Victory 1945: Canadians from War to Peace

Penny E. Bryden is an assistant professor of history at Mount Allison
University.

Two of Canada’s foremost military historians have joined forces to
produce this generously illustrated volume commemorating the 50th
anniversary of the end of World War II. The book surveys the history of
the achievement of Allied victory in 1945 only briefly, and devotes
considerably more attention to the diplomacy of war and peace, the
politics of reconstruction, and the social upheaval that accompanied the
return to peacetime relationships.

Victory 1945 represents an uneasy marriage between the model of the
copiously illustrated coffee-table book and that of the equally
copiously footnoted academic reference book. While the authors have
clearly worked hard at finding a variety of photographs, posters, and
cartoons to fill the oversized volume, those searching for a pictorial
history of the war years will undoubtedly find their appetites merely
whetted. Morton and Granatstein have also attempted to provide a
compendium text that demonstrates their mastery of the relevant archival
sources and their knowledge of recent writing about the home front,
reconstruction policies, and the role of nonmilitary personnel in the
years during and immediately following the war. Readers with a scholarly
interest in the war, however, will not be able to trace the authors’
research through their references, which are not provided but only
alluded to in the final section on “further readings.” Thus, while
both a handsome and a well-written book, Victory 1945 provides only an
introduction to the rich visual legacy of World War II and the equally
rich library of academic assessments of its course and impact.