Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers: Canada's Second World War

Paul Dickson is a strategic analyst at the Directorate of Air Strategic
Plans, National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa.

Surprisingly few books are devoted to Canada’s home front during World
War II. Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers goes some way toward filling that
gap, not because it exhaustively covers all aspects of the wartime home
front or social experience, but because it addresses an imbalance.
Described as the “first-ever synthesis covering both the patriotic and
the problematic in wartime Canada,” the book aims to fill the gap in
the studies on Canada’s “not-so-good war.” It provides an
assessment of what the author describes as a “troublesome, even
sordid, side of Canada’s war experience.” The focus therefore is
primarily on the “sinners” rather than the saints or soldiers
(except where they fall into the former camp).

Keshen, who covers topics ranging from censorship to sexual attitudes
and venereal disease, asserts that the good war image of a patriotic,
self-sacrificing, morally upright citizenry (and soldiery) is
incomplete. There were those who were selfish and immoral, both by the
standards of the time and in absolute terms. Perhaps more important, the
standards were changing, a phenomenon that produced much anxiety and
reaction. The book’s themes suggest a society grappling with the moral
and social dislocation caused, or at least unleashed, by the war. Keshen
provides a compelling picture of a society undergoing and at the same
time resisting the wrenching social changes wrought by the war. The
nostalgic perception of wartime unity masked many rifts, not all below
the surface.

The range and variety of sources is impressive, and the book is rife
with statistics that illuminate the darker side of wartime Canada. The
assessment is national in its perspective, although Keshen notes that
regional and local studies would undoubtedly provide a different
picture. He hopes his work will provide the foundation for, or prompt,
these types of examinations. He is undoubtedly correct. Saints, Sinners,
and Soldiers is an important and persuasive counterbalance to the
standard view of wartime Canada.