David Mackenzie – författare

One hundred years ago, Canadians went to the polls to decide the fate of their country in an election that raised issues vital to Canada’s national independence and its place in the world. Canadians faced a clear choice between free trade with the United States and fidelity to the British Empire, and the decisions they made in September 1911 helped shape Canada’s political and economic history for the rest of the century. Canada 1911 revisits and re-examines this momentous turn in Canadian history, when Canadians truly found themselves at a parting of the ways. It was Canada’s first great modern election and one of the first expressions of the birth of modern Canada. The poet Rudyard Kipling famously wrote at the time that this election was nothing less than a fight for Canada’s soul. This book will explain why.

The First World War is often credited as being the event that gave Canada its own identity, distinct from that of Britain, France, and the United States. Less often noted, however, is that it was also the cause of a great deal of friction within Canadian society. The fifteen essays contained in Canada and the First World War examine how Canadians experienced the war and how their experiences were shaped by region, politics, gender, class, and nationalism.

Editor David MacKenzie has brought together some of the leading voices in Canadian history to take an in-depth look into the tensions and fractures the war caused, and to address the way some attitudes about the country were changed, while others remained the same. The essays vary in scope, but are strongly unified so as to create a collection that treats its subject in a complete and comprehensive manner.

Canada and the First World War is a tribute to esteemed University of Toronto historian Robert Craig Brown, one of Canada''s greatest authorities on the Great War World War One. The collection is a significant contribution to the on-going re-examination of Canada''s experiences in war, and a must-read for students of Canadian history.

The First World War is often credited as being the event that gave Canada its own identity, distinct from that of Britain, France, and the United States. Less often noted, however, is that it was also the cause of a great deal of friction within Canadian society. The fifteen essays contained in Canada and the First World War examine how Canadians experienced the war and how their experiences were shaped by region, politics, gender, class, and nationalism.

Editor David MacKenzie has brought together some of the leading voices in Canadian history to take an in-depth look into the tensions and fractures the war caused, and to address the way some attitudes about the country were changed, while others remained the same. The essays vary in scope, but are strongly unified so as to create a collection that treats its subject in a complete and comprehensive manner.

Canada and the First World War is a tribute to esteemed University of Toronto historian Robert Craig Brown, one of Canada''s greatest authorities on the Great War World War One. The collection is a significant contribution to the on-going re-examination of Canada''s experiences in war, and a must-read for students of Canadian history.

This book examines the evolution of Canadian policy towards Newfoundland during the decade leading up to Confederation in 1949. The outbreak of war in 1939 produced relatively few changes in Canadian- Newfoundland relations but, in 1940, with the Allied collapse in Europe and the base-destroyer deal which introduced an American presence in Newfoundland, the Canadian government was forced to take a more active interest in that country''s welfare. Over the course of the war the Canadians increasingly provided for the defence of Newfoundland, and a vigorous effort was made to preserve and enhance Canada''s influence there.

From 1925 to 1950, Arthur Irwin was the driving force behind the success of Maclean''s Magazine, first as an associate editor, then managing editor, and, finally, as an editor. He had strong views on what it meant to be Canadian, and under his direction Maclean''s was moulded into ''Canada''s National Magazine,'' mirroring the development of Canada as an independent nation in the twentieth century. In the years before the outbreak of the Second World War, he was at the centre of the Maclean Company’s investigation of the Department of National Defence''s system of defence contracting, or what has become known as the ''Bren Gun Scandal.'' In the 1940s Irwin actively sought out writers of talent and potential and gradually added to the magazine''s staff many Canadian writers who went on to distinguished careers, including Ralph Allen, Pierre Berton, Blair Fraser, and Scott Young. After leaving Maclean''s in 1950, Irwin was appointed film commissioner at the National Film Board, during a time when the board''s survival was in doubt because of allegations of espionage and subversion. Irwin was the man called in to deal with the NFB''s ''red scare,'' and, afterwards, he reorganized the board and moved its operations from Ottawa to Montreal. Irwin subsequently went on to a career as a diplomat: he was appointed high commissioner in Australia, and ambassador to Brazil and Mexico. In his last professional position he was publisher of a Victoria newspaper. This book, in describing a man who was profoundly representative of his times, and whose presence in major Canadian institutions was influential, captures the mood of Irwin''s period, and raises important questions about the roots of present-day Canadian nationalism and cultural identity.