For King and Country: Alberta in the Second World War

W.J.C. Cherwinski is a professor of history at the Memorial University
of Newfoundland and the co-author of Lectures in Canadian Labour and
Working-Class History.

Initially designed to accompany a museum exhibit of the same name, For
King and Country elevates the western region to the position of a
significant player in Canada’s war effort, at home and abroad, during
World War II. Ten of the book’s 28 essays deal with Albertans overseas
in a variety of places and capacities; the remaining 18 concentrate on
Albertans at home and emphasize the impact of a major event on a large,
diverse community.

Whether by accident or design, Edmonton emerges from the book as the
key to Alberta’s, and indeed Western Canada’s, development. As the
last major established community on the long route north to Alaska and
beyond, the city became a hive of activity with a pronounced American
flavor. Steven Boddington and Sean Moir describe the nature of “The
Friendly Invasion,” while David Leonard’s piece on popular culture
assesses its impact. Patricia Myers’s essay on the British
Commonwealth Air Training Plan, along with two essays on POWs imprisoned
in the province, demonstrate that despite Alberta’s relative isolation
the war was never far away. Essays that grapple with social issues
include Michael Dawe’s “Community in Transition: Red Deer in the
Second World War” and Ken Tingley’s examin-ation of the nativist
Veterans Volunteer Reserve and its activities.

The chief failing of the volume is its implied assumption that the
attention of all Albertans was focused on the war to the exclusion of
all else. Consideration of political, religious, educational, and
nonmilitary factors would have made this examination of Alberta in the
Second World War a more comprehensive one.