The Apathetic and the Defiant: Case Studies of Canadian Mutiny and Disobedience, 1812–1819.

J.L. Granatstein is a history professor at York University and author of
War and Peacekeeping and For Better or For Worse.

The Canadian Defence Academy is the academic arm of the Canadian Forces, and its active publication program has produced a growing shelf of books. These two collections of essays indicate that controversial subjects fall within the Academy’s ambit, and this is a good sign that Canada has a healthy military. No frightened group of generals and admirals would commission essays on mutiny, insubordination, dumb insolence, and disobedience. Of course, sometimes it was the generals who were the mutineers, as Richard Walker demonstrates very effectively in his essay on the 1944 conscription crisis and the “generals’ revolt.” Walker goes some distance to proving that the revolt was no chimera, apparent only to Prime Minister Mackenzie King, but in fact deliberate disobedience that aimed to bring down the government if it did not implement conscription. Other essays range widely from the War of 1812 to the Somalia affair; they cover naval, air, and army subjects, offer full references, and are in almost all cases written well. These two books, ably edited by Craig Mantle and Howard Coombs, deserve a wide readership.