Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers : Canada's Second World War Paperback / softback

by Jeffrey A. Keshen

Part of the Studies in Canadian Military History series

Paperback / softback

Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks

Description

It was the â€œGood War.â€ Its cause was just; it ended the depression; and Canadaâ€™s contribution was nothing less than stellar.

Canadians had every reason to applaud themselves, and the heroes that made the nation proud.

But the dark truth was that not all Canadians were saints or soldiers.

Indeed, many were sinners. In this eye-opening and captivating reassessment of Canadian commitment to the cause, some disturbing questions come to light.

Were citizens working as hard as possible to back the war effort?

Was there illegal profiting from the conflict? Did Canadian society suffer from a general decline of â€œmoralityâ€ during the war?

Would women truly â€œback the attackâ€ in new factory jobs and the military, and then quietly return home?

Would unattended youth produce a crisis with juvenile delinquency?

How would Canada reintegrate a million veterans who, policy-makers feared, would create a social crisis if treated like their Great War counterparts?The first-ever synthesis of both the patriotic and the problematic in wartime Canada, Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers shows how moral and social changes, and the fears they generated, precipitated numerous, and often contradictory, legacies in law and society.

From labour conflicts, to the black market, to prostitution, and beyond, Keshen acknowledges the underbelly of Canadaâ€™s Second World War, and demonstrates that the â€œGood Warâ€ was a complex tapestry of social forces â€“ not all of which were above reproach.