History Commons^™

Soldiering On After The Armistice: Health, Work And Family In The Lives Of Some Canadian Army Medical Corps Nurse Veterans, Sarah Glassford

Canadian Military History

This article analyses the federal government pension files of forty Canadian women who nursed for the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC), exploring aspects of their health, work and family lives in the decades immediately following the First World War. The sample exclusively features nurses with ties to the region of Southwestern Ontario but in demographic terms is also largely representative of the entire body of CAMC nurses. Collectively, the files depict nurse veterans who mobilized their medical knowledge and professional networks when faced with challenging health situations, pursued diverse postwar employment strategies, and in some cases played crucial roles in …

Bearing Witness To Sacrifice: Death, Grief And Memorialisation In The Collections Of The Canadian War Museum, Teresa Iacobelli

Canadian Military History

This article presents a selection of artworks, archival material and artifacts from the Canadian War Museum (CWM) that illuminate how Canadians—soldiers and civilians— have experienced and endured war. By focusing on the themes of death, grief and memorialisation, these items convey how Canadians have borne the sacrifice of war, and the way in which those losses have been memorialised in ways both public and private.

Cet article présente une sélection d’oeuvres d’art, de documents d’archives et d’artefacts du Musée canadien de la guerre (MCG) qui illustrent la façon dont les Canadiens – soldates et civils – ont vécu et enduré …

“Such An Immoral Creature”: Widowed Women And The Board Of Pension Commissioners, Lyndsay Rosenthal

Canadian Military History

Widows’ pensions were a vital source of income following the loss of a spouse during and after the war. While soldiers enlisted with the promise that their families would be taken care of, accessing state assistance could be exceedingly difficult. In addition to proving their husband’s death was connected to their wartime service, widows also had to meet contemporary ideals about gender, sexuality and motherhood. These pensions provided more financial support than any other social welfare system available at the time. However, pension regulations governed widows’ daily lives and influenced major life events such as marriage and childrearing.

Indigenous Veterans Of The First World War And Their Families In The Prairie West, William John Pratt

Canadian Military History

This study of forty-five military pension files of Indigenous First World War veterans of the Treaty 4, 6 and 7 regions shows that the racist perspectives and structures of settler colonialism on the Prairies could prevent just administration of benefits. Pension files of Indigenous veterans expose the tragedy of their lives during and after the First World War. Many soldiers had lingering pains and ailments as a result of the war, as well as continuing problems shaking the gaze of settler colonialism, which seemed unable to view them as both Indigenous and veterans. Despite the numerous legal and cultural obstacles …

Je Ne Me Souviens Pas: Pensioned Veterans From French Canada’S 22nd Battalion, Serge Marc Durflinger

Canadian Military History

An examination of the pension files of men having served in the 22nd Battalion (canadien-français), the Canadian Corps’ only French-speaking line battalion, situates veterans into a specific ethno-linguistic and, more generally, socio-economic context. This article seeks to illuminate some of the many personal crises that could, and commonly did, afflict veterans, their families and their survivors. It demonstrates that beyond the devastation of serious physical or psychological wounding, many of Canada’s returned men, perhaps far more than we imagined, suffered persistent ill health, financial distress and family estrangement. Almost without exception, the sixty 22nd Battalion case files examined …

“Anxious To Be Restored”: Managing War Neuroses In Interwar Canada, Heather Ellis

Canadian Military History

Using newly available records from the Veterans Affairs Pension Files, doctors’ notes and Veterans’ Hospital records, this article explores how war neurosis was simultaneously a personal and public event. Veterans were required to describe symptoms that breached masculine ideals to demonstrate that their disability impacted their daily lives. Ex-servicemen were caught in a delicate balance between following the soldier ideal and describing their symptoms accurately. War neurosis not only impacted veterans in the private examining room of the pension administrator it also affected their ability to find and maintain employment and the lives of their family members. The more public …

A Generation Curtailed: The Lifespans Of Canada’S Pensioned Veterans Of The Great War, Jonathan Scotland

Canadian Military History

Despite long-time interest in links between the Great War and concepts of a Lost Generation, there have been few efforts to study veteran lifespans. The death dates of Canadian pensioned veterans recorded in the Department of Veterans Affairs pensions files, combined with those recorded in department’s death cards, offers an opportunity to quantify not just veteran life expectancy, but actual lifespans. The ensuing analysis of pensioned veteran lifespans suggests that research conducted in the mid 1930s by F. S. Burke for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which concluded that pensioned veteran life expectancy would exceed that of the average Canadian …

“When Wartime Friends Meet”: Great War Veteran Culture And The (Ab)Use Of Alcohol, Jonathan F. Vance

Canadian Military History

After the First World War, Canadian veterans created a culture that celebrated the camaraderie, sense of purpose, and light-hearted moments of their experience as soldiers. Much like the trench culture of the war years, it poked fun at misfortune, satirized the enemy, and presumed that a stiff drink could make any situation better. Veteran culture provided ex-soldiers in the 1920s and 1930s with the mutual support they needed to get through difficult times, but it was a milieu in which the excessive consumption of alcohol was accepted and even encouraged. This had little impact on the settled, well-adjusted veteran but …

“By Reason Of Age And Necessity”: Pension Claims Of Veterans Of The War In South Africa, Amy Shaw

Canadian Military History

Under the War Veterans Allowance Act (1930) some veterans of the War in South Africa (1899-1902) became eligible for support from the Canadian government. The terms of eligibility and the discourse around granting these pension allowances echo debates during the war itself, with a focus on the men’s physicality and an ambiguity about the country’s relations with the British Empire. The act required both military service and impecunity of the veterans it proposed to assist. The veterans’ interactions with the government, asserting both need and earned reward, position the Act as a significant point of transition in the country’s discourse …

Modernizing Midwifery: Managing Childbirth In Ontario And The British Isles, 1900–1950, Gwenith Cross

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation considers the differences, as well as the similarities, between midwifery and childbirth practices in Ontario and in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. Addressing the modernization of medical practices on either side of the Atlantic, the periodization of this project reflects the increasing concerns about maternal and infant morbidity and mortality alongside medical and political attempts to ensure the involvement of trained medical professionals during pregnancy and childbirth. In Britain, the establishment of the 1902 Midwives Act regulated midwifery so that only midwives approved by the Central Midwives’ Board were allowed to practice. British midwives …

Bas Bleus, Divorceuses, Deceitful Prostitutes Or “Live Allegories” Of Change? Parisian Working-Class Women And The Revolution Of 1848, Natasha A. Gardonyi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis acts as both a history of the roles that Parisian working-class women played as writers, society members and insurgents during the revolutionary year of 1848, and an analysis of why they were vilified in the press as bas-bleus, divorceuses, deceitful prostitutes and more extensively as the individuals responsible for the failure of the revolution. It argues that women became “live allegories” of the changes that Paris was experiencing in the first half of the nineteenth century, particularly when a small minority of women radicalized from late April to June. These women galvanized anxieties that men and the upper …

Theories Of The Self, Race, And Essentialization In Buddhism In The United States During The “Yellow Peril,” 1899-1957, Ryan Anningson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation is an intellectual history tracing developing notions of the Self in Buddhism through Buddhist publications during the years from 1899-1957. I define this time period as the Era of the Yellow Peril, due to common views in the United States of an Asian “other” which formed a larger clash of civilizations globally. 1899-1957 was marked by pessimism and dread due to two World Wars and the Great Depression, while popular and academic cultures argued for the validity of race sciences, and the application of these “sciences” through eugenics. Buddhism in the United States was created through a global …

The Making Of Astate In Waiting: The Lives Of Fatah Political Prisoners, 1967 To 1985, Rebecca Granato

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A State in Waiting? The Lives of Fatah Political Prisoners, 1967-1985 looks at the evolution of a Fatah prisoner movement inside Israeli prisons intended for Palestinian political prisoners. An under-researched area in Palestinian studies, this project relies on a combination of oral sources and anonymous documents drafted by prisoners during their internment housed at the Abu Jihad Museum in Abu Dis, Palestine. The dissertation argues that beginning in the 1970s and lasting into the 1980s a kind of collectivity emerged and came to define prisoner interactions and their day-to-day activities. Prison, and later system-wide hunger strikes are addressed in an …

An Environmental History Of Medieval Europe By Richard C. Hoffman, Geneviève Pigeon Dr

The Goose

Review of Richard C. Hoffman's An Environmental History of Medieval Europe.

Grassroots Consumption: Ontario Farm Families’ Consumption Practices, 1900-45, Andrea M. Gal

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Popular culture and academic perceptions typically view farmers of the past in one of two ways. On the one hand, we tend to emphasize their roles as producers of agricultural commodities, and marginalize or underemphasize their roles as consumers. On the other, we might believe that farmers were simply the passive recipients of broader societal trends and developments, and think that they followed in the footsteps of their urban counterparts. A small but growing number of scholars are engaging with these views, as they examine the consumption practices of rural North America. This historiography, however, is largely centered in the …

The Future Of Farming In Capable And Small Hands: The Young Farmer’S Movement In Waterloo Region 1907-1924, Morgan Williams

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Forest Prairie Edge: Place History In Saskatechewan By Merle Massie, Matthew Zantingh

The Goose

Matthew Zantingh reviews Merle Massie's Forest Prairie Edge: Place History in Saskatechewan.

The Reinvention Of The Canadian Armed Forces Chaplaincy And The Limits Of Religious Pluralism, Michael T. Peterson Rev. Dr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Reinvention of the Canadian Armed Forces Chaplaincy offers an analysis of how an historically Christian religious organization, one prominently sited within an important Canadian institution, adapted to pluralism. This research is the first to examine Canada’s military chaplaincy since Benham Rennick’s (2011) more broadly focused study of the role of religion in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). My study is the first to focus specifically on the chaplaincy and on the ways in which it has sought to develop and maintain a pluralist identity. I trace the process by which a legacy Christian institution developed a self-image as a …

For The Union Makes Us Strong: The İstanbul Metal Workers And Their Struggle For Unionization In Turkey, 1947-1970, Özgür Balkılıç

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT

This study is an examination of the history of organized metal labor in İstanbul, Turkey after the Second World War. It analyzes and displays the complex and intermingled historical processes within which laborers in the private metal sector of İstanbul experienced workplace relations and actively responded to them. In this regard, although recent immigrants to Istanbul were exposed to unfamiliar conditions and labor relations, they attempted to shape those new relations through several means, in particular through the establishment of trade unions. In an effort to provide a comprehensive picture of class formation in the metal sector after the …

Building Socialism From Below: Luxemburg, Sears, And The Case Of Occupy Wall Street, Holly Campbell

Social Justice and Community Engagement

For as long as capitalism has existed, people have struggled against it. However, despite the fact that anti-capitalist social movements have won important battles and at times created change, the global capitalist system remains largely intact, ever growing and expanding. How might waves of resistance help pave the way for a different economic and political system— one based upon the principles of accountability, equity, justice, and production for human need? This paper examines how anti-capitalist theories and writings, as well as a radically democratic social movement, can inform visions of a sustainable future that is productive, just, and built upon …

The Thompsons’ Town: Family, Industry, And Material Culture In Indiana, Ontario, 1830–1900, Laura Kathleen Quirk

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study considers the industrial development and subsequent decline of the town of Indiana, Ontario, during the years 1830–1900, a period of intense socioeconomic change and population mobility. This dissertation applies interdisciplinary frameworks, especially those derived from archaeological inquiry, in order to assess the documentary evidence and also the material culture of nineteenth-century Indiana, in the interests of understanding both the historic process of rural industrialization by means of a case study and also the elusive processes of social and familial interaction in the Ontario towns caught up by the swirl of socioeconomic change during this period. How, and why, …

The Caribou Hut: Newfoundlanders, Servicemen, And The St. John’S Home Front During The Second World War, Kenneth Tam

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

The Sense Of Duty: Canadian Ideas Of The Citizen Soldier, 1896–1917, James A. Wood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the amateur military tradition as it developed in Canada between 1896 and 1917, tracing the evolution of a citizen soldier ideal which had an enormous impact on the country’s experience of the First World War. Prior to 1914, the central dilemma of Canadian military development was to create an army that was both inexpensive and made only limited demands on its soldiers in time of peace, but that could be expanded in war to a strength that was adequate for the defence of the country. Before the First World War, a militia of part-time citizen soldiers seemed …

Keeping The Faith: The Presbyterian Press In Peace And War, 1913-1919, Michelle Fowler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

There has been very little scholarship in recent years which provides a detailed analysis of Christian support for the First World War in Canada. This work attempts to fill this gap with respect to the Presbyterian Church in Canada. It is a thorough analysis of the Presbyterian periodicals in war and peace between 1913 and 1919. The work is presented as a contribution to our understanding of Canada's Great War experience. One of the few academic articles which examined Protestant support for the war was the influential article 'The Methodist Church and World War I'. In this article, published in …

A Spirit Of Enterprise: The Western Fair Association, London, Ontario: 1867-1947, Inge Vibeke Sanmiya

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examines the evolution, function and role of London, Ontario's Western Fair Association. Spokespersons for the Western Fair proudly remind their listeners that the Fair is as old as Canada. During the period, 1867 to 1947, the Association grew from a one-event agricultural society into a sophisticated, multi-dimensional corporate entity with local, regional and international influence and significance.

Analysis of the Association's rise to prominence illustrates the Canadian public's changing relationship with modem technology. Initially, the Directors and promoters of the Western Fair incorporated the voice and authority of technological knowledge and advancement into the exhibitions, displays and competitions. …

'Our Glory And Our Grief': Toronto And The Great War (Ontario), Ian Hugh Maclean Miller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation studies the impact of the Great War on Toronto, Ontario. What happened in the city? How were the enormous sacrifices of the war rationalized? Why did English-Canadians support it? What did citizens know about the war? The dissertation draws upon a wide and varied source base. Every issue of the following newspapers was examined: the six Toronto daily papers, The Weekly Sun, Maclean's, The Industrial Banner, Everywoman's World, The Labour Gazette, and the religious periodicals of major religious denominations in the city. In addition, extensive searches were conducted in the City of Toronto Archives, the Archives of Ontario, …

Tradition And Memory In Protestant Ontario: Anglican And Methodist Clerical Discourses During Queen Victoria's Golden (1887) And Diamond (1897) Jubilee Celebrations, Garry D. Peters

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis examines the religious-patriotic discourse on Queen Victoria. the monarchy. and the British empire produced by the Anglican and Methodist clergy in Ontario during the celebrations for the sovereign's Golden Jubilee in 1887 and the Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Loyalty to the queen and the monarchy was shaped by the interplay between the received theological, ecclesiastical, and historical traditions of each church. its collective memories. and by the contexts which influenced the commemorations. The discursive representations of the queen, constitutional monarchy, and imperialism, embedded within the sermons and patriotic literature of the two churches, differentiated into separate patterns of …

Answering The Call For Reform: The Toronto And Montreal Chinese Missions, 1894-1925 (Ontario, Quebec), Jeffrey Paul Plante

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

Prostitutes And Prostitution: A Case Study Of “Disorderly Women” In Hamilton, Ontario, 1879-1886, Shelly Marie Blom

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This cognate essay examines prostitutes and prostitution in Hamilton from 1879 to 1886. It contends that the women who were arrested for prostitution offenses in Hamilton in that period were involved in the trade as a result of a number of factors working in concert. These factors included ethnicity, occupation, age, marital status, addiction and contemporary social structures and mores. In particular, women of Irish background and/or those who had worked as domestic servants appeared to be especially vulnerable to the streets. Once charged as prostitutes, these women faced further difficulty in being regarded as anything but “fallen” and deviant, …

The English Feminist Debate Over Protective Labour Legislation, 1880-1914, Leanne Baugh-Peterson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.