The Vimy trap, or, How we learned to stop worrying and love the Great War by McKay, Ian, 1953- author, Swift, Jamie, 1951- author instant download

The Vimy trap, or, How we learned to stop worrying and love the Great War by McKay, Ian, 1953- author, Swift, Jamie, 1951- author instant download

372 pages : 23 cm, \"The story of the bloody 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge is, according to many of today's tellings, a heroic founding moment for Canada. This noble, birth-of-a-nation narrative is regularly applied to the Great War in general. Yet this mythical tale is rather new. \"Vimyism\"--Today's official story of glorious, martial patriotism--contrasts sharply with the complex ways in which veterans, artists, clerics, and even politicians who had supported the war interpreted its meaning over the decades. Was the Great War a futile imperial debacle? A proud, nation-building milestone? Contending Great War memories have helped to shape how later wars were imagined. The Vimy Trap provides a powerful probe of commemoration cultures. This subtle, fast-paced work of public history--combining scholarly insight with sharp-eyed journalism, and based on primary sources and school textbooks, battlefield visits and war art--explains both how and why peace and war remain contested terrain in ever-changing landscapes of Canadian memory.\"--, Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-357) and index, Prologue: \"the dead on the field\" -- Myths, memories, and a creation story -- A great war of attrition and futility: a capsule history -- In the wake of war: experiencing and remembering -- The wounds of memory, the push for peace -- The contested politics of peace and war -- Sculpting the jagged edges of war: momentous questions, monumental decisions -- The long and winding road to vimyism -- Vimy: the emerging myth -- The landscapes of great war memory