Brave Soldiers, Proud Regiments: Canada's Military Heritage

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University, the
author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom,
and the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste. Marie.

Canadians, inside or outside the Canadian Armed Forces, who feel
dismayed by events in Somalia or Rwanda will find Brave Soldiers, Proud
Regiments a welcome antidote.

Allen Andrews praises Canadian soldiers of every description. Whether
Native, francophone, anglophone, Chinese-Canadian, or female, he
describes their heroic achievements at the Battle of the Plains of
Abraham, resisting the Americans during the War of 1812, standing guard
against Fenians, fighting Louis Riel, winning the Boer War and the two
World Wars, standing firm against Communist aggression in Korea, and
peacekeeping in Sarajevo.

In many respects, this very useful book serves as a reminder that
Canada does indeed have

a significant military history. The volume features biographies of such
well-known leaders as James Wolfe, Sir Isaac Brock, Guy Simonds, and
Lewis MacKenzie, but recognizes the heroic activities of the less famous
as well. It also includes highly readable accounts of numerous battles,
accompanied by photographs and excellent maps, and useful bibliographies
at the end of each section.

Regrettably, there is an absence of primary sources. There are no
footnotes or endnotes, and the bibliographies cite only published
material. (While the Whitakers’ defence of the Dieppe disaster appears
in a bibliography, Brian Villa’s critique does not.) Most seriously,
there is little attempt at balance. Andrews is quite right not to dwell
on the negative, yet the reader is left with the impression that despite
the unbroken chorus of praise, surely someone, somewhere, sometime must
have made a mistake or done something less than admirable.