Clio's Warriors

Canadian Historians and the Writing of the World Wars

By Tim Cook
Categories: History, Military History, Canadian History
Series: Studies in Canadian Military History
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774812566, 352 pages, April 2006
Paperback : 9780774812573, 352 pages, January 2007
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774841252, 352 pages, November 2011
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774855051, 352 pages, January 2008

Table of contents

Introduction: Writing the World Wars

1 Documenting War and Forging Reputations, 1914-18

2 The War of Reputations, 1918-39

3 Clio in the Service of Mars, 1939-45

4 History Wars and War History, 1945-48

5 Official History, Contested Memory, 1948-60

6 Forging the Canon of Canadian World War History, 1960-2000

Conclusion: An Ongoing Dialogue

Notes

Select Bibliography of Official and Semi-official Canadian Histories

Index

Description

Clio’s Warriors examines how the Canadian world war experience has been constructed and reconstructed over time. Tim Cook elucidates the role of historians in codifying the sacrifice and struggle of a generation as he discusses historical memory and writing, the creation of archives, and the war of reputations that followed each of the world wars on the battlefield. Only recently have military historians pushed the discipline to explore the impact of war on society. In analyzing where the practice of academic military history has come from and where it needs to go, Clio’s Warriors plays a vital role in the ongoing challenge of writing critical history.

Reviews

One particular slice of Canadian historiography, however, has never adequately been examined: our official military historians…This is a strange oversight…Cook’s Clio’s Warriors: Canadian Historians and the Writing of the World Wars attempts to fill that gap and does so admirably – in fact, does so much more than admirably. Even if we accept that no history can be definitive, a meritorious few are destined for long and productive lives and Clio’s Warriors stands high amongst that rank.

- Roger Hall

One of the greatest elements for capturing the public’s attention about any given war is the historians themselves who write it… [Tim Cook] takes a unique look at this issue, which makes for a fascinating read for those looking to know the motivations behind Canada’s historians.

- A.C.