Each year I have some students who say that they are most interested in studying the world wars. Here is the chapter for them! However, while there is some focus in this chapter on some of the battles fought by Canadians and other aspects of the military experience, more attention is paid to Canadian society and to the challenges facing it and the changes that it went through. Wars tend to speed up change in society and that is definitely true of Canada in the world wars, both of which dramatically changed Canada, both internally and externally. 

Assignments

1. In 200-300 words, describe some of the major differences between Canada’s experience of the first world war (originally called “The Great War”) from that of WW II.  A portion of your comparison of Canada’s experience of the two wars may deal with Canada’s military contributions to those wars but you also need to focus on issues and challenges within Canadian society and on changes to Canada’s place in the world. 

2.  What question(s) came to your mind as your read about world wars