Glasstry news

I'm glad the war is over.  Meaning no disrespect, but I found the Remembrance Day that marked the end of four years of the First World War centenary a bit of a relief. Canada's centenary observances since 2014 have been impressive and often moving, and they probably reached wider than I might have guessed four years ago. But I think we are getting ready to let the First World War pass into history, to become like the Napoleonic Wars or some other distant conflict: interesting, full of drama and event and historical significance, but capable of being considered a bit less personally now. The First World War did leave an enormous shadow over the 20th century. And new media and the digitalization of old sources have recently made it possible for almost anyone to immerse themselves in the specific details of the life and service of practically any soldier of the Great War, and even his or her family and community too. But it should be growing remote. The Civil War remains a live is...

I must say that when I saw Maclean's was going to publish a Remembrance Day issue with 66,349 different covers, each one with the name of an identified individual Canadian casualty of the First World War, my first reaction was surprise:  does Maclean's still sell 66,000 individual hard copies of any issue?  I can't remember the last time I have seen one. But since it evidently does, I'd say its a commendable contribution to the closing of the First World War centenary.  And since I do see Maclean's online, let me also give a shout-out to Jack Granatstein, who has been contributing since the late summer a relentless series of articles detailing the grim and bloody battles that constituted the Hundred Days campaign culminating in the Armistice.  Canadian troops made their greatest advances of the war during the Hundred Days -- and suffered 25% of all their casualties suffered during nearly four years in action.  Say this for Jack G:  he delivers.

I once read a review of James McPherson's history of the American Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom.  It argued that after a century and a half, McPherson had finally provided a one-volume history of the Civil War that was comprehensive, authoritative, dispassionate, and above parti-pris side-taking. On the strength of the review, I bought and read Battle Cry of Freedom , and while Civil War history writing has hardly come to a full stop (!), it does make a pretty impressive survey and useful reference. Maybe the world need a little more time to get to the same place with regard to the First World War.  I'm often impressed with Canadian accounts of the war that stress the vital contribution of the Canadian army to the Allied victory, when I'm aware that, say, British histories seem able to cover the same territory with only the barest mentions of a Canadian presence. Seems the Americans have the same "it's about us, why don't they admit it?" attitude, judg...

To mark the end of the First World War, Dundurn Press is bringing out They Fought in Colour , produced by the Vimy Foundation with image colourizing specialist Mark Truelove.  It's a book of 150 colourized images of First World War scenes in Canada and on the Western Front, along with interpretive essays by Margaret Atwood, Tim Cook, Serge Joyal, R.H. Thomson and others. Back to life? A colourized image of the First World War The colourizing of classic movies did not go over well a decade or two ago. Directors and film critics mostly hated to see Casablanca or Citizen Kane turned into Technicolour. For movies, the trend seems to have faded away.  But in this month's Canada's History , which reproduces a selection of images, Truelove and Vimy Foundation executive director Jeremy Diamond (a friend of mine for years, I should say, and I write for Canada's History too, full disclosure) argue for the relevance and utility of colorizing historical images for new audiences. C...

A soldier of the Great War, RIP August 8, 1918 Tomorrow, August 8, marks the centenary of the start of the "Hundred Days Campaign," which also means it is just one hundred days from the end of the four year long centenary of the First World War itself. The Hundred Days Campaign began with the Battle of Amiens. Canadian troops were closely engaged.  Indeed they remained closely engaged in what were (for the First World War) rapid advances that continued to the end of the war -- and suffered a substantial proportion of all Canadian wartime casualties, too. Canadian historians tend to point to the Hundred Days to affirm the vital role of the Canadians on the western front and in the final campaign in particular.  British, French and American accounts often manage to cover the same period without much attention to the Canadian contribution.  There's truth to both positions: the Canadian performance was very much right up at the sharp end, but in total numbers of troops engage...

Who'd a thunk it?  The Vancouver Sun notes the centenary of the shooting of union leader and conscription resister Ginger Goodwin -- and ends with an glimpse of how nasty and petty provincial politics can be in this country On July 27, B.C.�s NDP government proclaimed Ginger Goodwin Day to mark the 100th anniversary of his �untimely death.� The NDP has also renamed Hwy. 19 near Cumberland Ginger Goodwin Way. A previous NDP government had done so in the 1990s, but the provincial Liberals changed it when they got into power in 2001. Photo: From Vancouver Sun/Paul Rudan Update, August 20 :  I now see that Daniel Francis was way ahead of me on this story .