The Canadian Way of War: Serving the National Interest.

Tim Cook is the transport archivist at the Government Archives and
Records Disposition Division, National Archives of Canada, and the
author of No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the
First World War.

Do the Canadian fighting forces, in their many incarnations and stretching back several centuries, have a distinct way of war? Are there principles of war-fighting, military doctrine, or operational activities that shape how soldiers approach their difficult job, and then how they carry it out on the battlefield? These are some of the questions at the core of this stimulating collection of essays. The volume’s editor, Colonel Bernd Horn, a prolific historian and serving officer, has turned to the accomplished historians at the Royal Military College of Canada—professors and students from the War Studies program—to explore these issues.

Many of the essays deliberately highlight how Canada has been shaped by war: from New France to the wars of the Empires, from the wars of survival against the United States to the willingness of Canadians to form massive expeditionary forces in the two world wars, Korea, and during the Cold War. These essays collectively remind the reader that the celebrated image of Canada as a nation of peacekeepers must be tempered with a healthy does of historical reality.

Tactics, doctrine, command, and military effectiveness run as themes through the general survey essays that span major wars or time periods. The pre-Confederation section is more episodic than it should be (although it almost always is in survey histories) and there is no overview essay for the Second World War—surely a strange omission. But the essays are well-written and based on a thorough reading of the secondary literature. This is a good historical summary of Canadian military forces, and would be profitable for those readers looking for historical insight to help explain the current fighting in Afghanistan, as well as future conflicts.