Granatstein, J.L.

English

Scholars Commons

Canadian Military History
Volume 3 | Issue 1 Article 15
1-23-2012
Canadian History Text Books and the Wars
J.L. Granatstein
York University
This Feature is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military
History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Granatstein, J.L. (1994) "Canadian History Text Books and the Wars," Canadian Military History: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1 , Article 15.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol3/iss1/15
Canadian History Textbooks 
and the Wars 
J .L. Granatstein 
A few years ago Robert Martin of the Faculty of Law at the University of 
Western Ontario wrote an op-ed article in the 
Globe & Mail for Remembrance Day. A 
graduate of RMC whose father was killed in 
August 1944 in the 4th Canadian Armoured 
Division's effort to close the Falaise Gap, 
Martin had picked up a reader on post-
Confederation Canada in an almost absent-
minded way. He was, however, furious to 
discover that there was nothing in the collected 
articles on the wars- except for pieces on the 
abuses of civil liberties suffered by minorities. 
Martin wrote in the Globe and Mail that he 
had lost his father at Falaise once; now he 
had lost him and his whole generation in the 
textbooks of the nation, a comment that 
stirred substantial outrage among veterans 
and provoked a deluge of abusive telephone 
calls directed at the unhappy editor of the 
reader. 
Of course, Martin was correct, as even 
the most cursory examination of texts and 
readers will demonstrate. War is out and, in 
an era that wallows in sexual and racial 
harassment prevention, abuse is in. Thus we 
can find articles on the "internment" (not 
evacuation) of the Japanese Canadians, on 
the mistreatment of minorities in the Great 
War, and on women in the factories in World 
War II. On the armed forces, on the battles in 
Hong Kong, Italy and Northwest Europe, 
almost nothing. The one exception is R.D. 
Francis and D .B. Smith's Readings in 
Canadian History: Post-Confederation, the 
fourth edition of which ( 1994) now finally 
includes a boiler-plate article on the events in 
each of the wars. This is, naturally enough, 
alongside articles on the pacifists, the "Bren 
Gun Girl,'' and the maltreatment of the 
Japanese. 
Texts are usually even worse. Francis 
and Smith's Destinies (1988) has one page on 
the "Fighting at the Front" in World War I and 
two and a half pages on World War II. J.L. 
Finlay and D.N. Sprague's The Structure of 
Canadian History ( 1989) manages three pages 
on 1914-1918 and one paragraph on the 
fronts of World War II. The most recent text 
to appear, Margaret Conrad and Alvin Finkel's 
History of the Canadian People ( 1993) is 
bleaker still. This book, the very trendiest of 
social history interpretations yet to appear, is 
dedicated to "our students" in the hope that 
"this is the kind oftext where they can identify 
something of their personal past." Their 
introduction denounces "the small elite of 
educated white men" who wrote previous 
textbook histories and whose interests 
"understandably turned to war and political 
developments in which they and their peers 
participated." (Does this not constitute 
gender, race and class stereotyping?) 
Conrad and Finkel's text is different, 
however, for it tries to show "the impact on 
ordinary Canadians of decisions made by 
elites." As their title suggests, this is a book 
by the people, for the people, and of the 
people, one designed to showcase the ordinary 
person's experiences. 
Given this as a goal, one might 
reasonably expect to find ample discussion of 
the two world wars, almost certainly the most 
important event in the lives - and deaths -
123 
1
Granatstein: Canadian History Text Books and the Wars
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1994
of Canadians in this century. Surprise, 
surprise. The battlefields of 1914-18 get part 
of six paragraphs and one long sidebar that 
must be the most extraordinary yet written 
on Canada's role in World War 1: 
The shortage of soldiers for the war 
effort was compounded by the 
exclusionary policies practised by the 
Canadian military. Despite the eager-
ness of some Canadian women to serve 
overseas, they were unwelcome on the 
front lines. The only official role for 
women in the armed forces was as 
nurses ... 
When Indian, Japanese or Mrican-
Canadian men offered their services, 
they, too, were often tumed away. 
The sidebar goes on to recount the history 
of the No.2 Construction Battalion composed 
of black Canadians. 
World War II is treated even more 
shoddily, only one paragraph detailing the 
combat efforts of the one million Canadians 
who served. Predictably, we are once again 
informed that "Although only men participated 
in combat, 43,000 women in uniform worked 
behind the lines ... " 
In other words, even in a textbook that 
purports to treat the experiences ofthe people, 
the wars are bowdlerized and all but omitted 
except insofar as they advance the 
maltreatment hypotheses ofthe authors. The 
homefront similarly gets short shrift, and the 
balance of what little does appear is 
grotesquely skewed. There is, of course, 
much more that is incorrect in this volume-
a colleague claims to have found seven errors 
in one paragraph dealing with foreign policy! 
What does all this mean? To me, it 
suggests that the pendulum swing toward 
social history interpretations which has been 
underway for a generation has now gone past 
the limit. If a text this bad can find a publisher 
and, so I am told, 25 adoptions in universities 
and colleges in its first year of circulation, 
then something is most definitely wrong with 
the historical profession in this country. It 
also means that unless and until teachers 
and readers such as Robert Martin complain 
bitterly in print and to the publishers, this 
nonsense will continue. It is time for the 
people to take back their history. Happily, to 
judge by enrolments in courses in military, 
political and diplomatic history in universities 
across the country, this is already in process. 
(The post -Confederation text in which J .L. 
Granatstein is a participant author, modestly 
omitted from this description, is different.) 
J.L. Granatstein teaches at York 
University and is a CMH Contributing 
Editor. 
The Cainpaign Chest 
124 
Purveyors of Fine Historical Books and Prints 
- fine selection of military and naval books 
Napoleonic Era, War of 1812, Civil War, 19th Century, WWI & II 
- limited edition prints by Troiani, Kunstler, Rocco, Umble & Fearnley 
- classic Cranston military prints 
- Stadden figurines 
- militaria 
1 King St. East 
DUNDAS 
Open: 10 am to 5 pm 
Wednesday to Saturday 
(905) 627-1815 L9H 187 
2
Canadian Military History, Vol. 3 [1994], Iss. 1, Art. 15
http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol3/iss1/15
Thev fight for you 
""' LT.-COL. DOLLARD MENARD, D.S.O., 
O.C. LES FUSILLIERS DU MONT .. ROYAL AT DIEPPE. 
Wounded five times by intensive enemy fire, he maintained 
his attack throughout. During withdrawal, exhausted by 
loss of blood, he still Insisted on organizing defences 
against enemy aircraft and looking after his men. 
3
Granatstein: Canadian History Text Books and the Wars
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1994


Canadian History Text Books and the Wars

Wilfrid Laurier University

Canadian Military HistoryVolume 3 | Issue 1 Article 151-23-2012Canadian History Text Books and the WarsJ.L. GranatsteinYork UniversityThis Feature is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian MilitaryHistory by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationGranatstein, J.L. (1994) "Canadian History Text Books and the Wars," Canadian Military History: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1 , Article 15.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol3/iss1/15Canadian History Textbooks and the Wars J .L. Granatstein A few years ago Robert Martin of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario wrote an op-ed article in the Globe & Mail for Remembrance Day. A graduate of RMC whose father was killed in August 1944 in the 4th Canadian Armoured Division's effort to close the Falaise Gap, Martin had picked up a reader on post-Confederation Canada in an almost absent-minded way. He was, however, furious to discover that there was nothing in the collected articles on the wars- except for pieces on the abuses of civil liberties suffered by minorities. Martin wrote in the Globe and Mail that he had lost his father at Falaise once; now he had lost him and his whole generation in the textbooks of the nation, a comment that stirred substantial outrage among veterans and provoked a deluge of abusive telephone calls directed at the unhappy editor of the reader. Of course, Martin was correct, as even the most cursory examination of texts and readers will demonstrate. War is out and, in an era that wallows in sexual and racial harassment prevention, abuse is in. Thus we can find articles on the "internment" (not evacuation) of the Japanese Canadians, on the mistreatment of minorities in the Great War, and on women in the factories in World War II. On the armed forces, on the battles in Hong Kong, Italy and Northwest Europe, almost nothing. The one exception is R.D. Francis and D .B. Smith's Readings in Canadian History: Post-Confederation, the fourth edition of which ( 1994) now finally includes a boiler-plate article on the events in each of the wars. This is, naturally enough, alongside articles on the pacifists, the "Bren Gun Girl,'' and the maltreatment of the Japanese. Texts are usually even worse. Francis and Smith's Destinies (1988) has one page on the "Fighting at the Front" in World War I and two and a half pages on World War II. J.L. Finlay and D.N. Sprague's The Structure of Canadian History ( 1989) manages three pages on 1914-1918 and one paragraph on the fronts of World War II. The most recent text to appear, Margaret Conrad and Alvin Finkel's History of the Canadian People ( 1993) is bleaker still. This book, the very trendiest of social history interpretations yet to appear, is dedicated to "our students" in the hope that "this is the kind oftext where they can identify something of their personal past." Their introduction denounces "the small elite of educated white men" who wrote previous textbook histories and whose interests "understandably turned to war and political developments in which they and their peers participated." (Does this not constitute gender, race and class stereotyping?) Conrad and Finkel's text is different, however, for it tries to show "the impact on ordinary Canadians of decisions made by elites." As their title suggests, this is a book by the people, for the people, and of the people, one designed to showcase the ordinary person's experiences. Given this as a goal, one might reasonably expect to find ample discussion of the two world wars, almost certainly the most important event in the lives - and deaths -123 1Granatstein: Canadian History Text Books and the WarsPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1994of Canadians in this century. Surprise, surprise. The battlefields of 1914-18 get part of six paragraphs and one long sidebar that must be the most extraordinary yet written on Canada's role in World War 1: The shortage of soldiers for the war effort was compounded by the exclusionary policies practised by the Canadian military. Despite the eager-ness of some Canadian women to serve overseas, they were unwelcome on the front lines. The only official role for women in the armed forces was as nurses ... When Indian, Japanese or Mrican-Canadian men offered their services, they, too, were often tumed away. The sidebar goes on to recount the history of the No.2 Construction Battalion composed of black Canadians. World War II is treated even more shoddily, only one paragraph detailing the combat efforts of the one million Canadians who served. Predictably, we are once again informed that "Although only men participated in combat, 43,000 women in uniform worked behind the lines ... " In other words, even in a textbook that purports to treat the experiences ofthe people, the wars are bowdlerized and all but omitted except insofar as they advance the maltreatment hypotheses ofthe authors. The homefront similarly gets short shrift, and the balance of what little does appear is grotesquely skewed. There is, of course, much more that is incorrect in this volume-a colleague claims to have found seven errors in one paragraph dealing with foreign policy! What does all this mean? To me, it suggests that the pendulum swing toward social history interpretations which has been underway for a generation has now gone past the limit. If a text this bad can find a publisher and, so I am told, 25 adoptions in universities and colleges in its first year of circulation, then something is most definitely wrong with the historical profession in this country. It also means that unless and until teachers and readers such as Robert Martin complain bitterly in print and to the publishers, this nonsense will continue. It is time for the people to take back their history. Happily, to judge by enrolments in courses in military, political and diplomatic history in universities across the country, this is already in process. (The post -Confederation text in which J .L. Granatstein is a participant author, modestly omitted from this description, is different.) J.L. Granatstein teaches at York University and is a CMH Contributing Editor. The Cainpaign Chest 124 Purveyors of Fine Historical Books and Prints - fine selection of military and naval books Napoleonic Era, War of 1812, Civil War, 19th Century, WWI & II - limited edition prints by Troiani, Kunstler, Rocco, Umble & Fearnley - classic Cranston military prints - Stadden figurines - militaria 1 King St. East DUNDAS Open: 10 am to 5 pm Wednesday to Saturday (905) 627-1815 L9H 187 2Canadian Military History, Vol. 3 [1994], Iss. 1, Art. 15http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol3/iss1/15Thev fight for you ""' LT.-COL. DOLLARD MENARD, D.S.O., O.C. LES FUSILLIERS DU MONT .. ROYAL AT DIEPPE. Wounded five times by intensive enemy fire, he maintained his attack throughout. During withdrawal, exhausted by loss of blood, he still Insisted on organizing defences against enemy aircraft and looking after his men. 3Granatstein: Canadian History Text Books and the WarsPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1994

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