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The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering, and Remaking Canada's Second World War

door Tim Cook

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST for the 2021 Ottawa Book Awards A 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 toward the United States in matters of trade, security, and popular culture, which then sparked a desire to strengthen Canadian nationalism from the threat of American hegemony. The Fight for History examines how Canadians framed and reframed the war experience over time. Just as the importance of the battle of Vimy Ridge to Canadians rose, fell, and rose again over a 100-year period, the meaning of Canada's Second World War followed a similar pattern. But the Second World War's relevance to Canada led to conflict between veterans and others in society--more so than in the previous war--as well as a more rapid diminishment of its significance. By the end of the 20th century, Canada's experiences in the war were largely framed as a series of disasters. Canadians seemed to want to talk only of the defeats at Hong Kong and Dieppe or the racially driven policy of the forced relocation of Japanese-Canadians. In the history books and media, there was little discussion of Canada's crucial role in the Battle of the Atlantic, the success of its armies in Italy and other parts of Europe, or the massive contribution of war materials made on the home front. No other victorious nation underwent this bizarre reframing of the war, remaking victories into defeats. The Fight for History is about the efforts to restore a more balanced portrait of Canada's contribution in the global conflict. This is the story of how Canada has talked about the war in the past, how we tried to bury it, and how it was restored. This is the history of a constellation of changing ideas, with many historical twists and turns, and a series of fascinating actors and events.… (meer)

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Globe and Mail | Canadian Non-Fiction: Oct. 30, 2021 (8)

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This book is so thought provoking. The history of the remembrance of the second world war in Canada is fraught with, ironically, conflict. This book lays out the history of this political and social battles over how the war should be remembered and how we should honor those that sacrificed. I found myself growing exasperated over some of the fights, like why Veterans Associations would not want a holocaust section in a museum about the Canadian in world war 2. Or the refusal to differentiate between a baseball cap and religious headwear in veterans club policies. The author sometimes provides his own opinion which did not always align with how I felt about the issue being discussed. I question the authors use of the loaded term "activist history". He leaves this term vague and unexplained as to why he thinks activism and history are incompatable.

Those things aside, I really got a lot out of this one. I've read a lot about the second world war and I found I got a lot of insight from the book about Canada's post war history. I found it fascinating that many Canadian leaders involved with the war never wrote about their experiences leading to a lack of stories about Canada's contribution. The idea that the memory of the first world war over shadows the second world war in terms of remembrance symbolism and imagery is striking although I would like to move toward a time when those two wars are seen as a single long war with a 20 year armistice. I think that is the only real useful way of learning from why the second world war occurred in the first place. It is heartening to read about and witness Canada's contribution to the war generating more interest among Canadians today. I hope that it continues to be told in diverse ways, reaching to find untold experiences and new voices. (

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wolfe.myles | Feb 28, 2023 |

Cook, a historian at the Canadian War Museum, uses this volume to chronicle the lack of historical recognition for Canada's effort in winning WW II. Whereas WW I seemed important to Canadians because the Battle of Vimy gave them an event to focus on and especially as that battle is often call the event that made Canada. In WW II Canadian troops fought all over the world and made major contributions in Italy as well as Europe, Africa and the far east not to mention the Battle of the Atlantic.

Where would you put a memorial like the one that marks Vimy to this day. After the war, the government focus and settling vets and boosting the economy and veterans wanted to forget the war. As well there was little interest in building a memorial to commemorate the war.

Cook also writes about the many controversies that trouble Canadian veterans up to the present including Hong Kong POW's, apologizing to Japanese Canadians put in camps during the war, the Kurt Meyer case, an improved war museum, veteran benefits and the Valour and Horror TV series. (

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lamour | Mar 18, 2021 |

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST for the 2021 Ottawa Book Awards A 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 toward the United States in matters of trade, security, and popular culture, which then sparked a desire to strengthen Canadian nationalism from the threat of American hegemony. The Fight for History examines how Canadians framed and reframed the war experience over time. Just as the importance of the battle of Vimy Ridge to Canadians rose, fell, and rose again over a 100-year period, the meaning of Canada's Second World War followed a similar pattern. But the Second World War's relevance to Canada led to conflict between veterans and others in society--more so than in the previous war--as well as a more rapid diminishment of its significance. By the end of the 20th century, Canada's experiences in the war were largely framed as a series of disasters. Canadians seemed to want to talk only of the defeats at Hong Kong and Dieppe or the racially driven policy of the forced relocation of Japanese-Canadians. In the history books and media, there was little discussion of Canada's crucial role in the Battle of the Atlantic, the success of its armies in Italy and other parts of Europe, or the massive contribution of war materials made on the home front. No other victorious nation underwent this bizarre reframing of the war, remaking victories into defeats. The Fight for History is about the efforts to restore a more balanced portrait of Canada's contribution in the global conflict. This is the story of how Canada has talked about the war in the past, how we tried to bury it, and how it was restored. This is the history of a constellation of changing ideas, with many historical twists and turns, and a series of fascinating actors and events.

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