense the human “face of battle.” Part IV provides practical information on conducting a Staff Ride in the Vicksburg area, including sources of assistance and logistical considerations. Appendix A outlines the order of battle for the significant actions in the campaign. Appendix B provides biographical sketches of key participants. Appendix C provides an overview of Medal of Honor conferral in the campaign. An annotated bibliography suggests sources for preliminary study.


Vimy Ridge

Vimy Ridge

Author: Geoffrey Hayes

Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press

Published: 2007-03-23

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1554580951

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On the morning of April 9, 1917, troops of the Canadian Corps under General Julian Byng attacked the formidable German defences of Vimy Ridge. Since then, generations of Canadians have shared a deep emotional attachment to the battle, inspired partly by the spectacular memorial on the battlefield. Although the event is considered central in Canadian military history, most people know very little about what happened during that memorable Easter in northern France. Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment draws on the work of a new generation of scholars who explore the battle from three perspectives. The first assesses the Canadian Corps within the wider context of the Western Front in 1917. The second explores Canadian leadership, training, and preparations and details the story of each of the four Canadian divisions. The final section concentrates on the commemoration of Vimy Ridge, both for contemporaries and later generations of Canadians. This long-overdue collection, based on original research, replaces mythology with new perspectives, new details, and a new understanding of the men who fought and died for the remarkable achievement that was the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Co-published with the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies


Black Soldiers in a White Man's War

Black Soldiers in a White Man's War

Author: Gordon D. Pollock

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2018-12-04

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1527522857

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This book investigates the story of 600 Black men from across North America and the Caribbean, who, in 1917, went to war in a labour unit, No. 2 Construction Battalion. Regarded then by senior Command as morally infectious, a century later they have become central actors in a powerful cultural myth, celebrated in folk tales, poetry, drama and text. Black Soldiers in a White Man’s War examines critically that mythical narrative. Based on service records of the 600 volunteers and 35 courts-martial in the unit, it probes the lives of these soldiers, who laboured in the forests of France during 1917 and 1918. Black Soldiers in a White Man’s War will shock some, but, for the majority of readers, it will present a fresh, vibrant portrait of a group of young Black men, who at a time of international crisis volunteered to fight the King’s enemies. It will also open readers to experiences these men faced as they returned to a post-war racist society.