History

This piece examines the constructed memories of the wife and a daughter of an air force subaltern, using oral history interviews to highlight their unique voices and explore their lived realities. Whole life history methodology reveals complexities and contradictions with regard to idealized families, generational differences, and polarized gender roles that might remain otherwise hidden when relying primarily on archival sources. This process peels back the idealized middle-class family of post-war elite proponents and it exposes points of intersection and difference with the historiography of Canadian Cold War families in general, and military families in particular. Their contrasting stories are not intended to represent the thousands of individual military family lives; rather, the reiteration of these oral histories highlights the unique McMillan family stories and reveals how military service, personnel policies, gender, age, class, education, culture, geographic location, pla...

This article analyses multiple, intertwining and layered motivations for the Royal Canadian Navy’s 1948 northern voyages into Hudson Bay. Drawing upon scientific papers, it adds to the existing historical literature about this voyage, showing how some officials and scientists attempted to utilize the voyage for humanitarian, social, economic and other purposes beyond security and defence. It also critically examines how a westernized masculine faith in science and technology drove Cold War anxieties and developments, justifying military and naval invasions of the sparsely populated northern areas. The article, moreover, exposes how the bipolar dynamic influenced decision-making, taking attention away from a vital consideration of local peoples, their lifestyles and the conservation of natural resources.

... True patriot: The life of Brooke Claxton, 1898-1960. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Bercuson, David Jay. PUBLISHER: University of Toronto Press (Toronto and Buffalo). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1993. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0802029841 ). VOLUME/EDITION: ...

This “lessons learned” article examines how emerging trends over time in the historiography of the Canadian Army have challenged and continue to challenge the white Anglophone masculine heterosexual culture which is especially associated with its combat units. This study began as an examination of the intersection between the historiography and the current priorities for sufficient female participation in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) which are intended to improve past abusive patriarchal practices and create effective and safe international interventions. Gender and sexual abuses were the initial foci, but the historiography revealed the interconnectedness of widespread discriminations against all “others”—defined here as anyone with a different gender, sexuality, race, language, religion, or culture. The article opens with a brief summary of evolving feminist ideas about security forces in general. It then delves into the historiographical trends which have demonstrated how syst...