Studies in Canadian Military History

UBC - Series Logos - Canadian War Museum Logo


Series Editor: Tim Cook

The Studies in Canadian Military History Series, published in association with the Canadian War Museum, presents the best of contemporary scholarship to provide new insights into all aspects of Canadian military history, from earliest times to recent events. The work of a new generation of scholars is especially encouraged and the books employ a variety of approaches - cultural, social, intellectual, economic, political, and comparative - to investigate gaps in the existing historiography. The books in the series feed immediately into future exhibitions, programs, and outreach efforts by the Canadian War Museum

Showing 1-50 of 62 items.

Canada and the Korean War

Histories and Legacies of a Cold War Conflict

Edited by Andrew Burtch and Tim Cook
UBC Press

Canada and the Korean War synthesizes Canadian and global perspectives on a watershed conflict to explore its profound influence on international, diplomatic, and military history, public memory, and contemporary affairs.

  • Copyright year: 2024
More info

Boosters and Barkers

Financing Canada’s Involvement in the First World War

UBC Press

“Back him up! Buy Victory Bonds.” Boosters and Barkers examines the unrelenting financial demands of Canadian participation in the First World War, exploring the aims, methods, and implications of securing public support.

  • Copyright year: 2023
More info

Silent Partners

The Origins and Influence of Canada’s Military-Industrial Complex

UBC Press

Silent Partners delves into the shadowy world of security and national defence to shine a light on the influence they hold in Canadian society.

  • Copyright year: 2023
More info

Scandalous Conduct

Canadian Officer Courts Martial, 1914–45

UBC Press

Scandalous Conduct investigates the complex meanings of honour and dishonour as revealed by general courts martial and dismissal sentences in the Canadian officer corps during the First and Second World Wars.

  • Copyright year: 2022
More info

Building the Army’s Backbone

Canadian Non-Commissioned Officers in the Second World War

UBC Press

Building the Army’s Backbone reveals how the creation of Canada’s Second World War corps of non-commissioned officers helped the force train, fight, and win.

  • Copyright year: 2021
More info

Portraits of Battle

Courage, Grief, and Strength in Canada's Great War

UBC Press

Portraits of Battle combines biography and history to offer a nuanced perspective on the complex legacy of the Great War, as told through the stories of those who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

  • Copyright year: 2021
More info

An Army of Never-Ending Strength

Reinforcing the Canadians in Northwest Europe, 1944–45

UBC Press

This detailed analysis of how the Canadian Army sustained troop and equipment levels in Northwest Europe during 1944–45 demonstrates the vital importance of constant combat strength.

  • Copyright year: 2021
More info

Canada 1919

A Nation Shaped by War

UBC Press

With compelling insight, Canada 1919 exposes the ways in which the First World War shaped and changed Canada – and the ways it did not.

  • Copyright year: 2020
More info

Contact!Unload

Military Veterans, Trauma, and Research-Based Theatre

UBC Press

This important book explores an arts-based therapeutic approach to mental health care, bringing to light the journeys of contemporary military veterans as they adjust to civilian life post-deployment.

  • Copyright year: 2019
More info

War Junk

Munitions Disposal and Postwar Reconstruction in Canada

UBC Press

War Junk recounts the surprising history of leftover military munitions and supplies, revealing their complex political, economic, social, and environmental legacies in postwar Canada.

  • Copyright year: 2020
More info

Making the Best of It

Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the Second World War

UBC Press

Making the Best of It examines the ways in which gender and other identities intersected to shape the experiences of female Canadians and Newfoundlanders during the Second World War.

  • Copyright year: 2020
More info

Canada's Mechanized Infantry

The Evolution of a Combat Arm, 1920–2012

UBC Press

Canada’s Mechanized Infantry examines the challenges facing the Canadian Army as it transformed its infantry from First World War foot soldiers to a twenty-first–century combat force integrating soldiers, vehicles, weapons, and electronics.

  • Copyright year: 2020
More info

For Home and Empire

Voluntary Mobilization in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand during the First World War

UBC Press

For Home and Empire compares home-front mobilization during the First World War in three British dominions, using a settler colonial framework to show that voluntary efforts strengthened communal bonds while reinforcing class, race, and gender boundaries.

  • Copyright year: 2019
More info

Capturing Hill 70

Canada’s Forgotten Battle of the First World War

UBC Press

This richly illustrated book offers a multifaceted account of one of the most successful but overlooked Canadian battles of the First World War.

  • Copyright year: 2016
More info

The Empire on the Western Front

The British 62nd and Canadian 4th Divisions in Battle

UBC Press

Focusing on developments at the divisional level in Britain and Canada, The Empire on the Western Front casts a critical eye on how the British Empire transformed unseasoned volunteers into battle-ready soldiers for the Western Front.

  • Copyright year: 2019
More info

Fighting with the Empire

Canada, Britain, and Global Conflict, 1867–1947

UBC Press

This insightful collection untangles the paradox of mobilizing a Canadian contribution to Britain’s imperial wars – and forging a national identity in the process.

  • Copyright year: 2019
More info

Sovereignty and Command in Canada–US Continental Air Defence, 1940–57

UBC Press

The most thorough study of Canada–US command and control relations to date, Sovereignty and Command in Canada–US Continental Air Defence, 1940–57 traces Canada’s efforts to protect its sovereignty by retaining command over its armed forces.

  • Copyright year: 2018
More info

Crerar’s Lieutenants

Inventing the Canadian Junior Army Officer, 1939-45

UBC Press

This book illustrates not only the challenges many junior officers faced during the Second World War, it also points to the enduring problem of living up to the image of an ideal middle-class male.

  • Copyright year: 2017
More info

The Price of Alliance

The Politics and Procurement of Leopard Tanks for Canada’s NATO Brigade

UBC Press

The Price of Alliance balances high politics with military requirements in the first major reappraisal of Pierre Trudeau’s controversial defence policy.

  • Copyright year: 2017
More info

Reluctant Warriors

Canadian Conscripts and the Great War

UBC Press

The first in-depth examination of Canadian conscripts in the final battles of the Great War, Reluctant Warriors provides fresh evidence that conscripts were good soldiers who fought valiantly and made a crucial contribution to the success of the Canadian Corps in 1918.

  • Copyright year: 2017
More info

Invisible Scars

Mental Trauma and the Korean War

UBC Press

Invisible Scars explores the treatment of psychological casualties during the Korean War and the long-term repercussions for former soldiers living with trauma.

  • Copyright year: 2017
More info

Engaging the Line

How the Great War Shaped the Canada–US Border

UBC Press

Engaging the Line explores how the First World War forever changed the Canada–US border by examining reactions to increasingly strict security measures in six adjacent border communities.

  • Copyright year: 2016
More info

Creating Canada’s Peacekeeping Past

UBC Press

Creating Canada’s Peacekeeping Past delves into diverse representations of Canadian peacekeeping, including National Film Board documentaries, political rhetoric, and high school textbooks to show how peacekeeping became a symbol of Canadian national identity in both French and English Canada.

  • Copyright year: 2016
More info

The Weight of Command

Voices of Canada’s Second World War Generals and Those Who Knew Them

UBC Press

The senior Canadian officers of the Second World War learned how to fight a war on the job; for all of them, the weight of command was a burden to be borne.

  • Copyright year: 2016
More info

Zombie Army

The Canadian Army and Conscription in the Second World War

UBC Press

This book tells the story of more than 150,000 Canadians who were subjected to conscription during the Second World War, and how their experiences shaped and were shaped by the decisions of the generals and politicians who guided the country’s war effort.

  • Copyright year: 2016
More info

Sister Soldiers of the Great War

The Nurses of the Canadian Army Medical Corps

UBC Press

Award-winning author Cynthia Toman brings to life the experiences of Canada’s first women soldiers – nursing sisters who served during the First World War.

  • Copyright year: 2016
More info

Unwanted Warriors

Rejected Volunteers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force

UBC Press

This book uncovers the history of Canada’s first casualties of the Great War – men who tried to enlist, were deemed “unfit for service,” and then lived with shame, guilt, and ostracism.

  • Copyright year: 2015
More info

Maritime Command Pacific

The Royal Canadian Navy’s West Coast Fleet in the Early Cold War

UBC Press

One of Canada’s leading military historians recounts the story of the Canadian navy’s Pacific fleet during the tense years of the early Cold War.

  • Copyright year: 2016
More info

In Peace Prepared

Innovation and Adaptation in Canada’s Cold War Army

UBC Press

This book explores how the Canadian Army prepared for the possibility of a Third World War and how its innovations and adaptations laid the groundwork for the evolution of our national army.

  • Copyright year: 2015
More info

African Canadians in Union Blue

Volunteering for the Cause in the Civil War

UBC Press

A landmark account of the background, motivations, and experiences of African Canadian volunteers in America’s Civil War.

  • Copyright year: 2014
More info

Unlikely Diplomats

The Canadian Brigade in Germany, 1951-64

UBC Press

An original and critical account of the evolution of the Canadian Army and Canada’s relationship with NATO in the Cold War era.

  • Copyright year: 2013
More info

A National Force

The Evolution of Canada’s Army, 1950-2000

UBC Press

A groundbreaking reassessment of when, and why, Canada’s army broke away from its British imperial roots to become a truly national force.

  • Copyright year: 2013
More info

A Small Price to Pay

Consumer Culture on the Canadian Home Front, 1939-45

UBC Press

A long-overdue challenge to the commonplace assumption that the Second World War was a period of consumer austerity in Canada.

  • Copyright year: 2013
More info

Death or Deliverance

Canadian Courts Martial in the Great War

UBC Press

In this eye-opening account of military law in the Great War, courts martials emerge not as brutal, merciless dispensers of frontline justice but as courts capable of mercy.

  • Copyright year: 2013
More info

The Canadian Rangers

A Living History

UBC Press

A lavishly illustrated history of the Canadian Rangers and their evolving role as defenders and stewards of Canada’s remote regions.

  • Copyright year: 2013
More info

Cold War Fighters

Canadian Aircraft Procurement, 1945-54

UBC Press

In detailing the complexities of buying fighter aircrafts for the RCAF in the early years of the Cold War, Wakelam also sheds light on contemporary procurement issues.

  • Copyright year: 2011
More info

Labour Goes to War

The CIO and the Construction of a New Social Order, 1939-45

UBC Press

This book examines the explosive growth of the CIO in Canada during the Second World War, showing how cultural as well as economic forces were at work in the gritty work of union organizing.

  • Copyright year: 2012
More info

Give Me Shelter

The Failure of Canada’s Cold War Civil Defence

UBC Press

Give Me Shelter is a revealing examination of Canada’s efforts to prepare its citizens to face nuclear war, from 1945-63.

  • Copyright year: 2012
More info

Canada's Road to the Pacific War

Intelligence, Strategy, and the Far East Crisis

UBC Press

An intriguing account of Canada’s role as a Pacific power during the crisis that led to war with Japan.

  • Copyright year: 2011
More info

Corps Commanders

Five British and Canadian Generals at War, 1939-45

UBC Press

Corps Commanders explains how five very different Second World War British and Canadian generals fought their battles, and why they fought them in similar fashion.

  • Copyright year: 2011
More info

Defence and Discovery

Canada’s Military Space Program, 1945-74

UBC Press

A revealing investigation into the origins, development, and impact of Canada’s space program from 1945 to 1974.

  • Copyright year: 2011
More info

The Information Front

The Canadian Army and News Management during the Second World War

UBC Press

The first book on the public relations efforts of the Canadian Army during the Second World War.

  • Copyright year: 2011
More info

From Victoria to Vladivostok

Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19

UBC Press

Uncovers the forgotten story of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force – sent to Russia in 1918 as part of an Allied intervention to defeat Bolshevism – despite the objections of many Canadians who were sympathetic to the goals of the Russian Revolution.

  • Copyright year: 2010
More info

Canada and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1954-2009

Déjà Vu All Over Again

UBC Press

This insightful book offers an explanation for Canada’s uncertain response to US ballistic missile defence initiatives from the 1950s to the present.

  • Copyright year: 2010
More info

Militia Myths

Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921

UBC Press

Militia Myths traces the cultural history of the citizen soldier from 1896 to 1921, an ideal that lay at the foundation of how Canadians experienced and remember the First World War.

  • Copyright year: 2010
More info

Veterans with a Vision

Canada’s War Blinded in Peace and War

UBC Press

Illuminates the challenges faced by Canada’s war-blinded veterans and outlines the history of the Sir Arthur Pearson Association of War Blinded, an advocacy group for all Canadian veterans and blind citizens.

  • Copyright year: 2010
More info

Crisis of Conscience

Conscientious Objection in Canada during the First World War

UBC Press

The first and only book about the Canadian pacifists who refused to fight in the Great War.

  • Copyright year: 2008
More info

Renegades

Canadians in the Spanish Civil War

UBC Press

The definitive account of Canadians who fought in the Spanish Civil War.

  • Copyright year: 2008
More info

An Officer and a Lady

Canadian Military Nursing and the Second World War

UBC Press

Cynthia Toman analyzes how gender, war, and medical technology intersected to create a legitimate role for women in the masculine environment of the military and explores the incongruous expectations placed on military nurses as “officers and ladies.”

  • Copyright year: 2007
More info

Battle Grounds

The Canadian Military and Aboriginal Lands

UBC Press
  • Copyright year: 2006
More info
Find what you’re looking for...
Stay Informed

Receive the latest UBC Press news, including events, catalogues, and announcements.


Read past newsletters

Publishers Represented
UBC Press is the Canadian agent for several international publishers. Visit our Publishers Represented page to learn more.