Product Description

“I have called this period Canada’s Turbulent Years – turbulent not only because of the battles we fought on the African veldt, the ravaged meadows of Flanders, the forbidding spine of Italy, and the conical hills of Korea, but turbulent in other ways. These were Canada’s formative years, when she resembled an adolescent, grappling with the problems of puberty, often at odds with her parents, craving to be treated as an adult, hungry for the acclaim of her peers, and wary of the dominating presence of a more sophisticated neighbour.” – From the Introduction

Canada's twentieth century can be divided roughly into two halves. All the wars and all the unnecessary battles in which Canadian youth was squandered belong to the first — from the autumn of 1899 to the summer of 1953. From the mid-1950s on, Canada has concerned itself not with war but with peace.

The first war of the century, which took Canadian soldiers to South Africa, and the last, which sent them to Korea, bracket the bookends on the shelf of history. They have a good deal in common with, these two minor conflicts, whose chronicles pale when compared to the bloodbaths of the two world wars.

Canada's wartime days are long past, and for many, the scars of war have healed. Vimy has been manicured clean, its pockmarked slopes softened by a green mantle of Canadian pines. Dieppe has reverted to a resort town, its beaches long since washed free of Canadian blood. Nowadays, Canadians are proud of their role as Peacekeepers, from which they have gained a modicum of international acclaim the nation has always craved, with precious little blood wasted in the process.

In this monumental work, Pierre Berton brings Canadian history to life once again, relying on a host of sources, including newspaper accounts and first-hand reports, to tell the story of these four wars through the eyes of the privates in the trenches, the generals at the front, and the politicians and families back home. By profiling the interwar years, Berton traces how one war led to the next, and how the country was changed in the process. Illustrated with maps and line drawings, Marching as to War describes how the experience of war helped to bind Canada together as a nation and chronicles the transformation of Canada's dependence upon Great Britain and its slow emergence as an independent nation caught in a love-hate relationship with the United States.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #383578 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-28
• Released on: 2001-08-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

Amazon.ca
It was a half-century of unprecedented upheaval and, according to Pierre Berton, the most remarkable period of Canada's history. Between 1899 and 1953, three generations of young Canadians marched off to distant battlefields to fight in four different wars, none of their own making. Berton, Canada's most prolific historian and himself a veteran of World War II, chronicles these years in his 47th book, Marching As to War. Canadians spent nearly 30 per cent of this period at war, fighting on the sun-baked African veldt, the fields of Flanders, the beaches of Dieppe, and the Korean highlands. The half-century also saw Canada transformed from an agricultural nation beholden to the British Empire to an industrial powerhouse closely linked to the United States.

Berton sparks Marching As to War to life with his trademark colourful anecdotes and characters. Among them is Lt.-Col. William Dillon Otter, commander of the Royal Canadian Regiment in the Boer War. The incredibly insecure Otter, whose previous command experiences included two embarrassing battlefield defeats, led his men into a charge against hidden Boer sharpshooters who mowed down the Canadian line. Things got even worse during World War I, Berton says, when a "lunatic" named Sam Hughs was appointed Canadian minister of the militia. "He was the strangest, most maddening politician in all Canadian parliamentary history, and certainly the most disastrous," writes Berton.

Berton's underlying theme is that three of the four wars he chronicles were unnecessary and unjust. Canadians got involved, he says, because of duplicitous media propaganda campaigns and pressure from the superpower of the day. Their sacrifices are a lesson for future generations, he believes. "In the act of remembering," Berton was quoted saying after Marching As to War came out, "we should learn from the past so we can handle the future." --Alex Roslin

Review
“Pierre Berton entertained me royally. . . . Berton uses newspaper reports, memoirs, diaries and personal reminiscences with panache, leading us over vast historical terrain through the eyes of protagonists who were there.” -- Modris Eksteins, The Globe and Mail

“Berton has written the Canadian story with style and grace. . . . scintillating.” -- J. L. Granatstein

“A superb testament to Berton’s prowess as a writer and an historian.” -- Calgary Herald

“Chock full of keen observation and interesting detail; a glance back at war from one of the country’s most eminent popular historians.” -- The London Free Press

From the Back Cover
“Pierre Berton entertained me royally. . . . Berton uses newspaper reports, memoirs, diaries and personal reminiscences with panache, leading us over vast historical terrain through the eyes of protagonists who were there.” -- Modris Eksteins, The Globe and Mail

“Berton has written the Canadian story with style and grace. . . . scintillating.” -- J. L. Granatstein

“A superb testament to Berton’s prowess as a writer and an historian.” -- Calgary Herald

“Chock full of keen observation and interesting detail; a glance back at war from one of the country’s most eminent popular historians.” -- The London Free Press