tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47009074345286811132024-03-05T02:32:27.796-07:00Dustbin EpitaphLet the Past Bury its Dead.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger157125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-47997390593676838632016-11-20T13:52:00.000-07:002016-11-20T13:52:37.329-07:00Blog on New URL updatedThanks for visiting.<br />
<br />
This blog's content will slowly move over to <a href="http://www.dustbinepitaph.blogspot.ca/">www.dustbinepitaph.blogspot.ca</a><br />
<br />
Check out the most recent post about the explorer George Back:<br />
<a href="http://dustbinepitaph.blogspot.ca/2016/11/george-backs-ravens-20-april-1844.html">http://dustbinepitaph.blogspot.ca/2016/11/george-backs-ravens-20-april-1844.html</a><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-59624991686688875502014-12-13T10:36:00.001-07:002014-12-13T10:42:16.224-07:00URL Change<span style="font-size: large;">Just a note to those that are following this blog. New content for DUSTBIN EPITAPH has moved to </span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://dustbinepitaph.blogspot.ca/"><span style="font-size: large;">http://dustbinepitaph.blogspot.ca/</span></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for following the blog! </span><br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-25451372794618021482014-03-16T15:19:00.001-06:002014-03-16T15:31:32.566-06:00 Community, Piety, and Nationalism: St. Patrick's Day in Toronto during the nineteenth century<span style="font-size: large;">The Irish have long been considered a key component of Canadian society. Their population base was firmly entrenched as the largest immigrant group in the first half of the nineteenth-century. Today, the majority of Canadians celebrating St. Patrick's Day find an excuse to have a drink, wear some green, and proudly state one's Irish heritage, no matter how distant or diluted. In earlier times, however, much more was at stake during St. Pat's celebrations. Historians have shown that the meanings associated with St. Patrick's feast day varied a great deal during the nineteenth century, ranging from a sense of community, to Catholic piety, to Irish nationalism. With its large population of Irish Catholics, Toronto offers an interesting perspective on the changing nature of the day's celebration in Canada.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">From 1825 to 1845 nearly half a million Irish immigrants came to British North America, many of whom were escaping the plight of mono-crop failures as tenant potato farmers. In 1845, a new strain of potato blight spread through Ireland, and in three years nearly 800,000 people were dead.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">An officer wrote to </span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>London Times</i></span><span style="font-size: large;"> reporting the grisly details of the brutal conditions found in Ireland,</span> <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJU8krTOpvI53lhZ7IdirKw4UY-LZK0MuINaPvIhE0ie9jPvs1l9jD7I1BAx2pu-92ZFwr1SHNbTX6nMWaZJmnB8V5z6AikvndHwYoSb9LUmg3AesRMuOryc1HDgwDRS03gbuVjKkL_0k/s1600/1847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJU8krTOpvI53lhZ7IdirKw4UY-LZK0MuINaPvIhE0ie9jPvs1l9jD7I1BAx2pu-92ZFwr1SHNbTX6nMWaZJmnB8V5z6AikvndHwYoSb9LUmg3AesRMuOryc1HDgwDRS03gbuVjKkL_0k/s1600/1847.jpg" height="400" width="287" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Great Famine 1847.<i> Illustrated London News</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fever, [dystentry], and starvation stare you in the face every-where - children of ten and nine years old I have mistaken for decrepit old women, their faces wrinkled, their bodies bent and distorted in pain, the eyes looking like those of a corpse. Bodies are found lifeless, lying on their mothers' bosoms. I tell you one thing which struck me as particularly horrible: a dead woman was found lying on the road with a dead infant on her breast, the child having bitten the nipple of the mother right through in trying to derive nourishment from the wretched body. Dogs feed on the [half-buried] dead, and the rats are commonly known to tear people to pieces who, though still alive, are too weak to cry out....Instead of following us, beggars throw themselves on their knees before us, holding up their dead infants to our sight. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cited in Donald Mackay, <i>Flight from Famine</i>, 1990, p. 245)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">From 1845 to 1850 another 300,000 Irish refugees arrived in British North America. When the first few "coffin ships" arrived, great pity was expressed by British North Americans towards the suffering of the Irish, yet these sentiments were quickly replaced by fears of the effects of great numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants on colonial society. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Nativism against Irish Catholics, saw their religion as corrupt and conspiratorial, and their race as barbaric, ignorant and intemperate. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Scott W. See, "An unprecedented influx": Nativism and Irish Famine Immigration to Canada", </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>American Review of Canadian Studies</i> (December 2000)</span></span>, p. 437)</span>
At times the idea that the Irish would spread communicable disease was
extended to the moral realm, with one newspaper noting that the Irish
should be sent to the countryside as soon as possible to avoid "moral
contamination" in the cities.<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (See, p.442) </span>In
1830, the Orange Order came to Canada. Started by Ogle R. Gowan, the fraternity was
dedicated to Protestant dominance over Roman Catholics, and giving
patronage to its own members. In the later nineteenth-century violent
clashes came to typify relations between Orange and so-called Green
groups on important religious days.</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">By 1851, Irish Catholics comprised one quarter of the Toronto's population. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Scott W. See, "An unprecedented influx": Nativism and Irish Famine Immigration to Canada", </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>American Review of Canadian Studies</i> (December 2000), p. 434) </span> Irish Protestants could at times out-number Irish Catholics in the city that was known to some as the "Belfast of North America". Racist responses grew with the great influx of poor Catholics in the 1840s. In 1847, over 1,000 Irish Catholics died in the shanties built in the feverish poor district of Toronto called Cabbagetown.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_CH39QVyS5yclnhj-bKfh2pMLcWrr7CotSvl4V1MugPtVuSKRYYjWFZd3FuILva8nJdiHvs5AfLSVo5sIClXy4Y-4MdUggqBSo9oo-Tf-L-Qq7utj-_3ItlJikr9Z0JuHlpNAubT6Ktc/s1600/Stpats.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_CH39QVyS5yclnhj-bKfh2pMLcWrr7CotSvl4V1MugPtVuSKRYYjWFZd3FuILva8nJdiHvs5AfLSVo5sIClXy4Y-4MdUggqBSo9oo-Tf-L-Qq7utj-_3ItlJikr9Z0JuHlpNAubT6Ktc/s1600/Stpats.JPG" height="342" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Patrick's Society, Toronto, Speech. <a href="https://archive.org/stream/cihm_92495#page/n4/mode/1up">Internet Archive</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In his 1992 <a href="http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/hssh/article/viewFile/16699/15557"><i>Social History</i></a> article "St. Patrick's Day Parades in Nineteenth-Century Toronto: A Study of Immigrant Adjustment and Elite Control", Michael Cottrell notes that parades and processions for the commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne and the feast day of St. Patrick were linked to ethnic political and economic struggles. Cottrell suggests that from the forming of the St. Patrick's Society in Toronto in 1832, the celebrations grew from "low-key affairs - concerts balls and soirees - which brought together the Irish elite to honour their patron saint and indulge their penchant for sentimental and self-congratulatory speeches", to more sectarian public rituals of the 1860s. <span style="font-size: small;">(Cottrell, p. 60)</span> St. Patrick's day increasingly became associated with Irish Catholicism, as Protestants expressed nativist sentiments after the 1840s, and in the 1850s the Catholic Church itself focused the celebrations around the church mass. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e167/e004155517-v6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e167/e004155517-v6.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">"St. Patrick's Day Arch", Quebec City. </span> Andrew Merrilees, <a href="http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_tim=2014-03-16T20%3A07%3A11Z&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=3192735&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Apam&lang=eng">LAC </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Church services did not remain completely apolitical. In 1855, Father Synnott pleaded to his Toronto congregation,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Go on then, faithful, noble and generous children of St. Patrick, in your glorious career...keep your eyes ever fixed on the faith of St. Patrick which shall ever be for you a fixed star by night and a pillar of light by day - forget not the examples and memorable deeds of your fathers - be faithful to the doctrines of your great apostle. A voice that speaks on the leaf of the shamrock - that speaks in the dismantled and ruined abbeys of lovely Erin - yea a voice that still speaks on the tombstones of your martyred fathers and in the homes of your exiled countrymen - be faithful to the glorious legacy he has bequeathed to you.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (<i>Mirror, </i>23 March 1855, cited in Cottrell, p. 62)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGudBI4G1bRDKHbNzMytO1AK0CLWOJ5aSTd1tkmVAampD7L0GM0akGTq4d7RKf0hSLfBIWX0fGZjthVnFxRCiBzQojK5HhZk_bsHg0ue_jgvClkjRc9TpYJzusBFBRfe4ck9wGEnQfcDA/s1600/M930.50.1.610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGudBI4G1bRDKHbNzMytO1AK0CLWOJ5aSTd1tkmVAampD7L0GM0akGTq4d7RKf0hSLfBIWX0fGZjthVnFxRCiBzQojK5HhZk_bsHg0ue_jgvClkjRc9TpYJzusBFBRfe4ck9wGEnQfcDA/s1600/M930.50.1.610.jpg" height="320" width="274" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/M930.50.1.610?Lang=1&accessnumber=M930.50.1.610"><i>Coat of arms of Young Men's St. Patrick's Association</i></a><br />
<i> </i><a href="http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/explore.php?Lang=1&tableid=1&tablename=artist&elementid=00268__true">John Henry Walker (1831-1899)</a><a href="http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/M930.50.1.610?Lang=1&accessnumber=M930.50.1.610">Museum McCord</a><br />
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">With the influence of the Young Men's St. Patrick's Association, a fraternal organization which sought to provide a social life and connections for Irish immigrants, in the 1860s a more secular bent was added to the processions. "Religious hymns were replaced by popular tunes and secular emblems such as shamrocks, harps and wolfhounds were now more prominent than Catholic icons." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cottrell, 63)</span> The wishes of temperance from the clergy also gave way to the alcohol soaked festivities that the day is still associated with.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> It may be that the growing scale of parades as well as
their tendency towards drunkeness provoked the Orange Order to clash
with the parade in 1858, which resulted in violence and the death of a Catholic man from a wound by a pitchfork. This incident prompted the creation of the
Hibernian Benevolent Society of Canada, whose mission was
"assisting...their distressed members, attending them in their sickness,
and, in case of death, defraying their funeral expenses." </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(WS Niedhardt, <a href="http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/murphy_michael_9E.html">DCB</a>)</span></span> By 1863, they
had also organized for paramilitary self-defence. <span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a028762.jpg;pv23542da7fe0f90ed" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a028762.jpg;pv23542da7fe0f90ed" height="320" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Michael's Cathedral, TO, 1887<br />
Credit: Canada. Patent<br />
and Copyright Office / Library<br />
and Archives Canada / PA-028762a</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cottrell writes that the largest of St. Patrick's Day parades during this period in Toronto was that of 1863. The celebrations began the previous night with the Hibernian Benevolent Society's band playing Irish music on the march. The next morning, around two thousand persons marched to St. Michael's Cathedral and attended a sermon which reached its crescendo with the telling of the exploits of Saint Patrick and the need of the Irish to spread Catholicism globally. Cottrell writes that hereafter, "Religious obligation having been fulfilled, the procession then reformed and paraded through the principal streets of the city." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cottrell, p. 58) </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Here another speech was delivered, by the president of the Hibernian Benevolent Society, denouncing the British government in Ireland. He told the crowd that, "three-fourths of the Catholic Irish of this country would offer themselves as an offering on the altar of freedom, to elevate their country and raise her again to her position in the list of nations. Nothing could resist the Irish pike when grasped by the sinewy arm of the Celt."<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (<i>Irish Canadian</i>, 18 March 1863, cited in Cottrell, p. 58)</span> After all of this formal speechifying, the main procession broke up "into smaller parties and soirees which lasted late into the night." Cottrell emphasizes that St. Patrick's Day was the one day a year which Irish Catholics could "claim the city as their own and proudly publicize their distinctiveness on the main streets." (p. 59) In the process, Irish identity was reinforced, and associated with Home Rule or Catholicism depending upon the times and circumstances.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Despite these large processions in the early 1860s, the links between the Hibernian society and the Fenians, who sought Irish independence through attacks on British North America, resulted in several years without parades. The violence of the late 1850s had seen previous events cancelled, and with the Fenian raids of 1866, suspicion of the Irish community, and incarceration of suspected Fenians, many Irish-Canadians wished to maintain a low profile. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cottrell, p. 69)</span> The rounding up of Fenian sympathizers within the Hibernian Society further reduced their stature within Toronto's Irish-Canadian society.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Historians disagree as to the nature of the decline in St. Patrick's day parades in Toronto. <a href="https://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/hssh/article/viewFile/4335/3533">Rosalyn Trigger</a> has taken issue with Cottrell's suggestion that 1877 was the last public celebration of the day for more than a century. Noting that several large parades in the 1890s occurred, Trigger questions the argument that the decline of parades from the 1870s represent Irish assimilation. Drawing on American research, Trigger notes that while anti-Catholicism was a factor, the desire to send money to those suffering in Ireland prompted some Irish to abandon the parade out of frugality. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Rosalyn Trigger, "Irish Politics on Parade: The Clergy, Naitonal Societies, and St. Patrick's Day Processions in Nineteenth-century Montreal and Toronto", <i>Social History,</i> 37:74, 2004, p. 196)</span> Trigger agrees, however, with Canadian researchers who argue that in the 1880s and 1890s, Irish nationalism was diminishing in Toronto as Irish-Catholics hoped to participate in society, but retain their faith. Hopes were turned from Home Rule for Ireland to greater rights for Catholics in Canada.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e432/e010779463-v8.jpg;pv72db8bc66fe95e19" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e432/e010779463-v8.jpg;pv72db8bc66fe95e19" height="515" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: <a href="http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_tim=2014-03-16T20%3A09%3A08Z&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=2988413&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Apam&lang=eng">Library and Archives Canada</a>, Acc. No. 1984-4-849</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The meaning behind St. Patrick's day in Canada certainly fluctuated with the circumstances of Irish-Canadians, and was adapted to the needs of the community, and altered by international events. The day was central to Irish-Canadian identity, with themes of Irish Home Rule, or rights for Catholics in Canada entering into the discourse when these issues were imminent. On the 17th of March 2014, Canadian pubs will be abuzz with glossy-eyed Canadians in emerald attire, perhaps swaying to a Irish reel or two. Few will consider the historical context of the Irish in Canada: the flight from famine; violent nativist resistance; and interesting ways that Saint Patrick's Day has changed over the years.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-9659309050139510972014-03-11T09:49:00.003-06:002014-03-27T12:37:35.230-06:00The Innocent "Iyties": Soldiers' Perceptions of Children in the Italian Campaign<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Canadian historical memory of liberated Europe during the Second World War is dominated by themes of celebration, gratitude, and co-operation. The generously free-flowing Calvados unearthed from Normandy cellars, or the joyous Dutch street celebrations are the stuff of safe reminiscences of victors and victims. In the Italian campaign, however, a more uncomfortable narrative challenges these tropes. Here, racist language towards Italians, and perceptions of Italy as dirty and barbaric are not difficult to find in soldiers' letters. An exception to the rule, however, is found in Canadian consideration of Italian children, who are seldom included in condemnation, but often held up as innocent exceptions to an otherwise blameworthy, wayward, and unhygienic people.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ubcpress.ca/images/covers/077480923X.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ubcpress.ca/images/covers/077480923X.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ubcpress.ca/search/title_book.asp?BookID=3143">UBC Press</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Of the campaign in Sicily, Jeff Keshen writes in<i> Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers</i> <span style="font-size: small;">(UBC Press, 2004)</span>, his critique of the Canadian "Good War", that many interactions were "cordial, even warm, as the Canadians were often greeted as liberators." <span style="font-size: small;">(Keshen, p. 245) </span>Others, however, distrusted Sicilians, disdained the "squalid" conditions they lived in, and stole what they wanted from them, occasionally at gunpoint. Soldiers issued chits for payback which were signed by movie stars or cartoon characters. While many men reportedly rejected Sicilian women for their dark complexion, this did not prevent seven rapes by the end of July 1943<span style="font-size: small;"> (Keshen, p. 246)</span>. The poverty of the civilian population is illustrated in the payment of several cigarettes or tinned rations to women for sex. Children of the age of eight or nine would wander the streets to drum up business for prostitutes. The booklet that prepared soldiers for Italy stated that in regards to women, "the less you have to do with them the better." <span style="font-size: small;">(Quoted in Keshen, p. 248) </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Racist themes continued to mix with more favourable encounters across the straits of Messina. Of interactions on the Italian mainland Keshen records, "As in Sicily, there were many reciprocal exchanges between soldiers and civilian. But some Canadians considered the Italians, or "Iyties" as they called them, in the same light as they saw the Sicilians: chameleon-like in allegiance, crooked, and thus deserving of little consideration." <span style="font-size: small;">(Keshen, p. 248-49)</span> Here too, looting occurred, at times escalating to armed robbery, and justified by the perception that Italians were price-gouging the soldiers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Comments in Canadian censorship reports which pertain to Italians were seldom favorable. In December of 1943, the censors recorded that only 10% of references to Italians were positive. Especially in Southern Italy, the general attitude of soldiers was distrust, dislike, and disgust at the squalor that Italians were living in.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A comment from a member of the 3rd Field Regiment of Royal Canadian Artillery may serve to express the ethnocentrism of those familiar with sanitary conditions in Canada towards those in war-torn Italy: “These wops are a dirty filthy bunch, I wouldn't trust them as far
as you can smell them and that's a fair distance.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(December 1943, Library and Archives Canada, RG24 Volume 12,323)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There was, however, an exception to these harsh sentiments, found in sympathies expressed towards children. In December 1943, a British war correspondent wrote an account of sharing shelter in a home in Ortona with a handful of Canadian soldiers.<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">He reported, "The children clambered around the Canadian soldiers and clutched at them convulsively every time one of our anti-tank guns, located only half a dozen paces from the door of the house, fired down the street in the direction of one of the remaining German machine-gun posts. Soon each one of us had a squirming, terrified child in his arms." </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">(</span>Quoted in GWL Nichols, <i>The Canadians in Italy</i> (Queen's Printer, 1956), p. 331.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e432/e010783172-v8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e432/e010783172-v8.jpg" height="640" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a class="ui-link" href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/search/Pages/search-help.aspx#Title"><b></b></a>
<br />
<div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
Pte. Alex Livingstone Handing Biscuits to Italian Children .Copyright belongs to the Crown ; Credit: Canada. Department of National
Defence / Library and Archives Canada / ecopy<b><i>Library and Archives Canada Item no. (creator) </i></b>ZK-552 <br />
<div class="column70">
<div class="access">
</div>
<div class="access">
<div class="column">
<b><i>Archival reference no.</i></b><a class="ui-link" href="http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/result/arch.php?FormName=MIKAN+Items+Display&PageNum=1&SortSpec=score+desc&Language=eng&QueryParser=lac_mikan&Sources=mikan&Archives=&SearchIn_1=&SearchInText_1=R112-1459-1-E&Operator_1=AND&SearchIn_2=&SearchInText_2=&Operator_2=AND&SearchIn_3=&SearchInText_3=&Media=&Level=&MaterialDateOperator=after&MaterialDate=&DigitalImages=&Source=&ResultCount=10&cainInd=" title="Archival reference no. R112-1459-1-E"><b><i> </i></b>R112-1459-1-E</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5509ea6a1883401a3fad16a5f970b-800wi" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5509ea6a1883401a3fad16a5f970b-800wi" height="275" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Credit: Members of the Seaforth Highlanders<br />
sit down for their Christmas dinner.<br />
Photo: Terry F. Rowe / Canada.DND<br />
/ Library and Archives Canada / PA-152839)<br />
<a href="http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/albert-campbell/2013/12/snapshots-in-history-december-20-remembering-canada-at-the-battle-of-ortona.html">Toronto Public Library </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Christmas in Italy of 1943 was one which has gone down in the lore of Canadian military history, largely due to the press reportage of the time. The official historian G.W.L. Nicholson broke from his battle narrative to describe the occasion. He accounted, "Long after the lessons of Ortona recede into the pages of military textbooks men who were there will remember how, despite their joyless surroundings, the two Canadian battalions [the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and the Loyal Edmonton Regiment] observed Christmas day. Nothing could be less Christmas-like than the acrid smell of cordite overhanging Ortona's rubble barricades, the thunder of collapsing walls and the blinding dust and smoke which darkened the alleys in which Canadians and Germans were locked in grim hand-to-hand struggle." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(GWL Nichols, <i>The Canadians in Italy</i> (Queen's Printer, 1956), p. 329) </span>Of the men who were rotated out of the line for a Christmas feast, the Seaforths' war diarist wrote, "The expression on the faces of the dirty bearded men as they entered the building was a reward that those responsible are never likely to forget. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Quoted in Nicholson, p. 330)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For most soldiers of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, letters included more references to children than Christmas parties in and of themselves. A member of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Regiment wrote of the feasting, </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Most of us had an Italian child with us – they were very happy
Darling believe me but they were so glad to get a dinner. They would
have framed the plate if they could of. It makes one feel like
crying to see them eat.</span> <span style="font-size: small;">(Dec. 1943, RG24, Vol 12,323)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a144105-v6.jpg;pvf2d5a3e1a6ec806a" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a144105-v6.jpg;pvf2d5a3e1a6ec806a" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a class="ui-link" href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/search/Pages/search-help.aspx#Title"><b></b></a>
<br />
<div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
Trooper Ralph Catherall of The Calgary Regiment
giving food to an Italian child, Volturara, Italy, 3 October 1943.Credit: Lieut. Jack H. Smith / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-144105
</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Canadian
letters generally blamed Italians for the state of their war-ravaged
country, but were willing to make exceptions for youth. The postal
censors wrote in February 1944:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
plight of small under-nourished children is often mentioned and
children are regarded with sympathy and understanding as the
unfortunate victims of conditions for which their parents are wholly
responsible. Although certain individual kindnesses are appreciated,
the general attitude to the adult population never seems to be free
of a feeling of suspicion and distrust.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Men are very often appalled with the insanitary and dirty conditions
existing in the Italian villages and it forms a never-ending theme in
letters home.</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Feb. 1944, RG24 Volume 12,323)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Praise for children was not universal. In March 1944, a member of 2nd Canadian Armoured Regiment wrote, “It doesn't matter how good you treat the Wops they will always
come right back and stab you in the back. We feed all the kids
around here but they still steal everything they can get their hands
on.” <span style="font-size: small;">(March 1944, </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">RG24 Volume 12,323</span></span>)</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It seems that it was involvement with partisans in the battles breaking the Gothic Line and beyond that finally changed the opinions of soldiers towards Italians. The censor wrote in November 1944, <span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-style: normal;">A number of forward units have
recently been in contact with Italian partisans, and, in their case,
a marked change in the usual unfavourable attitude towards local
inhabitants has been noted. They have nothing but praise for the
work done by these guerrillas.”</span></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a173569-v6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a173569-v6.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Troopers W. Balinnan and A. Gallant of a Canadian reconnaissance
regiment speaking to partisans Louisa and Italo Cristofori after the
capture of Bagnacavallo, Italy, 3 January 1945.
Credit: Capt. Alex M. Stirton / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-173569</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span id="goog_1048475224"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1048475225"></span><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In December 1944, the chief censor's report wrote that relations with Italians in the villages of the North were cordial, and the mail contained frequent reference to the hospitality and cooperation of partisans. An officer of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada wrote of a kindness alongside racist references, writing, </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">“Despite what these rough tough Canadians say about these 'gawdamn
Wops' they treat them royally and the kids never go without
chocolate.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Attitudes towards Italians were mitigated by the passage of time since their co-belligerency against the Allied cause, and by partisan willingness to risk their lives fighting against the Germans. The ethnocentric judgement of living conditions found in early letters from the campaign tapered off as Canadians themselves were forced to live in the mud and ruined remnants of Italian homes. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Children encountered in the campaign were treated with a generosity often not extended to adults. Young people were interpreted as innocent of Italian transgressions earlier in the war, and reminded soldiers of young friends and family members left behind on the homefront. They served as ambassadors between two cultures, softening soldiers to a "foreign" people, and providing a way to break down tensions and hostilities between Canadians and Italians. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-75970834761008115532014-02-25T15:30:00.001-07:002014-02-25T19:45:02.574-07:00Hyperbole, Sarcasm and Fatalism: Canadian Humour in the Italian Campaign 1943-45<span style="font-size: large;">Stephen Leacock wrote in <i>Humour and Humanity</i> that humour approaches indifference or cruelty, but is softened by its link to<i> pathos</i> in its compassion and pity. This union, he claimed, was what prevented humour from "breaking into guffaws" in callous mockery, or "subsiding into sobs", in commiseration. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Gerald Lynch, <a href="http://books.google.ca.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/books?id=SmxRWqcExpUC&lpg=PA42&ots=X_a9ZgDesh&dq=quotes%20on%20humour%20leacock%5D%5C&pg=PA42#v=onepage&q=quotes%20on%20humour%20leacock%5D%5C&f=false">Stephen Leacock: Humour and Humanity</a> McGill Queens: 1988.) </span>Both the anger and the sadness of humour is found in the censored letters of Canadian soldiers in the Italian campaign. Men on campaign wrote home with exaggerated criticism of army policy, and told stories of their fellow soldiers' humour relieving the most pitiable circumstances. Both the cruelty and the sorrow of war lies sublimated below the rough surface of their sarcastic and often biting humour.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/97980493.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/97980493.png" height="640" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Cook gave a lecture at Trent in 2009 on Soldiers' Humour.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Tim Cook recently published an interesting article on humour in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, arguing that humour was a way to release tension and survive the horrific conditions and experiences on the Western Front. The article, "'I will meet the world with a smile and a Joke': Canadian Soldiers Humour in the Great War" in <a href="http://canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/category/cmh/"><i>Canadian Military History</i></a>, <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Spring 2013) </span>argues that while the lasting memory of the First World War, constructed by poets such as Siegfried Sassoon and perpetuated in print and on film ever since, has been that of pointless carnage and suffering, that soldiers' writings provide an important adjunct to this somber tone. Cook writes that soldiers' humour was by no means uniform, but that themes can be drawn from the wide corpus of personal testimony including: justification of the killing process; masculine teasing; gallows humour which hoped to "trivialize the terrifying"; mockery of the heroic and patriotic rhetoric of the war; masculine teasing; and plain bawdy lewdness and silliness.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In Italy, attempts to relieve the stress of battle are clear in an account of the crossing of the Moro River. </span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In December 1943, a member of the 3rd Field Company of Royal Canadian Engineers wrote at length of the sappers under his command who made light of his attempts to sooth their concerns at being under fire while bridging the river on the outskirts of Ortona:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="western" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">We have been having a ding-dong, knock-em-out-drag-em out battle
with Jerry the last little while and are still advancing so I guess
we are better than he is at this war game. All the advantage is on
his side. Hills and rivers forming natural obstacles for him to
defend and we to overcome. We had quite a job about a week ago
getting over a river but did get over it amid much praise from
General Montgomery down. I was explaining to the boys that getting
to the job was the worst part and on the job we would be as safe as
in a church. A sapper pipes up and wants to know if I have any
particular church in mind, quite humorous under the conditions. When
we got to the job we came under machine gun fire and again the great
fatalist tried to explain that if one had your number on it you got
it, if not you would not. A sapper said he wasn't ascaird of the one
with a number on it, it was the one addressed 'To whom it may
concern' which worried him. Humor comes out in the strangest
places. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Library and Archives Canada, RG24 Vol. 10,705)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNb5PsEWFYUBozDerCmsu1-evTzWzTkDtexKcFHshgXfy_hpZAFqP5bCJNMOtPiNgAqvn2ELZF8GF3IEPYHGHuLAdtqcfyvUTTI7FVaiUYF6gH2c1lyrEvug7JtUjIfo9koc21ZqDDRw/s1600/PoppyMoro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNb5PsEWFYUBozDerCmsu1-evTzWzTkDtexKcFHshgXfy_hpZAFqP5bCJNMOtPiNgAqvn2ELZF8GF3IEPYHGHuLAdtqcfyvUTTI7FVaiUYF6gH2c1lyrEvug7JtUjIfo9koc21ZqDDRw/s1600/PoppyMoro.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poppy on the Moro Approaches. 2009 Gregg Centre Battlefield Tour. Copyright Will Pratt.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Using humour to relieve stress and misery is particularly apt in front-line conditions. As one soldier from 3rd Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery wrote in April 1944, “There
may be lots of mud and rain and the unpleasant thoughts of what we
are engaged in but there is always humour. Men are irrepressible –
there is always the brighter side for the picture.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(RG24 Volume 12323)</span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As men found more problems with administrative policies later in the campaign, the humour in censorship excerpts was increasingly of the sarcastic variety. Men frequently complained about lack of leave back to Canada. The Zombies (the nickname for National Resources Mobilization Act conscripts who were for the time still allowed to serve in Canada) were continually criticized. One trooper's comment suggests that suspicions and jealousy lay close below the surface. He sarcastically wrote in August 1944,</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">How are those Zombies doing back in Canada? They must really have
a tough battle over there. Trying to keep away from beer parlours or
keeping form having too delightful a time. Or keeping a fighting
man's wife company. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(RG24 Volume 12,323)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://ocanadianhistory.blogspot.ca/2012/09/british-soldiers-in-desert-war-and.html">Jealous worry</a> about women on the homefront is a major theme in soldiers letters, and has been identified as prevalent in the Eighth Army in earlier postal censorship by Jonathan Fennel in his work</span><span class="st"><span style="font-size: large;"> <i>Combat and Morale in the North African Campaign </i>(2010).</span><i><br /></i></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a189923-v6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a189923-v6.jpg" height="476" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Something funny was definitely going on here. </span><br />
<div class="column70">
Troopers of the Governor General's Horse Guards
displaying distinctive haircuts before the advance on the Hitler Line,
Italy, 26 May 1944. Credit: Lieut. Strathy E.E. Smith / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-189923</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cook noted that First World War soldiers used humour to raise grievances, and the tradition continued for the next generation of Canadian soldiers. In Italy, the policy of putting towns out of bounds to Canadians after the Battle of the Hitler Line as an attempt to reduce venereal disease rates was a notable hit on troop morale. Again in August, as the I Canadian Corps prepared to breach the Gothic Line, signs bearing "Out of Bounds to Canadian Troops", came under sarcastic criticism. A private wrote home,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Every
damn place is out of bounds to the Canadians. It is getting beyond a
joke now. Most of the boys are wondering if Canada will be 'Out of
bounds.' I guess the only place they can trust them is at the front. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(RG24, Vol. 12,323)</span></span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a151177-v6.jpg;pv3c91101812c6b72b" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a151177-v6.jpg;pv3c91101812c6b72b" height="293" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a class="ui-link" href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/search/Pages/search-help.aspx#Title"><b></b></a>
<br />
<div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
Private W. Sutherland (left) of The Westminster
Regiment (Motor) </div>
<div class="titlecolA">
and Private V.A. Keddy of The Cape Breton Highlanders</div>
<div class="titlecolA">
repacking compo rations at a supply depot, Cassino, Italy, 18 April
1944.</div>
<div class="titlecolA">
Credit: Lieut. Strathy E.E. Smith / Canada. Dept. of National Defence </div>
<div class="titlecolA">
/ Library and Archives Canada / PA-151177
</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">The old saw that the army marches on its stomach seems to be as true for the General ELM Burns' troops as it was for Napoleon's. Those in the Chief Censor's office got in on the joke by labelling some grousing about the tinned rations of Meat and Vegetables the "Gourmet's Resolve". A private soldier wrote, <span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-style: normal;">I'm
still on that balanced diet of M. & V. I'll get even with
Argentina someday.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(RG24 Vol 12,323)</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large; text-decoration: none;">The connection with the homefront and longing to return there was observed in many letters as a second winter in Italy began. <span style="font-style: normal;">By the end of 1944, the lack of home leave was criticized by many soldiers. A new points scheme had been put in place, but many correctly assumed they wouldn't see Canada until after the war. One gunner wrote home using a little hyperbole about his expected leave date:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Guess the papers have quite a write-up about the '39 boys coming
home for Christmas leaves. At the rate they are going about it, I'll
likely be home about 1960. We have sent two men out of about 500. <span style="font-size: small;">(RG24 Vol. 12,323)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-Zv_6Z3jIPnA3u92Oq508pdy10KDVLgN0F272lPSaZREb13H8C3uYbtiwQ5Orqjhrp1iO-ZCtgbY49v_-isQrDp1BfFwwQtyddJ0zvEUWKfgFJB_LyHvsomByWnEPn4PAYfLyolGdbY/s1600/bracken.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-Zv_6Z3jIPnA3u92Oq508pdy10KDVLgN0F272lPSaZREb13H8C3uYbtiwQ5Orqjhrp1iO-ZCtgbY49v_-isQrDp1BfFwwQtyddJ0zvEUWKfgFJB_LyHvsomByWnEPn4PAYfLyolGdbY/s1600/bracken.JPG" height="320" width="253" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PsY6AAAAIBAJ&sjid=SyoMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2193%2C10203877"><i>Maple Leaf</i>,</a> 24 January 1945. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">While criticism of officers and superiors was not a general feature of Canadian mail, in 1945 the visit of John Bracken, the Progressive Conservative leader of the opposition, came in for griping against politicians who visited the front and later spoke in the press on behalf of soldiers. As the censorship report for early February wrote, Bracken need not have taken these grouses personally as comments were <span style="text-decoration: none;">“<span style="font-style: normal;">characterized
by a certain impatience with politicians as a class.” Lamenting the long campaign in Italy, a private wrote,</span></span>“Bracken is here in Italy – the opposition chief. I wonder if he
comes to bring us our Italian naturalization papers.” (February 1945) Another private's note home bordered on mania.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I won't be qualified to come home for another six months or so as
the powers that be have decided that the Cdns are the toughest solider
on earth and as a result they can stand five years overseas when Br.
Forces only stay three and a half, N.Z.'s three years and American 18
mos. Yeah, we're tough and we love it. Yeah!!! (February, 1945)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The marriage </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">between <i>pathos</i> and cruelty </span>that Leacock identified as the essence of humour certainly existed in Canadian letters from the the Italian front. Men joked their fear away, and used sarcasm to complain of policies that restricted them. The strain of humour that Cook identified as mocking the patriotic or heroic discourse of the war is related to the complaints against leave policies that kept soldiers in Italy. Considering that longing to return home was a major theme of wartime letters, and that unlike trench newspapers, the audience for these writings was friends and family at home, the sublimation of homesickness with a wry joke at the Army's expense comes as no surprise.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-7453165400897918012014-02-12T22:25:00.000-07:002014-02-12T22:30:35.862-07:00Mediterranean Musings: 5th Canadian Armoured Division Medical Humour<span style="font-size: large;">Amidst the quarterly medical returns and operational message logs in the 5th Canadian Armoured Division's medical services war diary, a comic account of the Italian campaign awaits those studying medical aspects of the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Captain Brian Murphy's "Mediterranean Musings" is a witty reminiscence of his experiences with the No. 13 Canadian Field Dressing Station which acts as a tonic to the otherwise deathly serious account of daily medical operations.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The bulk of the war diary of 5th Canadian Armoured Division's Assistant Director Medical Services is what one would expect from a medical headquarters in the Italian Campaign. The documents deal mainly with the operations of the field ambulances under its command, and the evacuation and treatment of casualties. A number of interesting modifications to jeeps and carriers were made to accommodate stretchers to take the wounded from the battlefield, but in no quarter did battle casualties exceed sickness. Major drains on manpower included infective hepatitis (jaundice), influenza, and venereal disease. Captain Murphy's "Musings", however, were no treatise on epidemiology, nor a statistical rending of gonorrhea and syphilis rates in the Division. Instead, Murphy opted for a humorous review of his campaign with the medicals.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7XZdlnIPzWbb3ApNLTadoNMTcJkgDzTb1QiS_vTaH444ADquh_kcpBLrnpfc2ifhvDrKO29n8VJZe9M3OB2n1uNgXfYnd_BKdFDfR8id2arqmiduUEgDTkORQu-fjQ1X8Lgl_kEaXY_Y/s1600/Mediterranean+Musings4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7XZdlnIPzWbb3ApNLTadoNMTcJkgDzTb1QiS_vTaH444ADquh_kcpBLrnpfc2ifhvDrKO29n8VJZe9M3OB2n1uNgXfYnd_BKdFDfR8id2arqmiduUEgDTkORQu-fjQ1X8Lgl_kEaXY_Y/s1600/Mediterranean+Musings4.jpg" height="227" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Writing from the North-West Europe campaign, in the summer of 1945, Murphy started with a complaint to his editor which devolved into a description of a local Dutch elixir, which had the ability to raise the spirits of those awaiting repatriation. The "Musings" begin,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dear Ed;</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You said I was becoming morose; you said let's have something gay for a change; and cut it down to a thousand words; you said gaiety is the spice of life and brevity is its container...Please don't ask me to be gay. But then gaiety can be acquired artificially, so gather round and allow me to pour you a drink of Moose Milk...an old Dutch remedy for rheumatics contracted whilst awaiting transport to Canada. Incidently the above-mentioned 'Lait de Moose' consists of gin, milk and eggs in proportions depending on whether you wish to stay in your billet and play 'Button, button, who'se got the button', or desire to sally forth and destroy single-handed a town, say of 20,000 inhabitants. A list of such towns can be obtained by writing to the Moose Milk Dairies. Only one town allotted per customer.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">After this strange aside on the benefits of the local egg nog, Murphy cuts to the chase, but continues charting his alcoholic course, recalling the that the trip to the Italian theatre, code-named Operation TIMBERWOLF, was far from dry.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In September '43, we boarded the Cap Paradan a ship that was decidedly wet, outside and in. I have never travelled with so many lawyers, everybody seemed to be called to the bar. Cases weren't defended. They were opened. The juries were vicious, they kept yelling "Let's Kill It."</span></span></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhie7JULPf8fTvYFkwq-60LSfsqfNzzuNTYRFAvfDG2MNJgQd5yXvPJR7sKTlrhkvyR6F89TdSDaLE_gQKIiXuDZJJ57sP4zW3IjB6j4Js3E9um0xQcGKAf7Rw6S475lMWiZdOkMNRyJQY/s1600/Herbie2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhie7JULPf8fTvYFkwq-60LSfsqfNzzuNTYRFAvfDG2MNJgQd5yXvPJR7sKTlrhkvyR6F89TdSDaLE_gQKIiXuDZJJ57sP4zW3IjB6j4Js3E9um0xQcGKAf7Rw6S475lMWiZdOkMNRyJQY/s1600/Herbie2.jpg" height="400" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Finito Signor???", Bing Coughlin, <i>Herbie!, </i>(Nelson: 1946).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">After three weeks at sea, the troop transports arrived in Phillippville and the division then started the tedious train trip to Bizerta, which Murphy suggested was an excellent way to develop battle exhaustion symptoms. The train travelled at 15 miles per hour, and Murphy noted sarcastically that this was, "fast I admit, but this is the modern age." A fire broke out on one of the train cars which set off small arms ammunition and in the insuing chaos locals began looting the train. Murphy recalled, "a few natives had decided they were in dire need of blankets and boots, and more small arms ammo went off, only this time it was aimed in the general direction of the said culprits."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Once the 5th Division was in Italy, Murphy recalls several interesting tales about interactions between medical officers and Italian civilians. When it became known that Canadian doctors diagnosed civilians, the line ups resembled those at London fish and chip stands. Eggs were the usual payments for treatments, which usually involved assuring patients that they could not expect imminent death. Murphy wrote, "At this realization, Guiseppe's or Maria's face would light up and with shrugging shoulders and clasped hands they would exclaim 'Grazie, grazie Dottore Canadesi buona' (translation: Gracious thanks, as a physician you are not bad.)" Murphy noted if patients were "very impressed by roadside manner", they might welcome the medical officer into their home for a spaghetti meal. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Returning to a familiar theme, he wrote, </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">the spaghetti is not good food to get stiff on. But with said filaments of flour and water, is served wine, of which the Canucks were very fond. Italy was no place for a chap with alcohic [sic] tendencies, water was just a place to wash clothes in.</span></span> </span></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLyrgAaqhv5BEj1Bn-HEMWOqb5Cyvhfedk_lNpCGvKNT204NET4gnzz7iGzNgqDUT3J5aEGgDjv0Yn1CulFYJJkzlrm5YY2Ns702xfqhnmfCQleAaWMu-uCtPgRCr9UvugF5Rfl7_tkqI/s1600/Herbie1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLyrgAaqhv5BEj1Bn-HEMWOqb5Cyvhfedk_lNpCGvKNT204NET4gnzz7iGzNgqDUT3J5aEGgDjv0Yn1CulFYJJkzlrm5YY2Ns702xfqhnmfCQleAaWMu-uCtPgRCr9UvugF5Rfl7_tkqI/s1600/Herbie1.jpg" height="400" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Think I'll Have M'Lunch. Who's got a cork-screw?"<br />
, Bing Coughlin, <i>Herbie!, </i>(Nelson: 1946).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Murphy's account continues to spin humorous yarns of housecalls to remove worms from Italian children, and intimacies in crowded rooms during air raids. He even coins a term for a new affliction called "airmenorrhea", in which young Italian women mysteriously stop menstruating for months after spending an hour or two in close confines sheltered from bombers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">After a long campaign in Italy, suffering through two wet winters in the mud and snow, it comes as no suprise that Murphy was pleased to leave the theatre. In closing his account, he wrote, "Christmas came late last year. In fact it didn't happen until we sailed away from the land of the mud, mountains, mosquitoes and mines...and that was in February."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Captain Brian Murphy's account is found in the June 1945 War Diary of 5th Canadian Armoured Division's ADMS HQ, Library and Archives Canada, Record Group 24, Vol. 15,66</span>4.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-58911848538594830212013-11-08T08:41:00.004-07:002014-02-12T23:19:06.614-07:00Brutalized Landscapes: Wayne Larsen on AY Jackson and the Great War (2/2)<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOQl0vD_5A08zHn1V3PQOtsIUQT1fasHpFZtSMhAvxqWkhYpJ38UkGcbeasVK1ntAcxYqL5PNi5g7U5BR7Wl2ONf8Qyr1z9dqR9vyUdUp4sYEDl0eTsu3UXotgHZmLfnlH0BRAvT3l5A/s1600/09lit.jackson(colour).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOQl0vD_5A08zHn1V3PQOtsIUQT1fasHpFZtSMhAvxqWkhYpJ38UkGcbeasVK1ntAcxYqL5PNi5g7U5BR7Wl2ONf8Qyr1z9dqR9vyUdUp4sYEDl0eTsu3UXotgHZmLfnlH0BRAvT3l5A/s200/09lit.jackson(colour).jpg" height="199" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Continued from <a href="http://ocanadianhistory.blogspot.ca/2013/11/distant-trumpets-wayne-larsen-on-ay.html">previous post.</a> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Wayne Larsen's <i>A.Y. Young</i> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">(Toronto: Dundurn, 2009) </span></span>is a biography of a Canadian war artist who experienced the Great War as a private in the ranks before being picked up by the Canadian War Memorials Fund. His work for Lord Beaverbrook's organization produced some of the most iconic depictions of battlescapes on record. After Second Ypres, Jackson accepted the war would not be over quickly, and enlisted in the 60th Battalion. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">That
A.Y. Jackson was on the cusp of renown when he joined the army, is
reflected in the reportage of the </span><i>Montreal Gazette</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
of June 29th, 1915.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a001386-v8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a001386-v8.jpg" height="400" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
(W.W.I - 1914 - 1918) Lieut.-Col. Gascoigne,<br />
O.C. 60th Battalion. May, 1917.
</div>
</div>
</div>
Canada. Dept. of National Defence<br />
/Library and Archives Canada/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When the
first five hundred men of the 60th Battalion, under Lieut.Col. F.A.
Gascoigne, entrain at the Windsor street station tomorrow night for
Valcartier, the force will have on its strength Private A.Y. Jackson,
artist, and associate of the Royal Canadian Academy...Mr. Jackson a
few years ago traveled through Belgium, sketched its landscapes and
its historic monuments, and in that time of peace and prosperity saw
the cities that have since been devastated by the Germans - Bruges,
Brussels, Antwerp, Liege and Namur. Now he is anxious to battle on
that soil in the common cause."<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Quoted in Larsen, p. 72)</span></span></span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jackson arrived in
Le Havre, France in February 1916, and would see four months of
action before being wounded. Fifteen years
after the fact, he recalled a surreal day in the trenches<i>:</i></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was just thinking back to another June 3rd crawling along a trench in
Sanctuary Wood, and an aeroplane circling overhead like a big hawk,
signalling to the artillery who were trying to blow us up. It was a
day of glorious sunshine and only man was vile, in general,
individually they were magnificent. I thought a cup of cocoa in a
dressing station was an undreamed of luxury. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Quoted in Larsen,
p. 73)</span> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">A little over a week later, Jackson was wounded in the Battle of Mount Sorrel. After his
recovery, when training at Shoreham, England, in the summer of 1917,
he received the news that Tom Thomson had drowned. The event was shrouded in <a href="http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/thomson/home/indexen.html">mystery</a>, and has since been the subject of much historical speculation.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/Graphics/Canada/Jackson.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was in the
summer of 1917 that Jackson's fortunes as a common soldier changed.
While digging a latrine in Shoreham, he was approached by a member of
the Canadian War Memorials Fund, who told Jackson of the opportunity
to work for Lord Beaverbrook as an official painter. After he proved
that he had the skills for the job, he was promoted to Lieutenant,
which was a source of some embarrassment. As Larsen wrote, "Whereas
Private Jackson had avoided saluting officers by taking alternate
routes down quiet side streets, Lieutenant Jackson now had to keep to
the busy main roads to avoid being saluted." <span style="font-size: small;">(Larsen, p. 80)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/A._Y._Jackson_-_Gas_Attack,_Lievin.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/A._Y._Jackson_-_Gas_Attack,_Lievin.jpeg" height="529" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="identifier"><span class="fn">AY Jackson. <i>Gas Attack, Lievin. 1918. </i></span>Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, Canadian War Museum. 19710261-0179</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Later that year,
when he made his way to Flanders, he again felt embarrassed traveling around in a staff car, while the poor bloody infantry
slogged on through the endless muck. Soldiers were generally cold to
him until they learned that he had been wounded in combat. Larsen
suggests that something in the changed nature of warfare, the
estrangement of artillery, chlorine gas, night attacks, and tunnels,
meant that old depictions of battle no longer sufficed. Jackson's memory supports this: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When the War Records of World War I were
organized, the artists started off thinking in terms of the kind of
war art popularized by the <i>Graphi</i>c and the <i>Illustrated
London News. </i>It gave one the feeling of something left over from
previous wars, the old stock poses, the same old debris lying around
like still life, and smoke drifting whenever the composition gave
trouble.</span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The machine gun
had destroyed the old death and glory picture which depended on a
mass of cavalry or infantry hurtling forward with the shot-riddled
flag clutched in the striken hero's hand. There pictures were mostly
painted by artists who had no first-hand information and it was not
long before we realized how ineffective they were</span>. <span style="font-size: small;">(Cited in
Larsen, p. 81)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIKToRJffq7JUmH7V0ckIg5aEtfG2p2A_FMzTnhpEn91jXunKJcfhhyphenhyphenJUj8Y1yd2S06WLzufhYPuMizB2qfyYAIMcAOg7-9eFFruMu-Ghw1P183lc-1UnoTioHEinUxCinAbTYAtmHhh8/s1600/451px-A_Y_Jackson_-_Portrait_of_Lieutenant_Robert_Shankland_CWM_19710261-0175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIKToRJffq7JUmH7V0ckIg5aEtfG2p2A_FMzTnhpEn91jXunKJcfhhyphenhyphenJUj8Y1yd2S06WLzufhYPuMizB2qfyYAIMcAOg7-9eFFruMu-Ghw1P183lc-1UnoTioHEinUxCinAbTYAtmHhh8/s200/451px-A_Y_Jackson_-_Portrait_of_Lieutenant_Robert_Shankland_CWM_19710261-0175.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait of <span class="fn">t Robert Shankland, </span><br />
<span class="fn">The Victoria Cross, 1917.</span><br />
<span class="fn"> Canadian War Museum.</span><span class="fn"><span class="locality"> </span></span><br />
<span class="fn"><span class="locality">Beaverbrook Collection of</span></span><br />
<span class="fn"><span class="locality"> War Art</span> <a href="http://collections.civilization.ca/public/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=3085207"><span class="locality">Photo Credit </span></a> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">While Jackson did
paint a portrait of Victoria Cross recipient, most of his work, the
largest of any war artist, were depictions of landscapes decimated
by battle. "He knew that by painting what would have otherwise
been peaceful landscapes, now battered beyond recognition by the
modern war machine, he could instil in the viewer a sense of
devastation that could be measured in human terms." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Larsen, p.
81).</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/A.Y._Jackson_-_A_Copse,_Evening,_1918.jpg/1280px-A.Y._Jackson_-_A_Copse,_Evening,_1918.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/A.Y._Jackson_-_A_Copse,_Evening,_1918.jpg/1280px-A.Y._Jackson_-_A_Copse,_Evening,_1918.jpg" height="252" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Copse Evening. AY Jackson, 1918.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The winter of
1917-18 was spent in his London studio, and it was on his return to
the battlefields in the spring of 1918 when he painted <i>A Copse,
Evening, </i>one of his best known works of the war. The German
spring offensive pushed the artists off the continent, and curiously,
Jackson did not return to capture Canadian advances during the
Hundred Days campaign. Jackson was instead ordered back to Canada to
prepare to join Canadian troops to Siberia.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> It is here that Larsen leaves the reader wanting more. Why did Jackson go back to Canada at this time instead of heading back to the front as the British pressed forward in 1918? The Canadian Siberian Expeditionary force, was sent
to aid the White Russians against their revolutionary foe, in hopes
to allow Russia to fight the Germans in the east. The expedition
sailed in October of 1918, yet Larsen notes that on the 11th of
November, Jackson was on Sainte-Catherine Street, Montreal when he
heard the church bells ringing to announce the end of the war. So
when Larsen writes, "of course the trip to Siberia was
automatically cancelled", part of the story is
missing. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Larsen, p. 86)</span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/c/c091749.jpg;pva99b0ccc55c3580d" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/c/c091749.jpg;pva99b0ccc55c3580d" height="194" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
Personnel of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force</div>
<div class="titlecolA">
with truck<b> Date(s)</b>ca. Jan. - May 1919<b>Place</b>Vladivostok, Russia.
</div>
</div>
</div>
Credit: Raymond Gibson / Library and Archives Canada / C-091749</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Troops were still sent to Siberia in December 1918, in fact,
some of them mutinied in Victoria before sailing. Was the action no longer
considered part of the First World War and thus no longer justified
commemoration under the Canadian War Memorials Fund? Was no other
artist available to go with the expedition other than Jackson? London to Vladivostok is a long journey, was no one closer that could have done the job?</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Larsen can't answer every question about Jackson's motivations and attitudes towards the war, especially in a full length biography of which 1914-1918 is but one small component. He does relay an amusing anecdote about Jackson and the Siberian
Intervention. He notes that in preparation for the trip, Jackson
purchased twenty tubes of white paint so that he would have enough to
capture all the snow. With his trip cancelled, he had more white
paint than he would need for years. He joked that it was this stash
of white paint that prompted him to become a painter of snowy
landscapes in the following years, "as I had to find some use
for it." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Larsen, p. 86)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.westbridge-fineart.com/NewsPhotos/38_2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.westbridge-fineart.com/NewsPhotos/38_2.gif" height="505" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A.Y. Jackson’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Jasper Park</i>, </span></span>1924. A Y Jackson's painting In Jasper Park. Thomson Collection at The Art Gallery of Ontario
Photo Courtesy of the Estate of the late Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves <a href="http://www.westbridge-fineart.com/site/display_newsletter.php?nid=38">Westbridge Fine Art</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody></tbody></table>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In the years
following the First World War, Jackson painted troopships in Halifax
before being officially discharged. He would soon become affiliated
with the Group of Seven, working to promote a distinct Canadian way
of art. Some argue that the war altered his style to shift from early-modernist impressionist styles to more post-impressionist expressions of landscapes. Some of Jackson's work is available for viewing at the Glenbow Museum's <i><a href="http://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/transformations/">Transformations</a> </i>exhibit, which examines the development of Jackson's nationalism and its relation to the Great War.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-17791584468898462742013-11-07T14:29:00.000-07:002013-11-10T07:48:19.821-07:00Distant Trumpets: Wayne Larsen on AY Jackson and the approach of the Great War (1/2)<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi61Zgfn-9PsH5_zh-z8azPaSuUrp8Z3Ny-cy_8SavbftNRWzGRVmZ85UoLVEhkyv-MrMV5ZZ2FyJCUyxemhIkttDmQaTNot_yCknvstPm1MoTmuFSe2ru9CKXihIv7uEb57JEB_Rxd_1o/s1600/09lit.jackson(colour).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi61Zgfn-9PsH5_zh-z8azPaSuUrp8Z3Ny-cy_8SavbftNRWzGRVmZ85UoLVEhkyv-MrMV5ZZ2FyJCUyxemhIkttDmQaTNot_yCknvstPm1MoTmuFSe2ru9CKXihIv7uEb57JEB_Rxd_1o/s200/09lit.jackson(colour).jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.dundurn.com/authors/wayne_larsen">Wayne
Larsen</a>'s <i>A.Y. Jackson: The Life of a Landscape Painter</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Toronto: Dundurn, 2009), is a handsome book which offers a
biography of one of Canada's most renowned artists, illustrated richly by the painter's works. It provides an excellent primer to an ongoing
<a href="http://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/transformations/">exhibition</a>
at the Glenbow Museum (Calgary) featuring Jackson's work
alongside the landscapes of Otto Dix, and emphasizing the various
conceptions of nationalism affected by the Great War. Jackson is a quintessentially Canadian painter, but Larsen makes it clear that the future Group of Seven member, was indebted to European impressionists in his pre-war works.</span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Larsen
argues that Jackson's most important role was that of promoter of
Canadian art, and his post-war resolve to continue to support the Group of
Seven's desires to form a dynamic national style. Larsen notes that
it was the core Group of Seven members' discovery of Jackson's </span><i>The
Edge of the Maple Wood</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> in a 1911
exhibition in Toronto, which connected the artist to these
influential painters. This was the first time that Jackson applied
his Parisian training to Quebec subjects, depicting
a sunny day in the Eastern Townships. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Larsen, p. 5-7)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=WI79480&ext=x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="528" src="http://www.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=WI79480&ext=x.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=2672"><i>The Edge of the Maple Wood (1910) </i>A.Y. Jackson</a>
Canadian, 1882
- 1974
oil on canvas<br />
54.6 x 65.4 cm Purchased 1937
National Gallery of Canada (no. 4298)
<br />
Courtesy of the Estate of the late Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=WI72202&ext=x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://www.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=WI72202&ext=x.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweetsburg, Quebec (1910)<br />
Courtesy of the Estate of the late Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves<br />
54 x 64.1 cmoil on canvasBequest of Dr. J.M. MacCallum,<br />
Toronto, 1944National Gallery of Canada (no. 4730)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Jackson
had traveled to France and had studied at the Academie Julian in
September 1907, but
art dealers and collectors were little impressed by Jackson's works
upon his return. As he would later write, it was European art which
was in demand: "Dutch pictures became a symbol of social
position and wealth...The houses bulged with cows, old women peeling
potatoes, and windmills." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cited in Larsen, p. 33). </span> Another
work which applied impressionist style to Canadian subjects was
</span><i>Sweetsburg, Quebec</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1910). The depiction of mud in front of a dilapidated barn suggests
that decaying, barren, and muddy landscapes were a part of Jackson's work before the Great War.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=WI74011&ext=x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://www.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=WI74011&ext=x.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="title">
<i>Autumn in Picardy</i>A.Y. Jackson1912</div>
Courtesy of the Estate of the late Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves<br />
21.2 x 27 cm oil on wood<br />
Gift of members of the Arts & Letters Club, Toronto, 1914<br />
National Gallery of Canada (no. 6529r)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">By
1913, after a further sojourn to Europe, Jackson had taken the plunge
and moved to Toronto, where he was championed by Lawren Harris and
and JEH MacDonald. As the inheritor to the Massey-Harris farm
implements fortune, Harris had the time, energy, and money to commit
himself to art, which he did with great zeal. In 1913, Harris was in
the process of building a major new studio space to foster Canadian
artists, scheming to introduce Jackson's works to the National
Gallery. Without asking the Gallery whether it would like Jackson's
work, Harris pooled money from members of the Arts and Letters Club
of Toronto to give Jackson's </span><i>Autumn in Picardy</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to the Gallery. He then proceeded to advertise the fact to the press, putting National Gallery director Eric Brown in a
difficult position. While the stunt finally came off, it was hardly
necessary, as the Gallery had already accepted Jackson's </span><i>The
Drive</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> as well as </span><i>Sand
Dunes at Cucq.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The pre-war years
were a time that Jackson began to gain some notoriety for applying
Impressionist techniques to Canadian landscapes, yet he still had his
traditionalist academic detractors. It was at this time that
</span><i>Toronto Star</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> critic HF
Gadsby coined the term "The Hot Mush School", in reference to these new
artists, noting "all their pictures look pretty much alike, the
net result being more like a gargle or gob of porridge than a work of
art."<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Larsen, p. 57-61). </span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e317/e007914169-v6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e317/e007914169-v6.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom Thomson Algonquin Lake, 1914.<br />
Credit: Franklin Carmichael<br />
/ Library and Archives Canada / e007914169 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1914, Jackson
was in the Rocky Mountains, on a commission by Canadian National
Railways to paint the mountains for hotel lobbies. Very few of these
paintings would survive, as Jackson threw many of them into the fire
when he learned that the company went bankrupt. Jackson was his own sharpest critic, and destroyed many of his own paintings over the years. One day when he
returned from hiking the mountains to a small mountain construction camp, he
learned that Canada was a war. <span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Larsen, p. 66-67) </span> Jackson did not
rush home to join a regiment, however, instead heading to Alqonquin Park to
join Tom Thomson.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Larsen suggests that Jackson did not sign up in
the Canadian services believing, like many, that the war would
end very quickly. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Larsen, p.69) </span> It was the Spring of 1915, when the painter learned of the Canadians being gassed at the Second Battle of
Ypres, that he realized the grave nature of the conflict. He wrote,
"At the railway station one morning I heard the first news of
the Battle of Saint-Julien. I knew then that all the wishful
thinking about the war being of short duration was over." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cited
in Larsen, p. 71)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;">In addition to Larsen's book, the National Gallery of Canada has a large range of Jackson's paintings <a href="http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=2672">online</a>, for those wishing to examine his earlier works. Many of his sketches from his time in Paris exist, and a sense of his early European influences are clear. Soon after the shock of Second Ypres, the landscape painter would cross the Atlantic himself, and was wounded on service before finding his role as Canadian war artist and promoter of a national school of art.</span> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For more on Jackson and the Great War, see the <a href="http://ocanadianhistory.blogspot.ca/2013/11/brutalized-landscapes-wayne-larsen-on.html">following post.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-850756287400368092013-11-04T22:23:00.000-07:002013-11-08T08:47:59.942-07:00Alexander Young Jackson, the Group of Seven, and the First World War<span style="font-size: large;">Many historians have claimed that the First World War was a
transformative period, ushering in a new modern era of bureaucracy and state control. For Canadian historians, the
dominant narrative surrounding the war, has been that of colony to
nation. In art history, this nationalist tone rings true as well, for it was during
the Great War that key nationalist artists who would later become
known as the Group of Seven developed their skills and were broadly
publicized through patriotic efforts linked to the conflict.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Group-of-seven-artists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="387" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Group-of-seven-artists.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Group of Seven, 1920. From left to right: Frederick Varley, A. Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris,
Fairley, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, and J. E. H. MacDonald. It was
taken at The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto. Photo: Arthur Goss.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;">Four future Group of Seven artists were officially commissioned by
the Canadian War Memorials Fund to depict the war. On the homefront,
Arthur Lismer and Frank Johnston depicted Canadian efforts, and
overseas, AY Jackson and Frederick Varley captured the battlefields
of Europe. Unofficially, a fifth member, JEH MacDonald, lent his
hand to the war effort by producing illustrations for honour rolls,
posters, and other patriotic impressions.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Group of Seven are the
quintessential Canadian visual artists, known for depicting a stark
Canadian wilderness which some argue bears the mark of military experience.
As Colleen Sharpe, (curator of a previous exhibition at Calgary's
Military Museums on the emergent Group of Seven and war), wrote in
2009, "The iconic features of the Group of Seven's art -
disturbed ground, prominent rocks, muddy colours and skeletal tree
trunks - have not been widely acknowledged as originating in the
landscape of the First World War, yet it seems no accident of
chronology that these men painted many of their seminal art works
directly following the war."<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Colleen Sharpe, "Artists and
Soldiers", in <i>Art in the Service of War: The Emergent Group
of Seven</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (2009), p. 3)</span> Maria
Tippett also saw a direct military connection in the formation of the Group's style, writing that "The low-keyed
colours of no man's land and the trenches - muddy brown, yellow
ochre, and cool grey - came to permeate the post-war canvases of
Varley, Jackson, and others who had lived and painted at the front."
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(</span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Maria Tippett, </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Art at the Service of War: Canada, Art, and
the Great War</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Toronto, 1984),</span></span></span> p. 108)</span> </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQTL49tl1hEieQvaF_OtoIaMuU2UfME9uXKGkSaIJCZ-q_gsLSpmeBj9Rzd1JzDsThQpzszyIz1JbOYgAz675YvG0RmfTudUH1ZhGcPIj3xrI5V47JvMQFkyhB7Uob6Y4IxQ-bxnZ_2o/s1600/Tippett.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQTL49tl1hEieQvaF_OtoIaMuU2UfME9uXKGkSaIJCZ-q_gsLSpmeBj9Rzd1JzDsThQpzszyIz1JbOYgAz675YvG0RmfTudUH1ZhGcPIj3xrI5V47JvMQFkyhB7Uob6Y4IxQ-bxnZ_2o/s1600/Tippett.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> She also notes that exposure to British modernists
during their time in England, was a wartime connection that
would bring change to Canadian art.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The Canadian War Memorials Fund
was the organization which did the most to support Canadian war art
during the First World War. Headed by Lord Beaverbrook, the Fund
commissioned artists to create a permanent artistic record of the
conflict. It prioritized the documentary aspects of art, giving
artists the opportunity to explore the battlefields and sketch what
they observed. The Fund supported British artists as well, but
historians have argued that its major contribution was the support of
artists, and the organization of critics and gallery executives,
"which enabled a national school of art to fluorish."
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Maria Tippett, </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Art at the Service of War: Canada, Art, and
the Great War</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Toronto, 1984),
p.6.) </span>From November 1916, the CWMF gave artists full-time officer's
rank and wages to memorialize the war.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Great War occurred at a time when
artistic taste was changing. As Jackson himself wrote, the war would
let Canadian art "emerge from all its tribulations. Its worst
foe materialism is being walloped, and will never be quite so
formidable again. And all the academic bunch are dying off,
gradually very gradually ... the future will take care of us."<span style="font-size: x-small;">
(Tippett, p. 7)</span> For Jackson, more traditional means of portraying
battle no longer rang true. As he put it, depictions of clashes of
arms, with crisp lines, and vibrant colours had, "gone
underground. There was little to see. The old heroics, the death
and glory stuff, were obsolete." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Tippett, p. 13)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/guerre/photos/565/19710261-0189.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="537" src="http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/guerre/photos/565/19710261-0189.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>House of Ypres</i><br />
Painted by Alexander Young Jackson<br />
Beaverbrook Collection of War Art<br />
CWM 19710261-0189</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.groupofseven.ca/getattachment/271219ae-5007-4b5f-a354-3e75bdbc019e/img.aspx" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.groupofseven.ca/getattachment/271219ae-5007-4b5f-a354-3e75bdbc019e/img.aspx" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Private A.Y. Jackson</i> c.1915</b><br />
60th Battalion, enlisted June 1915<br />
McMichael Canadian Art Collection Archives
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">AY Jackon created one of the
largest bodies of work of any battlefield war artist, and had served
in the 60th Battalion before being committed full time as an artist.
He would write that "Lawren Harris wanted me to apply for a
commission and offered to defray all expenses in connection with it,
but I knew nothing about soldiering and decided to start at the
bottom as a private in the infantry." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Art in the
Service of War</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">, p. 4)</span> During
his time in the line, Jackson put his artistic skills to military
use, by drawing diagrams and details from military maps. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Tippett,
p.12)</span> Jackson was wounded at Maple Copse near Ypres, which
fortunately kept him out of the fighting in Passchendaele. The
artist was no stranger to France, having spent some time studying
there a decade previous to the war.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jackson spent time convalescing in
France before being sent back to England. He was taken on strength
of a reserve battalion and in Shoreham Camp when he heard about the
CWMF and decided to approach Lord Beaverbrook. The environment in
the battalion contributed to this decision. Jackson noted there was
"not enough food and too many military police" with
disgruntled soldiers being "drilled and disciplined by men who had
not been in France". <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Tippett, p. 14)</span> Shortly after he left the
battalion a mutiny broke out in the unit.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was the battlefield itself that inspired; the alien mudscapes, and shattered woods. Maria Tippett wrote that, "Nothing
came to symbolize the war for the artist and the combatant as much as
the land upon which it was fought....Pock-marked with gaping
water-filled craters, strewn with bones, metal, and all the refuse of
modern warfare, the topography of the front line offered few familiar
associations....The machine had superseded God's handiwork; his
landscape was being reshaped by man's instruments."<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Tippett, p.
58)</span> Tippett notes that it was this violent new meaning and
manifestation of the landscape that made Romantic-Realist conventions
seemingly out of place. Jackson felt that his style needed to be
adjusted as well: "the impressionist technique I had adopted in
painting was now ineffective, visual impressions were not enough."
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Tippett, p.59)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/guerre/photos/565/19710261-0186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/guerre/photos/565/19710261-0186.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Copse, Evening</i><br />
Painted by Alexander Young Jackson<br />
Beaverbrook Collection of War Art
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">These landscapes and the new techniques
used to portray them were directly influential in the development of
a national school of art for Canadians after the war. As Tippett
writes, "After the war Jackson and his fellow artists
deliberately sought to paint 'swampy, rocky, wolf-ridden, burnt and
scuttled country with rivers and lakes scattered all through it.' The
Group of Seven's concern to demonstrate...the 'spirit' of painting in
Canada, was thus associated with a sense that this could best be done
by employing methods and techniques they and their colleagues had
either seen used or themselves employed to paint the war-torn
landscape of the Old World." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Tippett, p. 109)</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Glenbow museum of Calgary is currently <a href="http://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/transformations/">exhibiting</a> the work of AY Jackson and Otto Dix, drawing comparisons around the idea of nation and the influence of the Great War on their art.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-32785604501358645052013-10-29T07:37:00.000-06:002013-10-29T07:37:58.254-06:00Norman Dixon on the "Instictive" Profession of Soldiering<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://divergences.be/local/cache-vignettes/L374xH600/11584-fbf27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://divergences.be/local/cache-vignettes/L374xH600/11584-fbf27.jpg" width="199" /></a>Norman Dixon's <i>On the Psychology of Military Incompetence</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(London: 1984, 1976)</span>, serves as an apologetic for historical British military stupidity. Instead of a simple lack of intelligence, the blunders of the military past are shown to be the product of authoritarian personalities, torn between their conscience and a pathological need for aggression. Dixon doesn't have much good to say of the military profession, nor of military institutions. He notes that the armed services are a place where anti-intellectualism reigns supreme, and where aggression, order, and obedience attract authoritarians. Perhaps apologetic was the wrong word? Dixon suggests that strategic mistakes were made, not due to a lack of intelligence, but due to the military environment fostering unstable authoritarian personalities. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Freudian analysis typifies much of the work, which at points emphasizes the anxieties surrounding sex, elimination, eating, and death. Perhaps his most quotable passage, comes in analysis of the soldierly profession as a "instinctive" one.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Broadly speaking, human activities may be regarded as falling into one of the other of two main groups: those which are directly instinctual and those which are not. Into the first, which involves what have been succinctly described as the 'three Fs' - feeding, fighting, and 'reproduction' - fall such robust pastimes as pugilism, professional pie-eating, prostitution, and soldiering. Into the second group fall all those other vocations which, though sometimes subserving the basic drives, do not have as their end-product the original consummatory response. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Dixon, p.169-170)</span></span></blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-38516711256486859462013-10-08T21:50:00.002-06:002014-01-14T07:21:15.398-07:00"To suffer death by being shot": Canada's sole military execution of the Second World War<a href="http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780774807180_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780774807180_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG" width="138" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Up to a few years before Confederation, there were vast array of crimes that colonial governments in British North America saw fit to hang people for. Some 200 activities could get one executed including <a href="http://thedrummersrevenge.wordpress.com/2007/09/09/the-end-to-the-death-penalty-for-sodomy-in-canada/">sodomy</a>, <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/capital-punishment">stealing turnips</a>, or wearing a disguise in the woods. By 1865, only murderers, traitors, and rapists were considered loathsome enough to hang. Soldiers, however, were subject to military law, and those who were found guilty by courts martial of desertion, cowardice, or murder could be sentenced to death. Clearly, when it comes to punishment for one's transgressions, soldiering has its disadvantages. The distinction between military law and civil law is critically assessed by Chris Madsen in <a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=uPJIvl19-koC"><i>Another Kind of Justice</i></a>:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">With little pretence to lofty ideals, military law serves
strictly utilitarian and practical purposes in the maintenance of
discipline within armed forces. Its endearing qualities are few.
The application of military law is sometimes arbitrary and is heavily
influenced by situation; it places the interest</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">s of service and group
before the individual, and </span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto auto;"><span style="font-size: large;">tends
toward severe punishments.</span> <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Madsen, p. 3)</span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the First World War, twenty-five</span> (or twenty-six depending who is counting) <span style="font-size: large;">soldiers were executed, largely on charges of desertion. These soldiers' fate, and the administration of courts martial was largely trusted to British officers. By the end of the conflict, the lack of a supreme Canadian authority to oversee courts martial decisions was trumpeted as unjust by advocacy groups who wished to abolish the death penalty. While the end of death penalty for murder in Canada would have to wait until 1976, by the Second World War authority to execute a soldier had been transferred to Canadian hands.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Canadian Army sentenced three soldiers to death during the Second World War, but only one unfortunate soul, Harold Pringle, was actually executed. Harold Joseph Pringle was born on January 16th, 1920, at Port Colborne, Ontario, and had enlisted in early 1940. By late 1940 he was overseas and was beginning to tally up what would become a large number of convictions for absence without leave. In February 1944, he was dispatched to the Italian theatre, corroborating the (somewhat exaggerated) complaints of officers there that the theatre was being used as a dumping ground for undesirable personnel. After serving with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment in the Liri Valley, Pringle again went away without leave and in June of 1944 joined a gang of black marketeers in Rome. Association with these outlaws would be his ultimate undoing.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi211IAOZPhFCpruDq5cSmsw7oaUVda9lewMYIjregjTdZYEXAvFrUGNI4P1CRcOBbek4XcSfNpbwWSPgsVbQhT7Mj3acEy8h7h2ybB2SXezMRjbkOUnadUaXzOepLv2dPtOlMSD6G1o1k/s1600/Rome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi211IAOZPhFCpruDq5cSmsw7oaUVda9lewMYIjregjTdZYEXAvFrUGNI4P1CRcOBbek4XcSfNpbwWSPgsVbQhT7Mj3acEy8h7h2ybB2SXezMRjbkOUnadUaXzOepLv2dPtOlMSD6G1o1k/s320/Rome.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205188908">ENTRY OF ALLIED TROOPS</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> INTO ROME, 5 JUNE 1944</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">© IWM (TR 1844) Capt. Tanner.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was in Rome on the 1st of November, 1944, that a fight erupted between Pringle and other members of the gang, which resulted in the shooting of Private "Lucky" McGillivary, a fellow criminal. The gang took Lucky outside of the city, where they riddled the body with bullets and left it for dead. On the 12th of December 1944, Pringle was taken into custody by the military police and charged with murder. While his defence attempted to argue that McGillivary had died of his previous wounds when Pringle later shot him, and that there was insufficient evidence to convict him, the officers at the court martial were not convinced, and Pringle was sentenced "to suffer death by being shot."</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><a href="http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/rep-rap/doc/ahqr-rqga/ahq091.pdf">(Army Headquarters Report No 91</a>, p.97)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The report of the Chief of Staff at Canadian Military Headquarters (London) to National Defence Headquarters (Ottawa) of May 1945 regarding the review of the Pringle case shows the legal grey areas in a case of murder or other civil offenses, especially, at the end of the war:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The fact that the accused and the victim were both members of the Canadian Army, and that the trial was by a Canadian Court Martial, is not, in my view, the controlling feature of this case. In essence, this is a case which arises out of the shooting of one Canadian citizen by another Canadian citizen. Considering the matter in this way, I have come to the opinion that the fact that the war is now over and won should not influence me to treat the matter otherwise than simply as a case of murder.</span> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Chief of Staff, CMHQ to NDHQ, 12 May 1945, DVA (WSR) file C-5292 as cited in <a href="http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/rep-rap/doc/ahqr-rqga/ahq091.pdf">Army Headquarters Report No 91</a>, p.98)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Three other cases of Canadian personnel sentenced to execution by British civil courts show that the murder of civilians was treated as a civil offence. (See Jonathan Vance, <i>Maple Leaf Empire, </i>p.178)</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP91A5w-mJlHbMH-4JnYHvRRgPEg1HF2EbJ9S-IKt_9ays8HlCpRybC5xj3Y7HfcnbHTlI7rmCNxX0AeNG_SJN1VbnJbN3DkV6LX6cJMLvg5di8ybFfkER7jao0Slrw-Sfo2bfIsT1kaQ/s1600/PringleSentence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP91A5w-mJlHbMH-4JnYHvRRgPEg1HF2EbJ9S-IKt_9ays8HlCpRybC5xj3Y7HfcnbHTlI7rmCNxX0AeNG_SJN1VbnJbN3DkV6LX6cJMLvg5di8ybFfkER7jao0Slrw-Sfo2bfIsT1kaQ/s1600/PringleSentence.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A Telegram confirming Pringle's sentence. RG24 Vol 12718. Library and Archives Canada</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">British courts martial had meanwhile tried two others in the Pringle case, and in the Spring of 1945 Sapper CHF Honess and Fireman WR Croft were executed. It took until 5 July 1945 for the Pringle sentence to be conveyed by order in council. A post-war Army Headquarters Report recorded, in its dry prose, "The finding and sentence were promulgated at Avellino, Italy, at six o'clock on the morning of 5 July, at which time Pringle was informed of the disallowance of his petition by the Governor General in Council. Exactly two hours later the sentence was carried out by a firing squad."</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> <a href="http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/rep-rap/doc/ahqr-rqga/ahq091.pdf">(Army Headquarters Report No 91</a>, p.99)</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPzE5oNNJr_ZOKmCbKpifxqbnz7qcDenTIG1G0OyIW580DM15bUoeMQCOF1xDEAaoTf2G-U8YuI4h9922Itb9yqQQpretWPAUQTqAgH3q7hHKDPhkftKyFydobqXETDQJg9-Ve2i8QMU/s1600/Pringle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPzE5oNNJr_ZOKmCbKpifxqbnz7qcDenTIG1G0OyIW580DM15bUoeMQCOF1xDEAaoTf2G-U8YuI4h9922Itb9yqQQpretWPAUQTqAgH3q7hHKDPhkftKyFydobqXETDQJg9-Ve2i8QMU/s1600/Pringle.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sympathy for Pringle greatly </span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">varies </span></span></span>among historians. Andrew Clark wrote a biography which writes of Pringle in a sympathetic light portraying him as a victim of the war and the military system. </span> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo4/no2/book-livre-04-eng.asp">(Review by Lukits)</a></span> <span style="font-size: large;">He would likely agree with Chris Madsen, who noted that those executed in the previous war were not "bad apples", but ordinary men pressed into extraordinary circumstances who simply could not bear the strain. </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Madsen, p.46)</span> <span style="font-size: large;"> Jack Granatstein, however, was not convinced that we should pity the deserter, <a href="http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=2891">criticizing</a> Clark's "overly sympathetic treatment of Pringle, which all but demeans the suffering and sacrifice of those who stuck it out and fought."</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Granatstein's comment brings to light a philosophical question about honoring soldiers and commemoration. Pringle is buried in Caserta cemetery with the honours accorded all Canadian soldiers by the <a href="http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2067516/PRINGLE,%20HAROLD%20JOSEPH">Commonwealth War Graves Commision</a>. On first glance, this seems to be a place of respect which was not earned by this deserter and murderer. When we think of the Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries, with their symmetric rows of identical tombstones, we consider their eternal residents' memory in relation to their sacrifices as soldiers. A murderer who was put to death by the military seems rather out of place in this context. Certainly many other soldiers buried in the cemeteries would have had military rap sheets, and civilian cemeteries bury the good with the bad, but the very fact that Pringle was killed by the military he served for seems problematic in light of the meaning of military cemeteries. </span></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cwgc.org/dbImage.ashx?id=2584" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="430" src="http://www.cwgc.org/dbImage.ashx?id=2584" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caserta Cemetery <a href="http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/2005400/CASERTA%20WAR%20CEMETERY">CWGC</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-44659330634753047422013-05-18T08:06:00.005-06:002013-05-18T08:07:13.630-06:00The Great Fly-Killing Competition: Sudan 1941<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7fO3ZR5fS1RQXuh-uGmHVXWS48CYj2P8hk88iR2Jcz_T0fNoDuhfCEb7uFQwKnbWTsd3a__hLbo2WGO1eCZo3ct_Xl2PDaEHTW9fkQqFK397hEAKHj19Apb4bPbcyqEtM24TsfCc5T-o/s1600/140037_350553_1319645173156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7fO3ZR5fS1RQXuh-uGmHVXWS48CYj2P8hk88iR2Jcz_T0fNoDuhfCEb7uFQwKnbWTsd3a__hLbo2WGO1eCZo3ct_Xl2PDaEHTW9fkQqFK397hEAKHj19Apb4bPbcyqEtM24TsfCc5T-o/s1600/140037_350553_1319645173156.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">A recent edited volume of primary documents, <a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Combat+Stress+in+the+20th+Century%3A+The+Commonwealth+Perspective.-a0286971018"><i>Combat Stress in the 20th Century</i></a> is an excellent addition to the literature on psychiatry at war. Editors Terry Copp and Mark Humphries have selected a broad range of articles from medical journals, archived reports, and accounts by medical officers and laymen alike which show the development (or some would say lack thereof) of military thought on mental breakdown and treatment in the commonwealth armies.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For those of more eccentric historical taste (you've come to the right place!), there are plenty of accounts of the more extreme sides of the subject, including electroshock therapy, barbituate sedation, or insulin shock therapy. On the scale of strange, however, it is hard to top the account of FM Richardson's competitive health preservation. It seems that to remove the risk of malaria and the sheer annoyance of the omnipresent fly, all Second World War British officers needed to do was start counting:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">In a camp in Sudan where fly infestation was very bad and made life intolerable despite intensification of all the usual measures and the efforts of a strong daily fly-swatting patrol almost unbelievable results were achieved in little over a month by a fly-killing competition. The unit was divided by tents and other convenient groups into teams of ten to twelve men and a running total of the number of flies killed by each team was published weekly. A standard tin of which the fly content was known was kept by the G.M. Havildar to whom the teams brought their daily bag to be counted, recorded and burned. The results soon became apparent and it was not long before the 100,000 mark was passed. The I.H.C. sepoy would do a lot for a few rupees and a good curry bat, and enthusiasm soon rose so high that the best hunting grounds had to be allotted on an official programme like the blocks in a shooting jungle. Finally the few remaining flies were being stalked by the more resolute competitors and one could see none where recently they had been swarming.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/EritreaCampaign1941_map-en.svg/435px-EritreaCampaign1941_map-en.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/EritreaCampaign1941_map-en.svg/435px-EritreaCampaign1941_map-en.svg.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Allied Advances in the East African Campaign. Image by historicair</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This may all sound rather ridiculous but I was later discussing it with a man who had lived in Rumania, where, he said, flies had been innumerable. A similar competition on a village basis for big money prizes was organized by the Government, and the results, he assured me, were so remarkable that flies virtually disappeared from the country and the disposal of the rubbish which the flies would have eaten became quite a problem. I accept no responsibility for this statement which may have been merely a dramatic way of emphasizing the success of the scheme, but it is a stimulating thought for medical entomologists. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="font-style: normal;">FM
Richardson, "Competitive Health Preservation in the Army",
text of a presentation at the USAREUR and Seventh Army Medical
Surgical Conference at Garmisch, Germany, 18 May 1981.)</span></span></span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlU0QSyGmzAClboZQgY_mjvGAdFh8NJTOP8VViyk5eYAGvIWcrMvOeiRKU6QOvoduedq-K0Vhon5UFaVn810UjXG3q3PGJW4wQPf7Ax6-6XDrwFWHs4pbP33NKnBnrn0CM_DxL62hvic/s1600/tumblr_lfdwl2uPmV1qbl0k8o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlU0QSyGmzAClboZQgY_mjvGAdFh8NJTOP8VViyk5eYAGvIWcrMvOeiRKU6QOvoduedq-K0Vhon5UFaVn810UjXG3q3PGJW4wQPf7Ax6-6XDrwFWHs4pbP33NKnBnrn0CM_DxL62hvic/s320/tumblr_lfdwl2uPmV1qbl0k8o1_500.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>In civilian life, cold hard cash was necessary to promote fly-killing! </b><br />
<b><i> Mansfield Advertiser</i></b>, Mansfield, Penn., June 24, 1914<br />
via<a href="http://accesspadr.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/sstlp-newsp&CISOPTR=9578&REC=2"> </a><a href="http://accesspadr.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/sstlp-newsp&CISOPTR=9578&REC=2">State Library of Pennsylvania via</a><br />
<a href="http://questionableadvice.tumblr.com/post/2941741859">Questionable Advice and Advertisements</a> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Richardson is best known for his work <i>Fighting Spirit</i> which is a socio-psychological look at men in combat. He suggested applying the health competition to battle exhaustion cases. This seems like a questionable cure for the malady. If soldiers took the competition seriously, and paid attention to the publicized battle exhaustion rates of various competing units and formations, they would condemn those with symptoms of breakdown. Hence, it is more likely that those suffering from combat stress would be under even more pressure from their peers, complicating their malady further. In consideration of how important acceptance by the group is to soldiers, letting their unit down further in the competition may have increased their shame, reducing the already low chances of rehabilitation and return to unit.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-38385431061145892812013-05-15T07:49:00.000-06:002013-05-18T07:24:28.590-06:00The poor to the madhouse, the rich to the spa: Neurasthenia in the 19th Century<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvKae70ftD-pEhGGQcqwfRmpQNlikSCnmGSuGbefZwPQRpIB4D5BprbHG7hSveh-seLTkI36UbEzDifiXT04mayalpLeiluGXLn6LZJoaZyV4ja2knZbxGZ9FM8utiIQb51dsmpFJA4I/s1600/140037_350553_1319645173156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvKae70ftD-pEhGGQcqwfRmpQNlikSCnmGSuGbefZwPQRpIB4D5BprbHG7hSveh-seLTkI36UbEzDifiXT04mayalpLeiluGXLn6LZJoaZyV4ja2knZbxGZ9FM8utiIQb51dsmpFJA4I/s1600/140037_350553_1319645173156.jpg" /></a>The history of mental illness and psychiatry is a fascinating field that is always generating interest. One would only need to glance at the <a href="http://www.hom.ucalgary.ca/hom/system/files/HMDs_Program_UofC_2013_February_27_2013.pdf">program</a> for the recent University of Calgary Conference "History of Medicine Days", to find new research on asylums, psychiatric pharmacology, or combat stress. On this last topic, Terry Copp and Mark Humprhries' 2010 work <i><a href="http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/review-of-terry-copp-and-mark-osborne-humphries-combat-stress-in-the-20th-century-the-commonwealth-perspective-by-kathleen-meghan-fitzpatrick/">Combat Stress In the 20th Century: The Commonwealth Perspective</a>, </i>compiles an impressive collection of primary sources from the archives and medical journals which outline the development of an understanding of mental breakdown on the battlefield. Their introduction to the first chapter, "From Railway Spine to Traumatic Psychosis: Doctors Confront Trauma in the Modern Age, 1865-1918", shows how class and gender affected early thought on mental illness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the nineteenth century, public asylums could resemble medieval dungeons more than places of recuperation and rest. Those committed to them were largely the impoverished, homeless cases deemed unstable and disruptive. More affluent families with any compassion for a relation would certainly attempt to avoid incarcerating them here. Instead of diagnosing these patients as insane, doctors would allow them to be classified as having "nerves". As Copp and Humprhies write, "nerves allowed those with enough money to pay for treatment and a respectable diagnosis to wrap many of the more common mental illnesses in a linguistic cloak thus avoiding the stigmitization of the asylum". (p. 4)</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIIpvOgUd8PFRq4Wn6GC39SoL_T5szNePYzOBDapprXxxYTNwV3m1ZFk7c2ayFNK5j-Cm3vu78dzwathkK38jAHGyKrlVYU0qaPQX0O3odnOxt_tfGrab6ygyapQl8-43LN0hyDrX8KM/s1600/rake-in-bedlam.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIIpvOgUd8PFRq4Wn6GC39SoL_T5szNePYzOBDapprXxxYTNwV3m1ZFk7c2ayFNK5j-Cm3vu78dzwathkK38jAHGyKrlVYU0qaPQX0O3odnOxt_tfGrab6ygyapQl8-43LN0hyDrX8KM/s1600/rake-in-bedlam.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Opening in 1247, London's St Bethlehem Hospital or "Bedlam"<br />
as it was known was the first dedicated strictly to those with mental disorders.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Insanity was considered to be inherited, yet nervous disorders were thought to be acquired, and <span style="font-size: large;">thus these</span> were socially acceptable conditions. Insanity reflected poor blood, while a nervous disorder may have just been reflective <span style="font-size: large;">of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. </span>Psychiatrists, alienists, and neurologists were happy to be able to escape the practices of the asylum, and so by classifying the nervous disorders into neurasthenia, hysteria and traumatic neuroses, they looked forward to private practice <span style="font-size: large;">with</span> more well-heeled patients.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/reflections/fall2008/images/MistressandMaid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/reflections/fall2008/images/MistressandMaid.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">“Mistress and her maid,” by Jean Louis Forain.<br />
University of Virginia Art Museum.<br />
http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/reflections/fall2008/rest.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Neurasthenia was thought to be a loss of nerve substances from the body. Modernity, with its railroads, electrification, and mechanization was thought to increase this dissipation of "nerve force". While veterans of the American civil war were first to diagnosed, medical culture soon began to associate it with those who were on the cutting edge of the latest technologies. Copp and Humpries record, "...a diagnosis of neurasthenia was often quite fashionable <span style="font-size: large;">because</span> it indicated that one was engaged with the modern world. It grew in popularity so quickly that soon the link between veterans and the diagnosis was all but forgotten." (p. 5)</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.richardwebster.net/charcot.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="http://www.richardwebster.net/charcot.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="style2"><span style="color: maroon;">Charcot demonstrates a case of 'hysteria' <i>c. 1885</i><i></i></span> </span><br />
<span class="style2">http://www.richardwebster.net/freudandcharcot.html </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="style2"> </span><span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Hysteria was a condition that was hard to distinguish from neurasthenia, <span style="font-size: large;">and</span> carried negative connotations with its diagnosis. By the late nineteenth century it had become associated with undue sensitivity, moral weakness, and impulsiveness. "Although it was similiar clinically to neurasthenia, hysteria resulted from the <i>patient overexciting their own nerves</i> through some specific idea or act. Masturbation, obsession with romantic relationships, grief, and worry were all thought to unnecessarily tax the nervous system and sap the energies of the patient and, in extreme cases, produce a shock which resulted in the more pronounced hysterical symptoms like paralysis, blindness, and mutism." (p. 5) With this contrast, it is clear which diagnosis was preferable for the patient!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The authors' note that it was the patient's class and sex that differentiated the two conditions to most doctors. Patients from the upper class, of course, had "superior moral constitutions" and were less likely to succumb to the temptations which would bring on hysteria. Women, however, thought to have less willpower and tendencies towards emotional outbursts, were also thought to be at risk. It appears that wealthy women could turn a doctor's diagnosis in the favourable direction, as "...women of means were often able to find a doctor willing to label them neurasthenic." (p. 6)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Copp and Humprhies emphasize that after the Civil War, nervous disorders were increasingly accepted as a "more benign form of mental illness." They note that it was the pace of modernity that many blamed on the acute manifestation of these disorders:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At the heart of the diagnosis of neurasthenia was the notion that modernity itself was traumatic. The mechanized, industrial slaughter of the Civil War and the hurdling pace of modern life were symptomatic of the trials and triumphs of the modern age and it was to be expected that man's feeble body would recoil in horror as it was further disconnected from an agrarian, rural past. In the decades after the Civil War, doctors on both sides of the Atlantic were increasingly faced with victims who suffered from the after-effects of these head-on collisions with modernity.</span> (p. 6)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-89916560511551375112013-04-19T09:23:00.001-06:002013-04-19T09:32:32.692-06:00Burned in Effigy: The Vagaries of Symbolic Arson<span style="font-size: large;">Nothing voices <span style="font-size: large;">disapproval</span> like <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">building a mannequin</span><span style="font-size: large;">, parading it about town <span style="font-size: large;">under abuse, and torching the thing in public. When it comes to over-the-top antagonistic symbolism, it is hard to beat<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">the <span style="font-size: large;">power of incineration. And who doesn't like a roaring bo<span style="font-size: large;">nfire?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Over the years Canadians have taken to the streets in protest for<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> scores of reasons.</span> Most often, <span style="font-size: large;">politicians are the source of <span style="font-size: large;">public ire, and so <span style="font-size: large;">scarecrow<span style="font-size: large;">s in their likeness </span>have faced the flames. At other times,<span style="font-size: large;"> the more creative members of unruly mobs have worked<span style="font-size: large;"> artful</span> metaphor into the<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">performance</span>. A han<span style="font-size: large;">d<span style="font-size: large;">ful of <span style="font-size: large;">protests over a hundred years of Canadian history prove that economics <span style="font-size: large;">was often a cause that brought the torch to the tinder.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEBOdNZ1jggIzAIoPRc2ju65z8v9cnd7JQX2wyZqxs_Qg4lCPiGZGkybRmrk6ES79CnW1TEJgBQ0V7MqWtuP_H-_Vx_jORgyVDuDsDgASETpuolqJRnXewg6ZS21xlSUgo56EeLwFn3gY/s1600/Boston-Tea-Party-23-728x485.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEBOdNZ1jggIzAIoPRc2ju65z8v9cnd7JQX2wyZqxs_Qg4lCPiGZGkybRmrk6ES79CnW1TEJgBQ0V7MqWtuP_H-_Vx_jORgyVDuDsDgASETpuolqJRnXewg6ZS21xlSUgo56EeLwFn3gY/s320/Boston-Tea-Party-23-728x485.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Revolutionary Lego Men protest British Taxation<br />
without Representation.<br />
<a href="http://lego.cooperman.net/2011/10/03/the-destruction-of-tea-at-boston-harbor/boston-tea-party-23/">Cooperman Brick Foundry</a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">While trade and tariffs may not seem like a topic that c<span style="font-size: large;">ould kindle <span style="font-size: large;">the ritual<span style="font-size: large;">istic</span> arson, <span style="font-size: large;">the student of Canadian history will know the subject has raised ire since the colonial era. <span style="font-size: large;">One need <span style="font-size: large;">not be an expert<span style="font-size: large;"> to know that <span style="font-size: large;">t</span></span></span>axes have provok<span style="font-size: large;">ed their fair share of revolt over the years.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">An early account of symbolic arson<span style="font-size: large;"> arose in <span style="font-size: large;">the colony of New Brunswick<span style="font-size: large;"> when the British mercantile system<span style="font-size: large;"> was teetering on the breach. Timber became a profitable export after <span style="font-size: large;">Napoleon<span style="font-size: large;">'s European blockade halted the supply of Baltic wood to Britain. After the War of 1812, <span style="font-size: large;">the lumber barons of New Brunswick were quick to press <span style="font-size: large;">authorities <span style="font-size: large;">for a preferential tariff <span style="font-size: large;">against <span style="font-size: large;">non-imperial timber so they could <span style="font-size: large;">still turn a profit<span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.familyheritage.ca/Images/NBGallery/Frederick%20Wells%20and%20William%20Day%20ca%201840%20St%20Andrews%20with%20harbour%20and%20bay%20LAC%20C016386.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="443" src="http://www.familyheritage.ca/Images/NBGallery/Frederick%20Wells%20and%20William%20Day%20ca%201840%20St%20Andrews%20with%20harbour%20and%20bay%20LAC%20C016386.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"View of the Town of St. Andrew's with its magnificent Harbour and Bay",
ca. 1840</span>.<br />
Coloured lithograph by William Day (Day and Son
Lithographers) after a sketch by Frederick Wells. Credit: Library and
Archives Canada/C-016386.<a href="http://www.familyheritage.ca/newbrunswick.html">Family Heritage </a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">An 1831 description of<span style="font-size: large;"> pyrotechnics in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, shows the great enthusiasm for<span style="font-size: large;"> news of a</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> British ruling which maintained the tariff</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.25cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A boat said to be Baltic built, was filled with a cargo of
combustibles and ... towed into the harbour, where she was moored.
The Effigy of a distinguished supporter of the Baltic interests was
suspended from the mast with a paper in his hand bearing the
superscription "Baltic Timber Bill" - several pounds of
gunpowder were concealed under his waist coat, and there was a large
quantity in the boat. The combustibles were set fire to, and in due
seasons, poor ______ was blown to atoms." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="font-size: x-small;">C</span>ited in Graeme Wynn, "On the Margins of Empire", Illustrated History of Canada, 2007, p.199)</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.25cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">The protectionism of Sir John A. Macdonald's <span style="font-size: large;">National Policy <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">proves</span><span style="font-size: large;"> tarr<span style="font-size: large;">iffs were still a pressing issue <span style="font-size: large;">after confederation<span style="font-size: large;">. In <span style="font-size: large;">the Conservatives last electoral victory with <span style="font-size: large;">T<span style="font-size: large;">he Old <span style="font-size: large;">Chieftain</span>, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>reciprocity <span style="font-size: large;">in trade<span style="font-size: large;"> (<span style="font-size: large;">free trade<span style="font-size: large;"> on many goods)</span></span> was <span style="font-size: large;">on the <span style="font-size: large;">receiving</span> end of a symbolic scorching. <span style="font-size: large;">Historian</span></span></span></span></span></span> </span>D.J. Hall noted that when <span style="font-size: large;">J<span style="font-size: large;">ohn A. Macdonald<span style="font-size: large;">'s</span></span></span> Conservatives won the 18<span style="font-size: large;">9</span>1 election, supporters in Brandon, Manitoba, hit the streets in a victory parade. The procession included the burning of a bin of "Liberal" rubbish labelled "Unrestricted Reciprocity." Hall notes that "the Liberals were consoled when, despite the Tories' best efforts, it resolutely refused to ignite." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Hall, <i>The Young Napoleon</i>, p.50)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc8/r/na-3561-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc8/r/na-3561-1.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Glenbow Museum and Archives File number:</b> NA-3561-1<br />
<b>Title:</b> Social Credit rally poster, Fort Macleod, Alberta.<br />
<b>Date:</b> July 2, 1935</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">During the deprivations of the Great Depression, there is no wonder that <span style="font-size: large;">ordinary people again <span style="font-size: large;">vented their frustrations at<span style="font-size: large;"> an economic s<span style="font-size: large;">yste<span style="font-size: large;">m that<span style="font-size: large;"> had <span style="font-size: large;">left the<span style="font-size: large;">m desititu<span style="font-size: large;">te. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>When Alberta's Social Credit party under William "Bible Bill" Aberhart won an astounding majority in the provincial election of 1935, the village of Chancellor was witness to a conflagration. As John Irving notes in his work <i>The Social Credit Movement in Alberta</i> (1959),</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-left: 1.25cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To
celebrate the victory they piled up packing cases, boards, and poles
in the main street and built a huge bonfire. They made a
straw man, to represent the former member and defeated U.F.A.
candidate for Bow Valley, Jonathan M. Wheatley. Around this
effigy they wrapped the election posters of all the opposing parties,
and heaved it into the flames with a pitchfork. This act, they
explained, was not to be understood as an attack on Mr. Wheatley.
They meant nothing personal: they were burning the monetary
system.</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Irving, 332)</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.25cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mr. Wheatley's reaction to his stu<span style="font-size: large;">nt double<span style="font-size: large;">'s use in this fiscal allusion is not recorded. </span></span></span>The crowd's sentiments suggest the specious dogma of Social Credit financial ideology had taken a firm grasp of the Albertan psyche. Wheatley's treatment shows there could be sinister undertones to such pageantry, with the threat of violence directed at the effigy's mo<span style="font-size: large;">ld</span>.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzaldHlF_PQZmAZFsie9muh5k0tffQEx-Y2yGXHhDmizTgxJswgkhNPK0WFtes2PiBDNeLR4raaPkbFmIfmsm1PfxnMjXdtsKG7UAAZS8bcGLjgeWCzHpbJtj3m2Uu3HQfn6rcSE6IyQ/s1600/StJohnNBprotestMaine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzaldHlF_PQZmAZFsie9muh5k0tffQEx-Y2yGXHhDmizTgxJswgkhNPK0WFtes2PiBDNeLR4raaPkbFmIfmsm1PfxnMjXdtsKG7UAAZS8bcGLjgeWCzHpbJtj3m2Uu3HQfn6rcSE6IyQ/s320/StJohnNBprotestMaine.jpg" width="309" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protest of Maine Liquor Laws in Saint John N.B.<br />
featured burning effigies of US authorities. </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Econo<span style="font-size: large;">mics <span style="font-size: large;">and s<span style="font-size: large;">ymbolic arson is just one <span style="font-size: large;">theme <span style="font-size: large;">in <span style="font-size: large;">the fascinating history of Canadian public ritual. When the mob takes to the streets one never knows what allegories the<span style="font-size: large;"> more creative participants ma<span style="font-size: large;">y procure. Fire <span style="font-size: large;">is a powerful s<span style="font-size: large;">ymbol in<span style="font-size: large;"> all cultures, and has the added bonus of offering <span style="font-size: large;">a little light<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>in <span style="font-size: large;">the days <span style="font-size: large;">be<span style="font-size: large;">fore electrification.<span style="font-size: large;"> While the burning of figures <span style="font-size: large;">as economic symbols seems <span style="font-size: large;">innoc<span style="font-size: large;">e</span>nt enough, a more malev<span style="font-size: large;">olent</span> side <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">to these rituals arises with</span> the burning of <span style="font-size: large;">models of politicians or local people<span style="font-size: large;">. </span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>No matter<span style="font-size: large;"> how jovial a crowd of revellers may seem, one MUST f<span style="font-size: large;">eel attac<span style="font-size: large;">ked when observing <span style="font-size: large;">one's own likeness<span style="font-size: large;"> go up in flames!</span></span></span></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-76863537034705283542013-03-05T14:59:00.001-07:002014-03-11T17:00:58.605-06:00Airminded Patriotism: Second World War social history takes flight<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Studies of the Canadian home-front in
the Second World War are becoming increasingly frequent, indicating that military historians in the country are becoming
comfortable with the previously terrifying methodologies of social
history. The wartime citizens of <a href="http://ecommons.usask.ca/bitstream/handle/10388/etd-04212008-184000/kelly_bp.pdf?sequence=1">Saskatoon</a>,
<a href="http://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/handle/1993/3099">Winnipeg</a>
and <a href="http://www.ubcpress.ca/search/title_book.asp?BookID=4545">Verdun</a>
have all been the subject of recent scholarly examination and the
University of Calgary has a brand new edition to the literature in
Sarah Sewell's <a href="http://theses.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/457">masters
thesis</a>, "Making the Necessary Sacrifice: The Military's
Impact on a City at War, Calgary, 1939-1945."</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiST2uBbTCXUGty6SedZBzodx-gERDM_YG8GHh-MqBvyWcpPMyg6y9bAfR2hSwoxWnwihU5xUQ8M746yIfw30OiAiZRKac4h6opLFWq7lPj3bjgcRQRBHegtgV4998Gf3dOKZb55YXqNu4/s1600/saints-sinners-soldiers-canadas-second-world-war-jeffrey-a-keshen-paperback-cover-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiST2uBbTCXUGty6SedZBzodx-gERDM_YG8GHh-MqBvyWcpPMyg6y9bAfR2hSwoxWnwihU5xUQ8M746yIfw30OiAiZRKac4h6opLFWq7lPj3bjgcRQRBHegtgV4998Gf3dOKZb55YXqNu4/s1600/saints-sinners-soldiers-canadas-second-world-war-jeffrey-a-keshen-paperback-cover-art.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">A rising star in the constellation<span style="font-size: large;"> of</span> published works is
Jeff Keshen's<i> <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/journals/canadian_historical_review/v086/86.2stevenson01.html">Saints,
Sinners and Soldiers</a>,</i> which is finding its way
onto the lists of graduate seminars and comprehensive examinations
alike. Keshen's work is a mirror image of your typical Second World
War survey, as it crams the fighting overseas into a single chapter,
a treatment traditionally reserved for the impact of the war at home. Keshen
challenges the notion of a patriotic consensus, showing resistance to growing government control <span style="font-size: large;">by</span> farmers and workers, along with <span style="font-size: large;">the selfish actions of</span>
profiteer<span style="font-size: large;">s</span>. In Keshen's account, "The Good
War" loses much of its moral lustre.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Another recent work by an undisputed
heavyweight champion of Canadian military history, who has long
sparred with social theory, is Jonathan Vance's <i><a href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780195448092.do#.UTY3fDfNhEM">Maple
Leaf Empire.</a> </i><span style="font-style: normal;">Vance's work is beginning to be assigned as an <span style="font-size: large;">undergraduate text</span>, a<span style="font-size: large;">s it concisely</span>
surveys the Canadian military relationship with Mother Britain from
confederation to the Second World War. While Vance does touch on
moments of dissent, noting friction and misunderstanding between
Canadians and Britons in the early years of the <span style="font-size: large;">second</span> war, his account is
largely focused on <span style="font-size: large;">Anglo-Canadian solidarity</span>.
The major Canadian presence in Aldershot, the Vale of York and
Londonderry, are shown as a kind of reverse colonization, where,
(especially after those damn Yankees arrived), the Canadians were
welcomed with open arms.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a152136-v6.jpg;pveed352b9752c9b49" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a152136-v6.jpg;pveed352b9752c9b49" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b></b>
<br />
<div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
Members of the "Eager Beavers" entertainment troupe
from Montreal, who are visiting Aldershot, England, 4 July 1945.
Lieut. Arthur L. Cole / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-152136</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Vance
notes that one expression of solidarity with Britain on the Canadian
homefront was particularly air-minded. With the major threat to
Britain in <span style="font-size: large;">the early war</span> coming from the Luftwaffe, it is no surprise that
Canadians wished to purchase aircraft to do their part in defence.
In 1939 the Wings for Britain Fund was established to channel
patriotic contributions to the Air Ministry, and in August 1940 the
cause was given a great leg-up by Can<span style="font-size: large;">adian </span>millionaire Garfield Weston. Upon hearing of
the loss of 16 Spitfires in August 1940, Weston signed a cheque for
₤100,000. Weston claimed, "As a Dominion man, I've dug deep
into my jeans to help with the war [...] But I've got my money on a
winning horse." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cited in Vance, p. 164)</span> Others soon stepped
forward, with the publisher of the </span><i>Montreal Star</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
J.W. McConnell donated $1 million for a wh<span style="font-size: large;">ole</span> squadron built in Canada.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYud0FMChU6Jv2gCTsaEGkn6VV-bWFj70XHwvYQu7cLHI8G-um1Wgo85zq8cnM0z5a-CIffAQ_8ouilPjzAXRF77vWTkUY9YQ7832MlYRvDJNrhM4X0xwky1FVREYFKkMrfWPfHZyq2Y/s1600/Globe-17Aug1940-SpitfirePrisoners.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYud0FMChU6Jv2gCTsaEGkn6VV-bWFj70XHwvYQu7cLHI8G-um1Wgo85zq8cnM0z5a-CIffAQ_8ouilPjzAXRF77vWTkUY9YQ7832MlYRvDJNrhM4X0xwky1FVREYFKkMrfWPfHZyq2Y/s1600/Globe-17Aug1940-SpitfirePrisoners.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even prisoners contributed! Globe 1940</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Elites
were not the only ones to respond to the call for money for machines.
A particularly novel approach came from one Dorothy Christie of
Montreal, who sold some of her finer apparel to start a mailing
campaign to every other "Dorothy" she could find. Her
card's read, "Is your name Dorothy? If so, rally around and help
buy a Spitfire for Britain." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Vance, p. 166)</span> Dorothys across
the country held some 20,000 tea parties, concerts, car washes and
yard sales. Presumably the presentation Spitfire named "<span style="font-size: large;">Dorothy of the Empire and Gr<span style="font-size: large;">eat Britain" <span style="font-size: large;">was the result.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TEW9oHXZABpNfFIqCZAslhJUw-8b-x558iFPEKZPpNuhOkhCG6dXjPaNDRYke42amho9-Hdn7VknLxXilZzFJWhGMy1vHJSH3GwaQZNTTyvjevgQJnFTbrQVu-EXQ4X1iQK_vu2tuJo/s400/1943_spitfire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TEW9oHXZABpNfFIqCZAslhJUw-8b-x558iFPEKZPpNuhOkhCG6dXjPaNDRYke42amho9-Hdn7VknLxXilZzFJWhGMy1vHJSH3GwaQZNTTyvjevgQJnFTbrQVu-EXQ4X1iQK_vu2tuJo/s640/1943_spitfire.jpg" height="640" width="427" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The UK film "The First of the Few" was known as "Spitfire" in the United States. http://thegoldenagesite.blogspot.ca/2013/01/blog-post_808.html</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Wings
for Britain eventually purchased more than 2,200 aircraft, including
1,600 Spitfires, speaking to that model's ability to capture the
public imagination. Similar campaigns such as the <a href="http://ocanadianhistory.blogspot.ca/2011/04/public-discourse-of-mechanization-buy.html">Buy-A-Tank
campaign</a>, capitalized on the popular fascination with the
machines of war, and contributed to a discourse of mechanization
which pervaded the era. Added incentive for those that purchased a
whole plane (the Air Ministry put the cost of a fighter at
₤5,000 for fighter, which actually only pay<span style="font-size: large;">ed</span> for the airframe), was
selection of the name of the craft. Vance notes a puzzling choice of
one Herbert Morris, who dubbed his spitfire "Dirty Gerty
Vancouver"!</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Advertisements featuring "Canada's
New Mechanized Army", stirred the imaginations of young
Canadians as well. As Cynthia Comacchio notes in her chapter, <span style="font-style: normal;">"To
Hold on High the Torch of Liberty: Canadian Youth and the Second
World War."</span> in a recent <a href="http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/canada-and-the-second-world-war-essays-in-honour-of-terry-copp-geoffrey-hayes-mike-bechthold-and-matt-symes-eds/">edited
volume</a>, Canadian youth supported the war effort with an eye to
the skies. Around 40,000 high school boys worked on modelling
ninety different aircraft for British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
purposes.<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Comacchio, p. 43)</span> The models were to be used to
familiarize aircrew with a variety of allied and enemy planes.
Comacchio notes that girls got in on the building as well, perhaps
tiring of knitting socks for soldiers overseas. In some schools
girls protested that boys were delegated modelling duties, and
demanded participation. As <i>Saturday Night </i><span style="font-style: normal;">magazine
noted, "In these cases the knitting needles are idle while the
young ladies cut patterns and paint up the finished models."
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Saturday Night,</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 19
December 1942, as cited by Comacchio)</span> Comacchio, as can be expected
for a scholar with a keen eye for the construction of gender roles, note<span style="font-size: large;">s</span>, "Their
participation, however, clearly stayed within the domain of
traditional feminine skills." </span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e031/e000760106.jpg;pv47724b539e878592" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e031/e000760106.jpg;pv47724b539e878592" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b></b>
<br />
<div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
The "Little Happy Gang" children's knitting club,
who are knitting for Canadian soldiers and for the Canadian Red Cross
Society.
Victor Bull / National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada / C-053880</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">These
patriotic responses offer a counter to Keshen's mirror image of the
"Good War"<span style="font-size: large;">. <span style="font-size: large;">F</span></span>ar from offering a black or white picture
of the conflict, however, <span style="font-size: large;">new works </span>show that, despite the tankers of ink spilled
examining the Second World War,<span style="font-size: large;"> complex </span>new approaches may still be
found. For Vance, "The speed and efficiency with which the
Canadian community in Britain mobilized to support charitable causes
like the Wings for Britain Fund demonstrates that Canada's empire in
Britain from the First World War had never really disappeared."
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Vance, p. 166) </span> With a nod to Veronica Strong-Boag's </span><a href="http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_new_day_recalled.html?id=8VwqAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y"><i>A
New Day Recalled</i></a><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Comacchio's study notes that "what imprints individual and
collective memory, is not the universality of experience so much as
the fundamental elements of age and life stage." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p.28)</span> War
could become a shortcut to adulthood, yet also "inspired generational
solidarity". <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p.56) </span>There is no questioning that the shared
experience of the war shaped the Class of '45 in schools across the
nation.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Further
Reading:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">A
article from Legion magazine further elaborates on the Spitfire funds
and patriotic contributions:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/2012/09/the-gift-of-air-power/</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">One of the Garfield Weston spit<span style="font-size: small;">fires<span style="font-size: small;"> was discovered in an Irish bog:</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009347/Spitfire-recovered-Irish-peat-bog-70-years-crashing-Ireland.html </span></span> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Hayes, G., M. Bechthold, and M. Symes.
Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honor of Terry Copp.
Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=ksabpwAACAAJ.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Keshen, Jeff. <i>Saints, Sinners, and
Soldiers: Canada’s Second World War</i>. Vancouver: UBC Press,
2004. http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy051/2004541329.html</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Vance, Jonathan.F. <i>Maple Leaf
Empire: Canada, Britain, and Two World Wars</i>. OUP Canada, 2012.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-39189041170934015582012-12-24T11:39:00.000-07:002012-12-24T11:39:21.225-07:00Scorched Earth: Kitchener's Boer War Counterinsurgency<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEssNZGrmgP6pU7dERpvV3p9ieTvWREwjr3Cw_E2ylmnvPu8Nryti5yu9yzJDgBthA9pFcfVs_sMi53oaXfnjx9HWlpxqGpQpU8BWCIq0xVzrfS_nYTP8k5qM4toqdI0TILUsUrMmMZKU/s1600/BoerCavalry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEssNZGrmgP6pU7dERpvV3p9ieTvWREwjr3Cw_E2ylmnvPu8Nryti5yu9yzJDgBthA9pFcfVs_sMi53oaXfnjx9HWlpxqGpQpU8BWCIq0xVzrfS_nYTP8k5qM4toqdI0TILUsUrMmMZKU/s320/BoerCavalry.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A large group of horsemen of the Imperial<br />
Yeomanry galloping over a plain. © IWM (Q 72318)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">The old myth of the Boer War as one <span style="font-size: large;">of the last </span></span>gent<span style="font-size: large;">lemanly wars<span style="font-size: large;">, tied to roman<span style="font-size: large;">tic visions of honourable combatant knights, has long been <span style="font-size: large;">revised and retired. The conflict<span style="font-size: large;"> ha<span style="font-size: large;">d no lack of ferocity<span style="font-size: large;"> and destruction, and <span style="font-size: large;">the line between combatants and non-combata<span style="font-size: large;">nts was <span style="font-size: large;">very much blurred.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> The guerilla tactics of Boer
commandos from 1900 posed a serious difficulty to the British Army. Attempts to curb the mobility
of small groups of mounted riflemen included the use of blockhouses
and barbed wire, with mobile columns attempting to press the Boers
towards these defences. Ian Beckett notes in </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Modern
Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">
(2001) that a more controversial method was the establishment of “concentration camps”<span style="font-size: large;">,</span> the destruction of houses
and crops and the removal of livestock.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">After the fall of Bloemfontein in the spring of 1900, Field Marshal
Lord Roberts had ordered the protection of Boer property and allowed
Boers considered loyal to return to their homes. After <span style="font-size: large;">guerrillas</span>
began to emerge in the summer, however, Roberts ordered the
destruction of houses close to vulnerable communications infrastructure. Other efforts to detract from <span style="font-size: large;">guerrilla</span> attacks were collective fines and the compulsion of Boer
civilians to ride on trains.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2PwYIJi-HKTQNaFLOnjN_chavXe3qOtIVB8zrPNcDswYbuH24eF9aDiwwXxKd9wB9S3webpwy0hmg0iO6p5CdjDeLUnGAG-D-SQ2nYifFj8YZyI2m67YMUKXMohOSjKVhnraOdbINac/s1600/KitchenerBoer.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2PwYIJi-HKTQNaFLOnjN_chavXe3qOtIVB8zrPNcDswYbuH24eF9aDiwwXxKd9wB9S3webpwy0hmg0iO6p5CdjDeLUnGAG-D-SQ2nYifFj8YZyI2m67YMUKXMohOSjKVhnraOdbINac/s1600/KitchenerBoer.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kitchener</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Roberts
policies may be deemed moderate. He rescinded less discriminate
policies, and ordered the destruction of only those houses which were
proven to be used by Boer fighters. From December of 1900, however,
Roberts<span style="font-size: large;">' <span style="font-size: large;">successor </span></span>Lord Kitchener extended the internment system <span style="font-size: large;">to include</span>
both military prisoners and civilian refugees. Kitchener attempted to remove
the entire Boer population from the veld. As he wrote in March 1901, "The refugee camps for women and surrendered<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>boers [sic] are I am sure doing good work[;] it enables a man to surrender and not lose his stock and movable property . .. The women left in farms give complete intelligence to the boers of all our movements and feed the commandos in their neighbourhood<span style="font-size: large;">".</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Krebs, <i>History Workshop</i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">, No. 33, p. 41)</span> </span> </span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Kitchener’s internment policy was aimed at women as well,
who were thought to be key figures in motivating the Boers. Women were originally <span style="font-size: large;">rounded up <span style="font-size: large;">to prevent them from spying for the Boers. Yet as Paula Krebs suggests, this motivation was kept quiet, as it would admit that the women w<span style="font-size: large;">ere incarcerated due to their military activities. </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Krebs, p.42) </span> Liberals and Irish M.P.s had been arguing that <span style="font-size: large;">th<span style="font-size: large;">ose in the <span style="font-size: large;">camps were <span style="font-size: large;">prisoners of war<span style="font-size: large;">, no<span style="font-size: large;">t refugees</span>. In </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">March of 1901, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">an exchange <span style="font-size: large;">in the House of Commons evok<span style="font-size: large;">ed</span> the gendered na<span style="font-size: large;">ture of imperialism</span>. Irish M.P. John Dillon</span> asked, "What civili<span style="font-size: large;">sed government ever dep<span style="font-size: large;">orted women? Had it come to this, that this Empire was afraid of women."</span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Krebs, p.42)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5hJpatMel0dCxwPiadO7bQmzB5V7xLZLkFfu7d00ptLm0T576CANGeMTc8_RLzqqJ3ZixiVXJMbd-DOSJ69P4R-XQkf7oxjVed134M_USPAMRrhvr2Qy6KAUZJ3ZZUEq2jtwZWA67iU/s1600/ConcBoerMemorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5hJpatMel0dCxwPiadO7bQmzB5V7xLZLkFfu7d00ptLm0T576CANGeMTc8_RLzqqJ3ZixiVXJMbd-DOSJ69P4R-XQkf7oxjVed134M_USPAMRrhvr2Qy6KAUZJ3ZZUEq2jtwZWA67iU/s320/ConcBoerMemorial.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<dl id="yui_3_7_3_3_1356371874514_338">
<dt><span class="PhotoTitle" id="yui_3_7_3_2_1356372097779_243">"Garden of Remembrance, Aliwal North"</span> </dt>
<dt>Concentration Camp Memorial</dt>
<dt>License Creative Commons</dt>
<dd>
<span class="ccIcn ccIcnSmall"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/"><img alt="Attribution" border="0" src="http://l.yimg.com/g/images/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif" title="Attribution" /><img alt="Noncommercial" border="0" src="http://l.yimg.com/g/images/cc_icon_noncomm_small.gif" title="Noncommercial" /></a></span>
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/" title="Attribution-NonCommercial License">Some rights reserved</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/57608438@N08/">G Bayliss</a>
</dd></dl>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Beckett
suggests that some women were held hostage to provoke Boer
surrenders. </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many women and children were condemned to a nomadic existence<span style="font-size: large;"> when their homes were razed. Ins<span style="font-size: large;">ide</span> the camps, Boer children were subject <span style="font-size: large;">to colonial indoctrination. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Research by Paul Zietsman notes that education provided <span style="font-size: large;">in concentration camps attempted to Anglicize Boer children, <span style="font-size: large;">which shows parallels with <span style="font-size: large;">colonial abor<span style="font-size: large;">i</span>ginal policies of assimilation behind resid<span style="font-size: large;">ential schools.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> These policies invoked further political controversy back in
Britain, especially when poor management of the camps led to the
deaths of nearly one quarter of the 116,000 civilians detained. When <span style="font-size: large;">camp tents began to be populated by women and children, <span style="font-size: large;">Britain, and especially <span style="font-size: large;">B<span style="font-size: large;">ritish women, <span style="font-size: large;">were alerted to a potential cause. </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">After <span style="font-size: large;">the <span style="font-size: large;">uproar <span style="font-size: large;">regarding the camps, Kitchener still <span style="font-size: large;">claimed that their function<span style="font-size: large;">al value outweigh<span style="font-size: large;">ed the dissent. In <span style="font-size: large;">1901, </span>Kitchener<span style="font-size: large;"> claimed, "I wish I could<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>get rid of these camps but it is the only way to settle the country and<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>enable the men to leave their commandos and come in to their families<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>without being caught and tried for desertion.<span style="font-size: large;">" <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Krebs, p.43)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e439/e010965372-v8.jpg;pv191c518fb8aeb079" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="520" src="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e439/e010965372-v8.jpg;pv191c518fb8aeb079" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong></strong>
<div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
Typical group of Boer farmers at "Compensation" claims tent after war.Rodolphe Lemieux / Library and Archives Canada 1902-1903.</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
success of these efforts is still <span style="font-size: large;">de<span style="font-size: large;">bated </span></span>among military historians. It would not be the <span style="font-size: large;">last time that <span style="font-size: large;">the tactics of counterinsurgency led to<span style="font-size: large;"> political turmoil domestically. Curio<span style="font-size: large;">usly, the tactic of burning farms was not as contro<span style="font-size: large;">versial as the camps themselves. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">By</span> May of 1902,
somewhere in the range of 30,000 homes had been razed<span style="font-size: large;"> along with many acres of crops. </span></span>Larry Addington noted that K<span style="font-size: large;">itchener<span style="font-size: large;">'s tactics were very "un-Victorian", and <span style="font-size: large;">observes</span> the "sy<span style="font-size: large;">stematic sweeps through Boer <span style="font-size: large;">country foreshadowed American <span style="font-size: large;">'</span>Search and Destroy<span style="font-size: large;">'</span> tactics during the Vietnam War nearly seventy years later." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Addington, <i>Patterns of War since the Eighteenth Century</i>, p.124). <span style="font-size: large;">Death rates are a matter of some debate, but figures of 25,000 Boer deaths, a<span style="font-size: large;">long with 12,000 black Africans. The conflict<span style="font-size: large;">s' brutal policy against non-combatants<span style="font-size: large;"> and </span>domestic outrage at the harder facets of <span style="font-size: large;">suppresion, resonate with stud<span style="font-size: large;">ents of twentieth-century counterinsurgency.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-3797787372665558262012-12-18T20:42:00.000-07:002012-12-19T10:54:52.033-07:00Review - James Wood's "Militia Myths"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1812.kfpl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/jefferys-militia-training.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFkZasFtBFRFNdwwBH3SfTX5v2BPwvYoG1afrk3xxxPF13qq26ubKQew-bobJ3dheIVDfV3zd86sbV6CacMKIhEHLZ2igbLVKLojQRJPK7S259tpSwx25KJhcmGvX1IP9xtCwCwtUR4y8/s1600/WoodMilitiaMyths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFkZasFtBFRFNdwwBH3SfTX5v2BPwvYoG1afrk3xxxPF13qq26ubKQew-bobJ3dheIVDfV3zd86sbV6CacMKIhEHLZ2igbLVKLojQRJPK7S259tpSwx25KJhcmGvX1IP9xtCwCwtUR4y8/s320/WoodMilitiaMyths.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">James Wood. Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, <br />1896-1921. Vancouver University of British Columbia Press, 2011. <br />368 pp. $35.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-7748-1766-0.<br /><br />Reviewed by William Pratt (University of Calgary)<br />Published on H-War (December, 2012)<br />Commissioned by Margaret Sankey<br /><br />The patrimony of the Canadian militia myth is conventionally traced back to the first Anglican bishop of Toronto, John Strachan (1778-1867), who attributed British success in the War of 1812 to the stalwart Loyalist militia. The notion that citizen soldiers were the best way to defend the country has resonated in the country ever since. Indeed, Jack Granatstein's survey _Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace_ opens with the statement that, "the central myth in the history of Canadian arms is, and always has been, that the colonists and citizens provide their own defence."[1] In the twentieth century, the old story of a Canadian Expeditionary Force composed of sturdy woodsmen, farmer's sons, and other pastoral citizenry that answered the call of Britain in 1914 has long been refuted by Canadian military historians. A recent work in the Studies in Canadian Military History series, co-published by the University of British Columbia Press and Canadian War Museum, proves, however, that Canada's militia myth has a much longer intellectual genealogy, and was by no means a static concept. As its author writes, "Although Canadians retained their confidence in citizen soldiers throughout the first decade of the twentieth century, the range of justifications they expressed in defence of that faith points not to a single all-encompassing militia myth but, rather, to a collection of competing and even contrary ideas by which they ordered their understanding of war" (p. 143). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />James Wood's _Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921_ examines the ideal of the trained militiaman in military rhetoric of the day, and the eventual replacement of this icon after the First World War by the archetype of the untrained civilian. The idea of the citizen soldier is defined by Wood as "a belief in the conviction that good citizens should provide for their own defence" (p. 10). Wood focuses largely on the literary and cultural elements of Canadian military journals, especially rhetoric found in the _Canadian Military Gazette, _which is systematically analyzed here for the first time_. _The work stems from the author's dissertation at Wilfrid Laurier University supervised by Roger Sarty, which is indicated by exhaustive citation and academic prose.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In search of the lineage of the militia myth, Wood delves much further than the War of 1812 into the traditions bestowed to the North American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, regular soldiers were regarded with a "mix of contempt and fear" (p .5). Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army connected standing armies to tyranny in the minds of many, and such ideas, when transplanted to North American soil, encouraged praise for the British North American militia in the War of 1812, and later the Dominion of Canada's nascent military exploits in the late nineteenth century. After noting these British antecedents, however, Wood writes that "In its Canadian context, the militia myth refers to a dangerously faulty memory of the War of 1812 and the ill-founded confidence of Canadians in the abilities of amateur citizen soldiers" (p. 11). </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1812.kfpl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/jefferys-militia-training.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="449" src="http://1812.kfpl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/jefferys-militia-training.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">“Militia Training on the King’s Birthday,” by C.W. Jefferys, from <i>The Picture Gallery of Canadian History</i>, Vol 2. Toronto : Ryerson Press, 1945, p. 116. http://1812.kfpl.ca/war-of-1812-may-5/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFicH9d4wjR5eRBu1_uXg-2ZiApQOglhLy8c4qCA-mcZephKWOcr7wr0EVKEjVKTlbgxj44NntXMTgEJfkmFYtIUFTxDj-dLQG4jn0DhWzX_3P5rJ2VTRdxVz4QnUWv5OBEQ-qhhah7IY/s1600/cdnmilgzt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the Dominion this myth did not go unchallenged. The small instructional cadre of the Permanent Force and representatives of the British Army (especially the British General Officer Commanding the Canadian Militia) fought against the notion that partially trained citizen soldiers were enough for the purposes of Canadian defense. To these groups, Wood adds "an identifiable group of professionally minded militia officers whose efforts Canadian historians have mostly overlooked," who did not call for a professional standing army, yet railed against public apathy towards defense (p. 6). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Before the Boer War, the Canadian militia ideal was rooted in the home defense tradition, and strongly connected to marksmanship. Public apathy was shaken with the Venezuela Crisis of 1895-96 and the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898. A revival of military interest emerged in the early years of the Laurier government. This enthusiasm was largely expressed in the proliferation of rifle shooting, both in paramilitary rifle clubs, and as formal training endeavors. Military reform was stifled by an aversion to standing armies until general officer commanding, Major General Sir Edward Thomas Henry Hutton, skillfully used the rhetoric of a "national army" to promote change. Hutton is shown to leverage a national appeal for the militia, working hard to popularize it in Quebec. He urged Canadians to take up universal military training on the Swiss model and encouraged marksmanship. Wood argues that while Hutton was successful in invigorating militarism in Canada, he was influenced by ideas that were already rooted in the debates of colonial militiamen. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Despite this awakening, before the Boer War, the Canadian militia was, "more deeply involved in its social role than its military function" (p. 29). <br /><br />The Boer War itself fostered notions that an armed citizenry could best regular soldiers, yet raised the problem of deploying a home defense militia overseas. Instead of the notion in the historical literature which suggests that militia officers believed in an untrained citizen soldier, the debate after the Boer War was instead focused on what degree of training was required (p. 94). The Dominion Militia Act of 1904 enshrined ideas that the colonial troops had performed well in the Boer War, and promoted the idea of a citizen army. <br /><br />Wood argues that despite the contentions of historian C. P. Stacey, the period before 1909-10 was characterized by a conception of home defense against an American invasion. With the outbreak of the Great War, the focus shifted from a home defense force to an expeditionary force, and the eclipse of the active militia in popular esteem by the Canadian Expeditionary Force. In the years before the war, rhetoric increasingly dwelt on the responsibilities of citizenship when promoting military participation. As Wood notes, "Conditioned before the war to accept military service as a duty of citizenship in time of war, when the war in Europe turned into a national crusade and the CEF became a symbol of the nation-in-arms, this pre-war understanding of a citizen's duty became one of the foundations of conscription in 1917" (p. 212). Up to 1917, Canada's "home defence orientation" was associated with the "citizen soldier ideal" (p. 1). After conscription, the long-serving prewar militiaman was overshadowed by the notion of the innately talented civilian going straight from civvy-street to the battlefield with a modicum of training.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFicH9d4wjR5eRBu1_uXg-2ZiApQOglhLy8c4qCA-mcZephKWOcr7wr0EVKEjVKTlbgxj44NntXMTgEJfkmFYtIUFTxDj-dLQG4jn0DhWzX_3P5rJ2VTRdxVz4QnUWv5OBEQ-qhhah7IY/s1600/cdnmilgzt.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFicH9d4wjR5eRBu1_uXg-2ZiApQOglhLy8c4qCA-mcZephKWOcr7wr0EVKEjVKTlbgxj44NntXMTgEJfkmFYtIUFTxDj-dLQG4jn0DhWzX_3P5rJ2VTRdxVz4QnUWv5OBEQ-qhhah7IY/s1600/cdnmilgzt.JPG" /></a>While a host of newspapers and journals are listed in the bibliography, the main source of analysis is the _Canadian Military Gazette. _This was the only military journal to continue publication for the period studied. The journal was self-proclaimedly nonpartisan and reprinted articles on military themes from across the country. As with any discursive study of a print source, ascertaining the extent to which views expressed in the journal were read and accepted by Canadians is problematic. Wood notes that hundreds of men may have read a single copy in the mess, but it may be equally true that copies moldered without ever being read. That the journal was quoted by newspapers across the country is a good indicator that its columns carried some weight, as are frequent references in the _Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs _(pp. 14-16). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />In addressing the historiography of the ideas surrounding the Canadian militia, Wood grapples with both historical heavyweights and a new breed of contenders. Carl Berger's classic work on imperialist thought in Canada, _A Sense of Power _(1971), posited that Canadian nationalism was heavily influenced by, and compatible with, imperial ties to Britain. Wood challenges these imperial <span style="font-size: large;">c</span>onnections when applied to the militia, suggesting that, "the indigenous citizen soldier traditions of the country" were highly influential in forming imperial notions in Canada (p. 55). Militia criticisms of the Permanent Force often hinged on the British character of the regulars, blaming them for bending to the whims of patronage (pp. 58-64). Wood notes that while military reformers couched their criticisms in rhetoric which emphasized duty to the British Empire, the specific reforms they promoted advocated home defense (p. 143). Wood is especially set against the utility of gender studies in examining the militia. For example, he considers the approach of Mark Moss's _Manliness and Militarism: Educating young Boys in Ontario for War _(2001) to be ahistorical. While Moss argues that the cadet movement was an exercise in socialization and control, fostering militarism and patriotism, Wood contends that the long-term military aims were never overshadowed by progressive social prescriptions (p.163). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />The extent to which the ideas in the _Canadian Military Gazette _and those expressed in the speeches of the Canadian Defence League or various general officers commanding were shared by the general public is, of course, questionable. Wood convincingly suggests that while at the beginning of the Laurier era, the general public was little interested in military affairs, by the time of the Dreadnought crisis in 1909-10, Canadians had awakened to military demands. The degree of sophistication of the civilian public's thoughts are challenged, however; Wood notes that "many Canadians simply enjoyed a good parade and felt, almost instinctively, that maintaining a national army was simply something that 'grown up' nations did" (p. 3). <br /><br />Wood's work expands our knowledge of the Canadian militia beyond the elite imperialists and general officers commanding. By a close study of the _Canadian Military Gazette _and the speeches of militia officers and advocates, he shows the complex varieties of thought regarding the role of the citizen soldier in Canadian defense. By doing so he muddies the waters of the traditional historiography surrounding imperialism and the militia in Canada. More a history of military thought than a discursive study of popular conceptions, the work will appeal to academic military historians, while leaving gendered analysis and discourse and identity studies to the social historians. <br /><br />Note <br /><br />[1]. Jack L. Granatstein, _Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the <br />Peace _(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 3_._ <br /><br />Citation: William Pratt. Review of Wood, James, _Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. <br />December, 2012.<br />URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=34351<br /><br />This work is licensed under a Creative Commons <br />Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States <br />License.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-19713948235559165702012-11-21T07:49:00.000-07:002012-11-21T07:49:01.695-07:00Chief Crowfoot's Military Youth<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc1/c/na-51-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc1/c/na-51-1.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Title:</strong> Earliest known<br />
illustration of Crowfoot.<br />
<strong>Date:</strong> 1875<br />
<strong>Photographer/Illustrator:</strong><br />
Nevitt, Richard Barrington<strong> </strong><br />
<strong>Glenbow Image No:</strong> NA-51-1</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chief Crowfoot of the Blackfoot, is generally not known as a generalissimo. After his abstention from the 1885 North-west Rebellion, he rose to notoriety as an emblem of loyalty, or in the parlance of the late nineteenth-century, a "good Indian." Yet like any resident of the West in the nineteenth-century, Crowfoot did not live a life devoid of violence. Hugh Dempsey's biography, <i>Crowfoot: Chief of the Blackfoot</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(1972, 1982)</span> recorded the problems discerning the details of the future chief's youth as an occasional warrior. Dempsey wrote in the early 1970s, "Blackfoot tales of war often were
embellished with supernatural acts, while the date and place were not
considered worthy of recall. For this reason, the telling of [Crowfoot's] first and subsequent war exploits can only attempt to follow
a logical path through the maze of fact and legend." <span style="font-size: small;">(Dempsey, p. 13)</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Crowfoot's youth shows numerous examples of his skill at warfare. In several raids on enemy camps during the 1840s, he was shot by the enemy. In one instance, Crowfoot daringly ran into an enemy camp and touched a lodge of the enemy Crow <span style="font-size: large;">tribe</span>. Subject to Crow gunfire, a ball hit Crowfoot in the arm, but passed through without shattering any bone. In another raid on the Shoshoni<span style="font-size: large;"> t<span style="font-size: large;">ribe</span></span>, Crowfoot was more seriously injured by gun fire, necessitating help to return to his own camp. The lead ball had lodged in Crowfoot's back, and as it was never removed, caused him problems in later life.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc4/x/na-2347-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="394" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc4/x/na-2347-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong></strong><br />
<strong>Title:</strong> Combat between <span class="searchHighlight">Blackfoot</span>, Assiniboine and Cree people, Fort McKenzie, Montana.<br />
<strong>Date:</strong> August 28, 1833<br />
<strong>Photographer/Illustrator:</strong> Bodmer, Karl<strong>Glenbow Archives Image No:</strong> NA-2347-1</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Crowfoot was by all accounts a brave warrior, and several episodes narrated by Dempsey enforce the claim. On one <span style="font-size: large;">occasion</span>, Crowfoot was out with a party which hoped to steal horses from the Crees, but encountered a<span style="font-size: large;">n enemy band</span> <span style="font-size: large;">wandering the windswept prairie on their</span> own horse-stealing foray. As Dempsey wrote,</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Crowfoot was among the first to rush into the fight, where he singled out a Cree warrior who was running toward the trees. To travel <span style="font-size: large;">more</span> quickly, Crowfoot hurled aside his rifle as he ran after his enemy. The Cree reached the dense bushes, but Crowfoot followed him. Risking ambush, he plunged along the trail until he came close enough to grab the Cree by the hair. Wrenching him backward, Crowfoot plunged the knife into his chest and killed him on the spot. He then hacked the scalp from the Cree's head and returned to his comrades, who had also been victorious. <span style="font-size: small;">(Dempsey, p.18)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc7/c/na-1241-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc7/c/na-1241-10.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Glenbow Image No:</strong> NA-1241-10<br />
<strong>Title:</strong> Chief <span class="searchHighlight">Crowfoot</span>, Blackfoot.<br />
<strong>Date:</strong> 1885<br />
<strong>Photographer/Illustrator:</strong><br />
Gully, F., Calgary, Alberta</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Another violent encounter with the Crees later developed into a shooting match between rifle pits. When stalemate seemed to threaten, Crowfoot left his defences and crawled forward towards the enemy. Dempsey writes that "[a]rrows and balls whistled past him, but he kept moving forward until he found a shallow depression midway between the two lines. Then reaching into his firebag, he withdrew his pipe and turned to his comrades, shouting, 'Oki, come and smoke with me!" <span style="font-size: small;">(Dempsey, p. 18)</span> Cr<span style="font-size: large;">ow</span>foot's calm in the face of danger inspired his followers to start crawling forward towards his position, and when the Cree saw this movement, they assumed the worst, turned and fled. Leading by example had won the day.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A bloody confrontation in 1873, shows that revenge could be the causus bellus of First Nations warfare. Crowfoot's eldest son had left the camp at Three Hills and headed to war. The son was Crowfoot's only healthy son. One son suffered from developmental issues and the other had poor vision. The eldest would never return to his father's camp, having been shot by the Cree north of the Red Deer River.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As Crowfoot mourned, his anger grew. Dempsey notes, that Crowfoot's one true flaw was his fiery temper, and in this case his wrath was directed towards the Cree tribe. (p. 67) As Dempsey wrote, "Revenge did not have to be upon the actual killer of Crowfoot's son; it was knowledge enough that the Crees were responsible. The blood of a Cree, any Cree, would avenge the loss." (p. 71) After searching the prairies, a small group of Cree were discovered. One man was killed, his body "scalped and mutilated, satisfied Crowfoot's desire for revenge." (p. 71) Later on, when a peace treaty was in effect between the two tribes, Crowfoot adopted the future Cree chief, Poundmaker, as his son. Given the previous revenge killing of a Cree man, the choice of Poundmaker as a "replacement" for his eldest son is particularly ironic.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFb47Z4J3uH0nh6qpGoj66BMJEUfWpOYwJrcN_uXHsVCX-kZ6Cz_WuwFQYQk4iSDcl7d6NAQ6UhFN2nHhV4YcDqdX5OjfQJ3bGdksRiVFRV2wSXJ_9sPeX_itlzYHDjF7RwwjyjH4TWZk/s1600/Crowfoot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFb47Z4J3uH0nh6qpGoj66BMJEUfWpOYwJrcN_uXHsVCX-kZ6Cz_WuwFQYQk4iSDcl7d6NAQ6UhFN2nHhV4YcDqdX5OjfQJ3bGdksRiVFRV2wSXJ_9sPeX_itlzYHDjF7RwwjyjH4TWZk/s320/Crowfoot.jpg" width="188" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong></strong>
<br />
<div class="column70">
<div class="titletable">
<div class="titlecolA">
Title: "Crowfoot", Chief of the</div>
<div class="titlecolA">
Blackfeet Indians. </div>
</div>
</div>
Credit: O.B. Buell/Library<br />
and Archives Canada/C-001871<br />
Date 1886 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Crowfoot's power<span style="font-size: large;"> i<span style="font-size: large;">n the 1870s and beyond were not<span style="font-size: large;"> due to his military prowess. When chiefs such as Big Swan and Old Sun </span></span>rode out against their enemies, Crowfoot <span style="font-size: large;">re<span style="font-size: large;">mained in his lodge.<span style="font-size: large;"> This being said, <span style="font-size: large;">Crowfoot's reputation of bravery in <span style="font-size: large;">his earlier<span style="font-size: large;"> years could not have hurt him in later life.<span style="font-size: large;"> The 1870s were the last gasp of Crowfoot's power amongst his tribe. During th<span style="font-size: large;">is</span> <span style="font-size: large;">pe<span style="font-size: large;">riod</span></span> he had a large herd of around <span style="font-size: large;">400 horses, and still enj<span style="font-size: large;">oyed <span style="font-size: large;">the esteem of his people. Even at <span style="font-size: large;">the signing of <span style="font-size: large;">Treaty No. 7, however, Crowfoot was not <span style="font-size: large;">considered the greater leader of the <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Blackfoot confederacy. Both Red Crow and Rainy Chief of the Bloods had larger followers, and Red Crow was closer to what one might call the leader of the combined Blackfoot, Blood and <span style="font-size: large;">Piegan tribes.</span></span> </span></span></span></span></span>By 1881, <span style="font-size: large;">whisky had <span style="font-size: large;">crushed the <span style="font-size: large;">organization of Crowfoot<span style="font-size: large;">'s pe<span style="font-size: large;">ople. Dempsey notes that it was only "with the o<span style="font-size: large;">ld order changing [that] he emerged as Crowfoot the peacemaker." (p. 81)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-21998029224629157692012-11-18T09:09:00.002-07:002012-11-18T09:29:52.573-07:00Jean L'Heureux: Itinerant Imposter Priest<span style="font-size: large;">Some claim that Canadian history is boring. While it may lack grandiose figures like Abraham Lincoln, or, (thankfully), megalomaniacs like Adolph Hitler, it does have some colourful characters whose biographies offer material for edutainment. One such figure in the early history of the Canadian West is Jean L'Heureux. Rejected by <span style="font-size: large;">fur-traders</span> and the clergy alike for both pretending to be a priest and practising homosexuality, L'Heureux enters <span style="font-size: large;">mainstream </span>Canadian history as a treaty interpreter<span style="font-size: large;">. His personal life and beliefs largely remain a mystery, but what is <span style="font-size: large;">known <span style="font-size: large;">suggest a man on the <span style="font-size: large;">distant </span>fringe<span style="font-size: large;">s of society, who felt mo<span style="font-size: large;">st</span> comfortable wit<span style="font-size: large;">h the First Nations of the foothills and plain<span style="font-size: large;">s.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://hws.alberta.ca/viewimage.aspx?img=PAA\Images\A16120.jpg&width=625" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://hws.alberta.ca/viewimage.aspx?img=PAA\Images\A16120.jpg&width=625" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: John Le Heureux, Red Crow, Sgt. Percy,<br />
Crowfoot, Eagle Tail, and Three Bulls.<br />
Provincial Archives of Alberta Number: A16120 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">L'Heureux's early life is a mystery<span style="font-size: large;">. S</span>ources claiming he was born in L'Acadie, Trois-Rivieres, near Saint-Hyacinthe, at Longueuil, or even in France. Hugh Dempsey's entry for the<a href="http://www.biographi.ca/EN/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=7532"> Dictionary of Canadian Biography </a>simply states that he was born around 1837 in Lower Canada. He was well educated, <span style="font-size: large;">having </span>trained for the priesthood as a young man but was kicked out by the Oblates. Sources vary as to the reason for his displacement, but homosexuality or theft <span style="font-size: large;">have both been suggested</span> by historians.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">L'Heureux arises in the history of the Canadian West in 1861, when he was staying at the St. Albert mission (near Fort Edmonton). From the priests<span style="font-size: large;">'</span> perspective, L'Heureux's term in the region was inglorious. <span style="font-size: large;">A</span>fter being discovered engag<span style="font-size: large;">ed</span> in sodomy, he was quickly sent south. The priests arranged for him to head to Montana with a band of Blackfoot. Not one to follow others' plans, <span style="font-size: large;">L'Heureux was quickly donning a cloak of authority. <span style="font-size: large;">B</span></span>y wearing a cassock, he told the Blackfoot that he was working for the Oblates, and managed to trick the Jesuits in Montana into believing he was a secular priest.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As Hugh Dempsey describes, L'Heureux found the Blackfoot more understanding that the Euro-Canadians:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Over the next several years L’Heureux lived with the Blackfoot, often
wearing a cassock and performing baptisms and marriages. He was despised
and vilified by the clergy and fur traders both for being homosexual
and for pretending to be a priest. He was also mistrusted because of his
complete devotion to the Indians who, he had discovered, did not
condemn homosexuality. He took the Blackfoot name of Nio’kskatapi, or
Three Persons, after the Holy Trinity. </span><a href="http://www.biographi.ca/EN/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=7532">(CDBO)</a></span></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc6/e/na-2968-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc6/e/na-2968-4.jpg" width="285" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Title:</b> Group of Blackfoot Confederacy natives.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Remarks:</b> L-R: One Spot [pipe bearer of Crowfoot],</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Blood; Red Crow, Blood; Jean L'<span class="searchHighlight">Heureux</span>, interpreter;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> North Axe, Peigan; <b>Date:</b> [ca. middle 1880s]</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Glenbow</span>File number:</b> NA-2968-4</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was perhaps this acceptance by the Blackf<span style="font-size: large;">oot </span>that made L'Heureux such an advocate for the First Nations of the region. Throughout the 1860s to 1883 he routinely lobbied for help against epidemics, starvation, and the American army. In 1877, at the Treaty No. 7 signing, L'Heureux refused to <span style="font-size: large;">translate for</span> Lieutenant Governor David Laird as he would be interpreting for Crowfoot and other Blackfoot chiefs. Frank Oliver, noted that L'Heureux, "stood unswervingly with the Indians as an Indian." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Dempsey, <a href="http://www.biographi.ca/EN/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=7532">CDBO</a>)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">L'Heureux worked for the Department of Indian Affairs during the 1880s, but was dismissed in 1891 for favouring the Roman Catholics. His autumn years were spent in Father Lacombe's hermitage at Pincher Creek, and later he moved further into the foothills where he lived in seclusion. In 1912, he was accepted into the Lacombe Home in Midnapore, "still wearing his cassock and clerical collar." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Dempsey, CDBO)</span> In 1919 he passed away and was recorded by the church as a "lay missionary."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Elsewhere Dempsey summarizes L'Heureux's mixed reputation among the principle groups in the early Canadian West. The comments may serve as <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">unfortunat<span style="font-size: large;">e </span></span>epitaph</span> for a<span style="font-size: large;"> wild and mysterious <span style="font-size: large;">character who <span style="font-size: large;">was an outsider to all cultures of the frontier.</span></span></span></span></span> "Throughout his life he was a controversial figure, despised and distrusted by many fur traders, an asset and embarrassment to the Oblates, and received by the Blackfeet with the mixed emotions they had for crazy people." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Dempsey, <i>Crowfoot: Chief of the Blackfeet</i>, 1988, p. 83)</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Oi42oK7i8WGifOBOdpkZL54CMMUAV3d4saUmzepC0R8BCMzuB0xnmNP_iQO8e9RRJBLdUQCc04xNN-xDiojhnBZaZoEZnJ-33CiCrayEbIQ70htl_f3jVQl5HinzNqB91Q6Xf8SONTw/s1600/na-13-2JeanLHeureux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Oi42oK7i8WGifOBOdpkZL54CMMUAV3d4saUmzepC0R8BCMzuB0xnmNP_iQO8e9RRJBLdUQCc04xNN-xDiojhnBZaZoEZnJ-33CiCrayEbIQ70htl_f3jVQl5HinzNqB91Q6Xf8SONTw/s640/na-13-2JeanLHeureux.jpg" width="481" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">L'Heureux on far right. </span>Title:</b> Blackfoot on visit to Ottawa, Ontario.<b>Date:</b> 1886<br />
<b>Photographer/Illustrator:</b> Woodruff, John, Department of the Interior<br />
<b>Remarks:</b> L-R back row: Father Lacombe, Jean <span class="searchHighlight">L'Heureux</span>
(interpreter). L-R middle row: Three Bulls (Blackfoot), Crowfoot
(Blackfoot), Red Crow (Blood). L-R front row: North Axe (North Peigan),
One Spot (Blood).<b>Image No:</b> NA-13-2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-44954828937704307272012-10-27T16:20:00.003-06:002012-10-27T16:36:52.428-06:00Buffalo Roundup: Montana Bison for Elk Island and Banff National Parks<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arcpa/2/e/pa-702-33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arcpa/2/e/pa-702-33.jpg" width="145" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Image No:</b> PA-702-33<br />
<b>Title:</b> Eleanor Luxton.<br />
<b>Date:</b> 1928</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The story of <a href="http://ocanadianhistory.blogspot.ca/2012/10/banffs-bison-long-history-of-bison-in.html">bison in Banff NationalPark</a> is an interesting tale of </span><span style="font-size: large;"> the display
of wilderness <span style="font-size: large;">for both </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">conservation<span style="font-size: large;"> and profitable tour<span style="font-size: large;">ism</span>. </span> Like many aspects of Banff’s history, the story
can be linked to the Luxton family. Eleanor Luxton’s work <i>Banff
Canada’s First National Park: A History and a Memory of Rocky
Mountains Park</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Banff: Summerthought, 1974, 2008)</span> is a curious
history of the town by an amateur historian and long-term resident. <span style="font-size: large;">It</span> features a chronicl<span style="font-size: large;">e</span> of Banff events, and
reminiscences regarding the personalities and stories of the region. As an
appendix to the work, a piece written by her father,
Norman Luxton, “The Pablo Buffalo Herd”, tells the tale of the
roundup of a large herd of bison from Montana<span style="font-size: large;"> destined for Banff and Elk Island parks.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The origins of the herd, can be linked
to a 1873 hunting trip of Walking Coyote, <span style="font-size: large;">of the</span> Pend d’Oreilles (or Kalispel) tribe. Coyote had killed a number of bison, and four calves
followed <span style="font-size: large;">him</span> after the slaughter of their mothers. These beasts were
kept as “pets” by the family and by 1884 had bred <span style="font-size: large;">among</span>
themselves, expanding to a small herd of thirteen. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Luxton, p. 145)</span>
Ten of these animals were purchased by Michel Pablo, and C.A. Allard,
and these were supplemented by the purchase of twenty-six other bison
along with eighteen cattalos.<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>Luxton learned of the possible sale of the herd through a
letter from Alex Ayotte, a Winnipeg Free Press
writer, and immigration agent at Missoula. After some discussion
with the minister of the interior, it was decided to purchase the
herd.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Eleanor Luxton notes the idea was to pur<span style="font-size: large;">chase</span> the bison for ship<span style="font-size: large;">ment to <span style="font-size: large;">Canadian parks </span></span>for, “conservation, tourist attraction and a possible source
of food for the Indians.” An agreement was made to ship them
north to Elk Island Park, and in 1907 Banff Park's superintendent
Howard Douglas joined Norman Luxton and Ayotte on the trip. In a <span style="font-size: large;">characteristic nod to the "real ol<span style="font-size: large;">'</span> West", </span>Luxton recalled<span style="font-size: large;"> during </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">the
railway trip, </span><span style="font-size: large;">“getting off at the stations to
examine the bullet holes in the platform, put there by cowboys making
tenderfeet dance.” <span style="font-size: small;">(Luxton, p. 146)</span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAb9DMEfNKsJKB2l_aPC45FD4NPVVrvygVhlq1SbsfYeGzW1q_9E7SYSOcRcvnpBcskU8-PSrygvQZ-6JyqD6C3Jmr876UQA_lPMu0PhgyQg8pn4VyoaHoOfOXnITEbI6lIX6n0sqo-t8/s1600/pueblobison-na-3581-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAb9DMEfNKsJKB2l_aPC45FD4NPVVrvygVhlq1SbsfYeGzW1q_9E7SYSOcRcvnpBcskU8-PSrygvQZ-6JyqD6C3Jmr876UQA_lPMu0PhgyQg8pn4VyoaHoOfOXnITEbI6lIX6n0sqo-t8/s640/pueblobison-na-3581-10.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Glenbow File number:</b> NA-3581-10<br />
<b>Title:</b> Buffalo cows and calves during Pablo-Allard round-up, Montana.<br />
<b>Date:</b> [ca. 1906-1908]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Upon arriving at the Buffalo Camp, near
Missoula, the men met up with a rough and ready crew of around
thirty-five “mixed-blood” [presumably métis] cowboys. Eager to
test the Canadians' mettle, one of the men asked Luxton to pick out a
horse. A rangy grey was saddled for him, and he managed to stick to the bronc s<span style="font-size: large;">how</span> that ensued. As Luxton recalled, “that lucky ride did
me more good in the estimation of those cowboys than if I had
presented them with a keg of liquor.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p. 146) <span style="font-size: large;">Presumably, very few of the cowboys were <span style="font-size: large;">teetotallers</span>.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc8/s/na-3581-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc8/s/na-3581-1.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>GMA File number:</b> NA-3581-1<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Title:</b> Messieurs Ayotte, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Allard<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>and Douglas after</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Buffalo round-up Ravalli,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Montana.</span><br />
<b>Date:</b> 1908</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Staying at the mission at the Flathead
reservation, an incident occurred which casts light on Luxton’s <span style="font-size: large;">opinion</span> of Ayotte, his rough s<span style="font-size: large;">e</span>n<span style="font-size: large;">s</span>e of humour, and his techniques of “conservation”. Luxton
had decided to sleep in a tent outside the mission, but Ayotte opted to inspect the mission house for a bed. Luxton was none too generous
in his description of the man noting that, “he weighed 275 pounds,
every ounce a tissue of selfishness added to an over-bearing manner.”
It seems that Luxton knew that Ayotte would quickly discover that
the beds in the mission were also inhabited by bed-bugs, and prepared
to repel the man from his tent when the bites began to register. As
Luxton records the event,</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When I saw Ayotte leave for the
house I hiked for the tent. I always carried a small twenty-bore
shotgun on my trips to collect natural history specimens. Taking two
shells I cut them in half leaving only the thin cardboard wad holding
the powder. […]Ayotte [came] from the direction of the house,
talking and swearing in French. […] Ayotte all but tore the
tent-flap off, we saw his face splashed with dead bed-bugs, and I
pulled one trigger. I fired the second shot as Ayotte was scrambling
to his feet and running as he probably hadn’t done for some years.
[…] Alex slept in the stable from then on. Our night’s show
amused the cowboys and raised us in their estimation.<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Luxton, p. 146)</span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncznSKvG4y4reWwHY6GfGaSMwmqs6-Vt3gwNYgmsIR9GsMcafBYaJJW7fpe_STTiwPjvDyCp-O8cbQuN9nqBQrhxkdm19Y8BgKlMJ16qaD3EV3qAPk3HRpOVMlhEkj3za5oZYZP1wtdU/s1600/pueblobisonna-3581-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncznSKvG4y4reWwHY6GfGaSMwmqs6-Vt3gwNYgmsIR9GsMcafBYaJJW7fpe_STTiwPjvDyCp-O8cbQuN9nqBQrhxkdm19Y8BgKlMJ16qaD3EV3qAPk3HRpOVMlhEkj3za5oZYZP1wtdU/s640/pueblobisonna-3581-5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Glenbow Museum Image No:</b> NA-3581-5 <span style="font-size: small;"><b>Title:</b> Cowboys circling during Pablo-Allard <span class="searchHighlight">buffalo</span> round-up, Montana. </span><b>Date:</b> [ca. 1906-1908] <b>Photographer/Illustrator:</b> <span class="searchHighlight">Luxton</span>, Banff, Alberta</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As might be expected, rounding up a
herd of bison is no easy task. The group formed a <span style="font-size: large;">horseshoe</span> of around
forty cowboys, and slowly tried to drive them off their homelands.
As Luxton wrote,</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Just about the time we thought we
would really get them off their regular ground, suddenly, the whole
herd would halt as if by command. They would turn around and face
the way we had come, stand, not an animal moving in perhaps the
hundred we had been following. All the cowboy’s horses stood –
no sound. Then from a jump start the buffalo would charge right into
the horse-show of riders, never swerving, as if possessed with the
devil riding them. Never once was this charge broken, nothing
stopped them, not even the river.<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Luxton, p. 147)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc8/s/na-3581-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc8/s/na-3581-11.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>GMA File number:</b> NA-3581-11<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Title:</b> Buffalo being loaded at</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> Ravalli, Montana</span>.<br />
<b>Date:</b> [ca. 1906-1908]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The plan was to load the animals into
boxcars at Ravalli station. Again, with the beasts weighing up to
two tons, this was not quite the same as herding sheep. The cars
themselves were custom-built with plenty of reinforcement. As Luxton
put it, “the joke was to get the buffalo into the car, for that
matter it was a joke to get a buffalo to any wanted place.” A system of ropes <span style="font-size: large;">was </span>designed to pull the animals into place,
but the best laid plans do not always survive first contact with
bison! “One bull went straight through the car, he just took the
side out as if it had not been there. Another bull broke his legs –
well, the Indians had a feast out of that.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Luxton, p. 148)
</span>Eventually driving around twenty-five head at a time, a total of 200
bison were loaded and bound for Canada.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Up to 1912</span>, Eleanor Luxton notes
that Elk Island Park received 708 buffalo from Montana. In 1911, the
Banff bison paddock received seventy-seven of the beasts. Techniques
changed, but the task of rounding them up was never easy. Eventually
a system of loading individual bison onto wagons to transport them to
the Ravalli station. The results were not always successful<span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>...he strung these wagons together, the
crates open at each end except the last one. Four cowboys were on
top of each crate to let down a gate effect as soon as a buffalo was
in that crate. Sure the buffalo went in – even to the end of the
train. Then things happened no one could describe. Talk about
cyclone pictures of a town blown to pieces. In minutes not a wagon
was on four wheels, kindling wood and cowboys scrambling for <span style="font-size: large;">ponies</span>
were all that one could see.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc13/q/na-1241-806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ww2.glenbow.org/dbimages/arc13/q/na-1241-806.jpg" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Glenbow Image No:</b> NA-1241-806</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Title:</b> Norman <span class="searchHighlight">Luxton</span> at Banff Indian Days, Banff, Alberta.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Date:</b> 1942<b>Photographer/Illustrator:</b> Gully, F., Calgary, Alberta</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Remarks:</b> At Stoney tipi village, Cascade Park, Banff.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Luxton would long foster a sense that the last vestiges of the old West could be found in
Banff. By promoting Banff Indian days, and keeping <span style="font-size: large;">the</span> bison
paddock stocked with quintessentially Western<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">game</span>, the <span style="font-size: large;">Wild West was safely on display.</span> <span style="font-size: large;">H</span>e <span style="font-size: large;">insured<span style="font-size: large;"> that an experience <span style="font-size: large;">of </span>the romantic <span style="font-size: large;">W</span>est familiar <span style="font-size: large;">to readers of Fenimore Cooper and admirers of the <span style="font-size: large;">art of Charlie Russell w<span style="font-size: large;">as obtainable <span style="font-size: large;">by all who <span style="font-size: large;">came to <span style="font-size: large;">the <span style="font-size: large;">p</span>ark. Few visi<span style="font-size: large;">t<span style="font-size: large;">ors who <span style="font-size: large;">noted the bison grazing from the<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> train <span style="font-size: large;">would know the hard toil involved in procuring the herd!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-15649750082646664802012-10-25T07:38:00.000-06:002014-02-14T07:16:35.335-07:00A Burning Passion: Venereal Disease in No. 6 Group RCAF<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/c/c127777k-v8.jpg;pvcd7ccf2c4c05b06d" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/c/c127777k-v8.jpg;pvcd7ccf2c4c05b06d" height="640" width="423" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1985-35-8</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Venereal disease was a serious problem
for Second World War armed forces, which could just as soon
render personnel ineffective as other sickness or calamity on the
battlefield. <span style="font-size: large;">When the Americans were sent to Britain, high <span style="font-size: large;">incidences of </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">gonorrhea and syphilis <span style="font-size: large;">occurred. </span></span></span>The problem was particularly troublesome for the
command staff of No. 6 “Canadian” Group during their aircrew's long stay
in England.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjii0g2m8oUWkct3smM9k7lm4yevcxAYq0Oc-2FZZ8i9TwJDyi-HJ9NgjPJ5sn-VjDwQ6xCmX22YlmGDje5_4JbFr8z_AG6-7o6OxZZnccVs3yDWZ80t-XjrE5Wjp6wY8qZH-CdJtG-Tao/s1600/LeafGirl.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjii0g2m8oUWkct3smM9k7lm4yevcxAYq0Oc-2FZZ8i9TwJDyi-HJ9NgjPJ5sn-VjDwQ6xCmX22YlmGDje5_4JbFr8z_AG6-7o6OxZZnccVs3yDWZ80t-XjrE5Wjp6wY8qZH-CdJtG-Tao/s320/LeafGirl.JPG" height="320" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No. 6 Group War Diary Sketch.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">William Carter in <i>Anglo-Canadian Wartime Relations,
1939-1945: RAF Bomber Command and No. 6 [Canadian] Group</i> (Garland:
1991), noted that there were operational consequences to affections
of English women. As Carter suggests, such liaison could have a
“dark side to it.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Carter, p. 96)</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span>One unforeseen effect of the Canadian
bases being established in Yorkshire was the rising prices <span style="font-size: large;">charged by</span>
prostitutes. <span style="font-size: large;"></span>Carter notes that
the amount of time spent with each customer was decreased, <span style="font-size: large;">p</span></span><span style="font-size: large;">resumably due to increased demand</span><span style="font-size: large;">, and
that the cleanliness of brothels declined. <span style="font-size: large;">Royal Canadian Air Force medical staff determined, however, <span style="font-size: large;">as had medical officers in<span style="font-size: large;"> the First World War, that the predominate form of contraction was not from working girls, but from one-night<span style="font-size: large;">-stands or "casual pick-ups"<span style="font-size: large;">. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(H MacDougall,</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> "</span>Sexually transmitted diseases in Canada, 1800-1992." <span class="citation-abbreviation"><i>Genitourin Med.</i> </span><span class="citation-publication-date">1994 February; </span><span class="citation-volume">70</span><span class="citation-issue">(1)</span><span class="citation-flpages">: 60. </span></span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Canadians seem to have been
particularly effected by venereal disease from such encounters. In
1942 and 1943, the rate of the Canadian group was six to seven times
higher than bomber <span style="font-size: large;">groups</span> generally. Bomber Command as a whole had a
high rate of VD, and in August 1943, No. 6 Group doubled the average
rates.The Canad<span style="font-size: large;">ian's</span> aircrew rates were generally four
times higher than ground crew, suggesting either that a culture of
promiscuity had arisen among aircrew, or that the stresses of flying
bombers at night over hostile territory lead to lusty forms of
escapism.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Perspectives varied on the best way to
combat VD. In December 1942, the British government passed Defence
Regulation 33B which required those named by two sexual contacts to
undergo examination and treatment. Apparently the Canadians pushed
to have women examined if only one airman identified her, but they
had to acquiesce to the British regulations. Problems getting enough
identification on women who were often only passing relations soon
arose.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Air Marshal Harris’ “<span style="font-size: large;">characteristically</span> ruthless”
response in January 1943 was to treat all VD cases as malingerers,
removing any flights recorded on their tour. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Carter, p. 97)</span> Carter
is sympathetic to Harris’ response, noting that “some personnel
undoubtedly deliberately contracted VD in order to escape from
operations temporarily.”<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (p. 97)</span></span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The RAF’s Director-General of Medical
Services did not agree with Harris’ treatment. He argued in
January 1943 that V<span style="font-size: large;">D</span> was caused by boredom and “removal of home
influences, leading to drink and its consequences.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cited in
Carter, p.98)</span> Others were concerned that airmen would conceal their
disease and further its transmission.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Explanations for the higher rate of VD
within Canadians were also varied. Some noted that it was natural
considering the higher rate of the disease in Canada. <span style="font-size: large;">H</span>igher
wages also allowed Canadians to purchase hard liquor, some accusing
them of spiking the English women’s drinks. Others chalked it up
to the foreign charm, or <span style="font-size: large;">exoticism</span> of the colonials.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e208/e005176198-v6.jpg;pv5705380efddd8553" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://data2.archives.ca/e/e208/e005176198-v6.jpg;pv5705380efddd8553" height="499" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aircrew of No. 433 (Porcupine) Squadron, RCAF [graphic material] : en
route to their Handley Page Halifax B.III aircraft before taking off to
raid Hagen, Germany.
<br />
<div class="column70">
Credit: Canada. Department of National Defence collection / Library and Archives Canada / e005176198</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In October 1943, Air
Vice-Marshal Clifford “Black Mike” McEwen apparently took a
progressive attitude to the disease. As a Canadian base commander, he
instituted a prevention programme, emphasizing education and the
provision of more acceptable recreation options such as films,
sports, and libraries. He wanted compulsory parades for all those
leaving their station where men would be expected to carry condoms
and and ointment <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Carter, p. 101-102)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Unfortunately, No. 6 Groups rates never
really lowered. In 1945, the RCAF’s VD rate reached its highest
yearly incidence level yet at 7.6% of all personnel. This being said, the sexually transmitted disease rate of Canadian servicemen in general had decreased<span style="font-size: large;"> from <span style="font-size: large;">2.2% in the Great War to only 92 per thousand in the Second.<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: small;">(H. MacDougall,</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>"Sexually transmitted diseases in Canada, 1800-1992." <span class="citation-abbreviation">Genitourin Med. </span><span class="citation-publication-date">1994 February; </span><span class="citation-volume">70</span><span class="citation-issue">(1)</span><span class="citation-flpages">: 60.) <span style="font-size: large;">No. 6 Group clearly did little to bring th<span style="font-size: large;">e aver<span style="font-size: large;">age down!</span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="content-title">
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-4472859328383345802012-10-19T09:20:00.000-06:002012-10-19T09:20:50.508-06:00War is a Drag: Female Impersonators in the First World War<span style="font-size: large;">The phenomenon of the Great War drag show is somewhat perplexing. <span style="font-size: large;">Some argue</span> that soldiers were not just laughing at the gender-bending performances but were actually aroused by the shows.<span style="font-size: large;"> A <span style="font-size: large;">broad array</span> of explanations are offered for the cross-dressing <span style="font-size: large;">phenomenon, ranging from <span style="font-size: large;">desires for the port<span style="font-size: large;">rayal <span style="font-size: large;">of normalized femini<span style="font-size: large;">nity, to subl<span style="font-size: large;">imation of homosexuality.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a005735.jpg;pvd5ba4a099e8b16b7" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a005735.jpg;pvd5ba4a099e8b16b7" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The Dumbells' Concert Party. Formed from<br />
3rd Canadian Division in France. 'Marjorie'<br />
(R.D. Hamilton), and 'Marie' (A.G. Murray),<br />
the two girls of
the Dumbells show,<br />
with the manager, Captain M.W. Plunkett,<br />
Credit: Canada. Dept. of National<br />
Defence/Library and Archives Canada/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"> JG Fuller<span style="font-size: large;">'s</span> <i>Troop Morale</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Oxford, 1990)</span>, notes the importance of music shows to the sold<span style="font-size: large;">iers</span> when they were at rest, and among these theatrical revues, drag shows were fairly common. Analyzing a broad range of soldiers' journals, Fuller writes that , "curiously these female impersonators seem to have generated considerable sexual excitement. He quotes one of the men in the ranks as claiming, "judging from the way [the men] sat and goggled at the drag on stage it was obvious that they were indulging in delightful fantasies that brought to them substantial memories of the girls they had left behind them in London, Manchester, Glasgow, wherever." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(As cited in Fuller, p.105)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Apparently, many impersonators did not make a caricature of their roles, but played their parts with candour. Fuller notes that many journals accounted for the realism of the concert party "girls". One soldier wrote that<span style="font-size: large;">,</span> "it all seems to show that English beauty is essentially masculine." Fuller is more critical of the illusion<span style="font-size: large;">:</span> "judging from the photographs, it shows the intensity of the desire to believe." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p. 106)</span></span><br />
<br />
<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSX2JFBKpD2ReewB6B20qcQ1SSxQEGbvQsV5sHphuqDLhurXv6usSym4URbQgLobkH0MPFI3L7lmhL7b9MnKxT5z_EX04GZRblBv-MtY7dsPueDa84m9ukXDw0d2Ppr0rnmOTw-6AzG_0/s1600/dragdumbells.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSX2JFBKpD2ReewB6B20qcQ1SSxQEGbvQsV5sHphuqDLhurXv6usSym4URbQgLobkH0MPFI3L7lmhL7b9MnKxT5z_EX04GZRblBv-MtY7dsPueDa84m9ukXDw0d2Ppr0rnmOTw-6AzG_0/s640/dragdumbells.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big Beauty Chorus, Marie and the Boys. Dumbells troupe.
Library and Archives Canada. PA-005741</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fuller wonders why this desire to believe in the gender-bending charade was so strong with the relative ease of access to women in the rear areas. It is true that after the spring of 1917, troops may have gone for weeks without seeing a woman in the farms, hospitals, shops and <i>estaminets</i>. Yet, Fuller suggests that the appeal of the entertainers was likely<span style="font-size: large;">,</span> "their emphasis put on glamour [not] the sheer fewness of females." He notes that "peasant girls, working hard at practical tasks with their menfolk away, were often the reverse of 'feminine' in the restricted sense of the age." A quote from an Australian journal lamented, "Women of shattered Picardy, Why are your boots so flat and vast?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Of th<span style="font-size: large;">is desire <span style="font-size: large;">for <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">fancy </span>femininity, </span></span></span>Fuller writes</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The trappings of elegance and luxury were the negation of war and squalor and, as such, a potent fetish of peace. The female impersonators therefore took care over the fripperies, having lingerie sent out, or going on special leave to London or Paris to select the items themselves. On stage they sang the sentimental songs which represented the greatest frippery of all, asserting the idealized stereotype of soft and vulnerable romantic femininity. <span style="font-size: small;">(Fuller, p.106)</span></span></blockquote>
<br /><span style="font-size: large;">Historian David A Bo<span style="font-size: large;">xwell, in his article "The Follies of War: <span style="font-size: x-small;">Cross-Dressing and Popular Theatre on the British Front Lines, 1914-1918" </span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Modernism/Modernity</i> 9.1 (2002) 1-20<span style="font-size: large;">, <span style="font-size: large;">disagrees with the t<span style="font-size: large;">hesis that drag performance was <span style="font-size: large;">strictly a desire for <span style="font-size: large;"> idealized heterosexual relations. He </span></span></span>identifies t<span style="font-size: large;">wo forms of female impersona<span style="font-size: large;">tion which had already develo<span style="font-size: large;">ped on British stages by 1914. He no<span style="font-size: large;">tes <span style="font-size: large;">that, </span>"</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Mimicry was most visibly embodied in the pantomime "dame" tradition, a
comedic effort to render the female form in its most hypercarnivalized
manner: the grotesque, oversized, and voracious body of the raddled,
"ugly" woman presented on stage out of a misogynistic animus"<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Boxwell, p. 13). </span> The other form of <span style="font-size: large;">impersonation</span> was mimesis, which historians have traced back to the 1860s<span style="font-size: large;">. Mimesis</span> represented "idealized <span style="font-size: large;">femininity</span> as closely as possible <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Boxwell, p. 14).</span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a005743.jpg;pv7f031f43b79bdb1f" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a005743.jpg;pv7f031f43b79bdb1f" width="233" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The Dumbells' C<span style="font-size: x-small;">oncert Party. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 'Marie' (A.G. Murray</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">PA-005743 </span></span> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Boxwell argue<span style="font-size: large;">s</span>, "the complex dynamics of men objectifying other men as women does
not occur completely within a heterosexual matrix." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Boxwell, p. 16) </span> Boxwell's <span style="font-size: large;">argument</span> is formed in analysis of the HC Owen quote that<span style="font-size: large;">,</span> "it all seems to show that English beauty is essentially masculine."</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">[Owen] may well have intended to define female beauty in masculine terms,
to suggest that British women were at their most beautiful when they
most looked like men. The slippage that inheres in the statement
effectively eradicates women's existence: male beauty not only
exists, but cannot be conceived of in anything other than "masculine"
terms. Thus there was an ineradicable trace of homoeroticism at the
heart of drag during the Great War.[...] A man watching another man in drag must, at some level,
self-reassuringly avow that the "woman" has a penis. But this act of
speculation threatens to put the male spectator beyond the boundaries
of the heterosexual matrix.
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Boxwell, p. 16)</span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">For Boxwell, enjoying a drag show was a cathartic way of releasing homosexual anxieties in a homophobic society. As may be expected, other historians disagree.</span><br />
<br /><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Laurel Halladay, in "A Lovely War:</span> Male to Female Cross-Dressing and Canadian Military Entertainment in World War II Journal of Homosexuality <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/loi/wjhm20?open=46#vol_46">Volume 46</a>,
<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/toc/wjhm20/46/3-4">
Issue 3-4</a>,
2004 <span style="font-size: large;">traces drag perfo<span style="font-size: large;">rmance<span style="font-size: large;">s</span> in the Canadian military, and<span style="font-size: large;"> identified in</span> the Great War period, <span style="font-size: large;">an</span> attempt to re<span style="font-size: large;">construct a heterose<span style="font-size: large;">xual community. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Hallady, p. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">21) </span> <span style="font-size: large;">For Hallady, drag performance was either com<span style="font-size: large;">edic <span style="font-size: large;">or dramatic, <span style="font-size: large;">either mocking <span style="font-size: large;">perceived</span> female foible<span style="font-size: large;">s or respect<span style="font-size: large;">ing femininity.<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">O<span style="font-size: large;">n the issue of sexualization, Halladay writes that, "</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Perhaps contrary to more modern expectations, drag performers<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>were not the least bit threatening to the taken-for-granted heterosexual practices of their comrades and both contributed to and<br />enjoyed the homosociability of the battlefield." (<span style="font-size: x-small;">Halladay, p.23)</span> For Halladay, it was only when women were recruited into the <span style="font-size: large;">Cana<span style="font-size: large;">dia<span style="font-size: large;">n military in the Second<span style="font-size: large;"> World War, that female impersonation was broadly considered deviant<span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The debate over the meanings of <span style="font-size: large;">female impersonators in the <span style="font-size: large;">First World War is by no means over. How could it be when analyzing the subjective </span></span>reception of <span style="font-size: large;">gendered</span> performances by a broad<span style="font-size: large;"> variety of men<span style="font-size: large;">?<span style="font-size: large;"> The work yet to be written on<span style="font-size: large;"> the complex nuances of <span style="font-size: large;">drag performance is <span style="font-size: large;">bound to be exciting<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> historical work, addressing the overlap between social<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">, sexual, and gender</span> history.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqX3DHFpR9P1rBTVSe8vgNQuw9Asj_xdIv5-Bk0ca5MolauA9FJU_U2ai0Q1i_mUu4bXQ3GhrEfmLewLnwz2a_tgJwpRnF1Y9UbllvY-rkeoCXOdUTPrCn1WWpxV-T4HqWGIDK8JcBauc/s1600/PunchCross.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqX3DHFpR9P1rBTVSe8vgNQuw9Asj_xdIv5-Bk0ca5MolauA9FJU_U2ai0Q1i_mUu4bXQ3GhrEfmLewLnwz2a_tgJwpRnF1Y9UbllvY-rkeoCXOdUTPrCn1WWpxV-T4HqWGIDK8JcBauc/s1600/PunchCross.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, san-serif;">From John to Jack, Susannah to Susie, <i>Punch</i> (1916).
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-86890886093516070282012-10-18T08:44:00.000-06:002012-10-23T10:09:27.821-06:00Che the Failed Guerrilla<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyTJoMrXFoEViem3_WqawtuL90slUIl2MNt8M58TYPxyWDtmJ2VHp8bQBvw-ifJQjeznDVvOVgezht9HWHNJR2QUxdJysgvINQrn9VjZ2q5s_bex15yqS3s-GE08iI_QHER2KrM4txTKE/s1600/CHE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyTJoMrXFoEViem3_WqawtuL90slUIl2MNt8M58TYPxyWDtmJ2VHp8bQBvw-ifJQjeznDVvOVgezht9HWHNJR2QUxdJysgvINQrn9VjZ2q5s_bex15yqS3s-GE08iI_QHER2KrM4txTKE/s320/CHE.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<dl id="yui_3_5_1_3_1350569974871_306">
<dt>"Che" by Flick User JFabra. License<span class="ccIcn ccIcnSmall"></span></dt>
<dt><span class="ccIcn ccIcnSmall"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/"><img alt="Attribution" border="0" src="http://l.yimg.com/g/images/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif" title="Attribution" /><img alt="Noncommercial" border="0" src="http://l.yimg.com/g/images/cc_icon_noncomm_small.gif" title="Noncommercial" /><img alt="Share Alike" border="0" src="http://l.yimg.com/g/images/cc_icon_sharealike_small.gif" title="Share Alike" /></a></span>
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/" title="Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License">Some rights reserved</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfabra/" id="yui_3_5_1_3_1350569974871_311">JFabra</a></dt>
<dd id="yui_3_5_1_3_1350569974871_312"></dd></dl>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Che
Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra has become the ultimate symbol of counter-culture resistence
and revolution. Ian Beckett in </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Modern
Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">,
(2001), however, has little praise for the actual success of Che as
revolutionary. Beckett's cr<span style="font-size: large;">itique is founded on the failure of Che to spread <span style="font-size: large;">global revolution. Others have expressed <span style="font-size: large;">ethica</span>l reservations about Che's pop-<span style="font-size: large;">hero</span></span></span> status. Writing for <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2004/09/the_cult_of_che.html">Slate magazine</a> in 2004 upon the release of the acclaimed biographical film "The Motorcycle Diaries", Paul Berman moves beyond effectiveness in his critique of "The Cult of Che", calling his fame, "an episode in the moral callousness of our time." To Berman, "Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster." Berman suggests that Che was central to the "hardline pro-Soviet faction" in the Cuban revolution, and was neither tolerant nor discriminant when it came to violence.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Che presided over <span style="font-size: large;">the Cuban Revo<span style="font-size: large;">l<span style="font-size: large;">ution's first firing squads. He founded Cuba's 'la<span style="font-size: large;">bor camp' system - the system that was eventually employed to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims. To get himself killed<span style="font-size: large;">, and to get a lot of other people killed, was central to Che's imagination.</span></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ernesto
Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra did not have a particularly revolutionary youth, beginning
training in 1947 as a medical doctor at the age of <span style="font-size: large;">nineteen</span>, and spending summers working as a male nurse on merchant ships. Oddly, in
1950, he failed in an attempt to market an insecticide. In his youth he travelled across South and Central America and observed the poverty there first hand<span style="font-size: large;">. Such experience<span style="font-size: large;">s hardened his belief in Marxist revolution.</span></span></span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
1954 American involvement in the overthrow of the Guzman government
in Guatemala was a formative experience for Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra. It was then
that he received his nickname “Che”, which was Spanish for
“buddy”, due to his frequent use of the term in his speech. In 1955, Che
joined Castro in his revolutionary efforts, and led a guerrilla
column into the Havana. With Castro's success over Batista in 1959, <span style="font-size: large;">Che would</span> become president of the Na<span style="font-size: large;">tional Bank of Cuba and </span>minister of industry, working for the Castro government for a number of years.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.bookworld.com.au/images/bau/97804152/9780415239349/0/0/plain/modern-insurgencies-and-counter-insurgencies-guerrillas-and-their-opponents-since-1750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.bookworld.com.au/images/bau/97804152/9780415239349/0/0/plain/modern-insurgencies-and-counter-insurgencies-guerrillas-and-their-opponents-since-1750.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bookworld.com.au/book/modern-insurgencies-and-counter-insurgencies-guerrillas-and-their-opponents-since-1750/1452318/">Bookworld.</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One
of Beckett’s main arguments is that insurgency is a product of its
time and place, and theory developed to counter insurgents is also a
product of its historical setting. He sees Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra’s revolutionary
theory, heavily influenced by the French Marxist philosopher Debray,
as failing to note that <span style="font-size: large;">corruption, ineffic<span style="font-size: large;">iency, military ineffectiveness, and unpopular<span style="font-size: large;">ity were the real causes </span>in the end of the</span> </span>Batista regime <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p. 171)</span>
Beckett cites a number of attempts at </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">rebellion</span><i>
</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">in
the 1960s which failed to replicate the Cuban revolution in countries such as:
Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. Che would leave Cuba in 1965, <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">due to friction there with certain leaders. He hoped to foment <span style="font-size: large;">global revolution,<span style="font-size: large;"> but attempts at training <span style="font-size: large;">guerrilla</span> forces in the Congo failed.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Beckett
reserves the title of “the greatest failure of all” for that of
Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra’s attempts in Bolivia. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p. 173)</span> In 1966 Guevara arrived
there in hopes to organize <span style="font-size: large;">resistance</span>, but the 1950s had seen land
reform and nationalization of the mining industry which denied
Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra the necessary bedrock of discontent. That Bolivia
president Rene Barrientos, was of peasant origin did not help Che’s
cause. Even the Bolivia communist party leaders objected to Che’s
insistence on military control of the revolution, and abstained from
support. Difficulties in the rugged terrain
resulted in problems of <span style="font-size: large;">manoeuvre</span>, and as Beckett puts it, Guevara's<span style="font-size: large;"> force</span>, "spent much of its time lost in the jungle.” <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p. 174)</span></span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra’s
ultimate demise was a product of this lack of support, and the
operations of a American Special Forces Mobile Training Team, under
Major Robert “Pappy Shelton”. The Green Berets trained a ranger
battalion for the Bolivian army which was deployed in fall of 1967. <span style="font-size: large;">By</span> 8 October 1967, Che’s remaining eighteen guerillas were
surrounded at La Higuera. The wounded Che was captured and executed,
and his body exhibited in Vallegrande. Declassified American documents relate the <span style="font-size: large;">final hours of his life. A L<span style="font-size: large;">ieutenant Perez was given the order to k<span style="font-size: large;">ill Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra, but <span style="font-size: large;">apparently did not have the heart to do so. <span style="font-size: large;">Perez asked Guevera <span style="font-size: large;">what his las<span style="font-size: large;">t wishes were.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra replied that he only wis<span style="font-size: large;">hed to 'die with a full s<span style="font-size: large;">tomach'. Perez then ask<span style="font-size: large;">ed him if he was a 'materialist', by having requested only food. Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra returned to his previous tranquil manner and answered only 'perhaps'. Perez then called him a 'p<span style="font-size: large;">oor shit' and left the room. By this time, Sgt Terran had fortified his courage with several beers and returned to the room w<span style="font-size: large;">here Guevara was being held prisoner. [...] <span style="font-size: large;">'Willy'<span style="font-size: large;">, the prisoner taken with Guevara, was being held in a small house a few meters away. While Terran was wai<span style="font-size: large;">ting out<span style="font-size: large;">side to get his nerve back, Sgt Huacka entered and shot 'Willy'. 'Willy' was a Cuban and according to the sources had been an instigator of the riots <span style="font-size: large;">among the miners in Bolivia. <span style="font-size: large;">Guevara heard the burst of fire in his room and for the first time appeared to be frightened. Sgt Terran returned to the room where Guevara was being held. When he entered, Guevera stood and faced him. Sgt <span style="font-size: large;">Terran told Guevara to be seated but he <span style="font-size: large;">r<span style="font-size: large;">efused to sit down and stated, 'I will remain sta<span style="font-size: large;">nding for this.' The Sgt began to get angry and told [<span style="font-size: large;">...</span>] him. 'Know this now, you are killing a<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">man.' Terran then fired a burst from his M2 Carbine, knocking Guevara back into the wall of the small house. <span style="font-size: x-small;">"Debriefing of Officers of Company B, 2nd Ranger Battalion"(<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB5/che5_5.htm">www.gwu.edu)</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The order to kill Guevara <span style="font-size: large;">was <span style="font-size: large;">made</span> by General Ovando, the Chief of the Bolivian Armed Forces. Walt Rostow <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB5/che7_1.htm">wrote</a> <span style="font-size: large;">President Johnson of the<span style="font-size: large;"> execution, "I regard this as stup<span style="font-size: large;">id, but it is understandable from a Bolivian standpo<span style="font-size: large;">int.<span style="font-size: large;">" </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">On the 13th of October, Rostow wired the president that Che was confirmed as dead. It was long thought the body
was discarded into the jungles via helicopter, but in 1997 Guev<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>ra’s
remains were found under an airstrip in Vallegrande and re-interned in
Cuba.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/CheHigh.jpg/443px-CheHigh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/CheHigh.jpg/443px-CheHigh.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Date Photo taken on 5 March 1960;<br />
Source Museo Che Guevara, Havana Cuba<br />
Author Alberto Korda <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheHigh.jpg">Copyright</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Che's beret-clad and bear<span style="font-size: large;">ded <span style="font-size: large;">head has been <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/08/che-guevara-daughter-aleida">said</a> to be the most repoduced image in the world. </span></span></span>It seems that given his succes<span style="font-size: large;">s as revolutionary,</span> that Che as symbol, th<span style="font-size: large;">e Che</span> of the <span style="font-size: large;">rock t-shirts, and flags adorning teenage bedrooms across the world<span style="font-size: large;">, is <span style="font-size: large;">a fai<span style="font-size: large;">rly unlikely figure. Indeed, one might say that he has inspired many more revolutionaries <span style="font-size: large;">merely through the <span style="font-size: large;">religious</span> passion that his idol has evoked, more than any actual savvy regarding gu<span style="font-size: large;">erilla war. <span style="font-size: large;">In spe<span style="font-size: large;">aking of the <span style="font-size: large;">Che's portrayal in "The Motorcycle Diaries", Berman notes <span style="font-size: large;">"the e<span style="font-size: large;">ntire movie, in its concept and tone, exudes a Chi<span style="font-size: large;">stological cult of martyrdom, a cult of adoration for the <span style="font-size: large;">spiritually</span> superior person who is veering toward death - precisely the kind of adoration that Latin America's Catholic Church promoted for several <span style="font-size: large;">centuries, with miserable cons<span style="font-size: large;">e<span style="font-size: large;">quences."<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The romantic ideal of Che</span></span> as martyr<span style="font-size: large;">ed revolutionary<span style="font-size: large;"> will <span style="font-size: large;">probably never be excommunicated from the public mind.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFnXUQ3ajKN-BMhuPxYjYZaWBq3BrCCETiMP-z233HtqzMA4icCwQ5G-Gzc8gHky-Fh9VlKXHrCKm4LIxIZlBw5J2yVW-ErHgE3i4ur1H5IW1x_uY1nV2dVKeLTpt7FB8sdGYwYVV7GU/s1600/chemonument.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFnXUQ3ajKN-BMhuPxYjYZaWBq3BrCCETiMP-z233HtqzMA4icCwQ5G-Gzc8gHky-Fh9VlKXHrCKm4LIxIZlBw5J2yVW-ErHgE3i4ur1H5IW1x_uY1nV2dVKeLTpt7FB8sdGYwYVV7GU/s640/chemonument.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<dl id="yui_3_5_1_3_1350570191204_301">
<dt>"Che Guevara Monument and Mausoleum_Cuba 224" By James Emery. License</dt>
<dd id="yui_3_5_1_3_1350570191204_306"><span class="ccIcn ccIcnSmall"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/"><img alt="Attribution" border="0" src="http://l.yimg.com/g/images/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif" title="Attribution" /></a></span>
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" title="Attribution License">Some rights reserved</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emeryjl/" id="yui_3_5_1_3_1350570191204_305">hoyasmeg</a>
</dd></dl>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-31237223091120677912012-10-17T09:10:00.001-06:002012-10-19T20:45:52.912-06:00White Feathered Zeal: Accosting Shirkers in the Great War<span style="font-size: large;">In 1915, problems meeting the manpower commitments of the Borden government were quickly discovered by the Canadian army. Jack Granatstein and JM Hitsman noted in <i>Broken Promises</i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Oxford: 1977),</span><i> </i>their fundamental account of conscription in Canada<i>, </i>that standards were quickly lowered when men failed to flock to the recruiting stations. Medical standards were reduced, the height restriction dropped an inch down to 5'2", minimum chest measurements were decreased, and married men no longer needed permission from their wives to enlist. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p.35)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chief Justice TG Mathers noted that the strongest motivation to serve was the social pressures put on <span style="font-size: large;">W</span>estern men who were still strolling civvy<span style="font-size: large;">-</span>street. Mathers, a Manitoban pro-conscriptionist, noted that</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is absurd to speak of enlistment at the present day as voluntary. In the cities of the West the man who is not in uniform is made to feel that he is a sort of social outcast. No man who joins the ranks today does so voluntarily. He does so because he can no longer resist the pressure of public opinion. </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Granatstein, p. 38)</span></span></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=th-60174&t=w" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=th-60174&t=w" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Pierre Van Paassen<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?th-60174"> NYPL th-60174</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Patriotic souls took it upon themselves to organize pressure against those not yet serving. Some women would search for workers and offer to take their place on the job if they would join the army. As Granatstein noted, "often these patriotic ladies could get carried away." The memoirs of Pierre van Paasen, a dutchman living in Toronto, testify to the fervour with which shirkers were sought out:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">One afternoon I was accosted on the rear platform of a streetcar by a woman, who was dressed in mourning. She told me that three of her sons had been killed at the front. She showed me their photographs. Suddenly she began to talk very loudly. 'Why aren't you in khaki?' She demanded. 'Why do you dare to stand there laughing at my miser? Why don't you go over and fight? Fight, avenge my boys!' she screamed. 'Madam,' I tried to calm her, 'I am not a Canadian.' That remark set her yelling at the top of her voice. She screamed that she, the mother of three heroes who had died for their king and country, <span style="font-size: large;">ha</span>d been insulted by a foreigner, a slacker, a German spy, a Red, and I don't know what else.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJjls5VMrj6UlUe4843rEZnriRHMJK_dv9bBNRJdPnY2OwO5701hts-rZn-cLWrsgDFtYtRH5_BMjaQnKm6wE3iRX9onYFH8gxgUc42aDASna60eqWKDGSqbXKu9j1BResDY-lIZL1k8/s1600/TOstreetcar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJjls5VMrj6UlUe4843rEZnriRHMJK_dv9bBNRJdPnY2OwO5701hts-rZn-cLWrsgDFtYtRH5_BMjaQnKm6wE3iRX9onYFH8gxgUc42aDASna60eqWKDGSqbXKu9j1BResDY-lIZL1k8/s400/TOstreetcar.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1231, Item 508a<br />
Close up of 508, T.S.R. Car No. 6<br />
November 22, 1916</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I pulled the cord to bring the street car to a halt. I alighted. But the woman followed me off and she kept up her screaming about spies and Germans. A crowd gathered....Somebody stopped me just at the moment when I thought of taking to my heels as the best way out of the predicament. I was immediately surrounded by a mob. A group of business men, who had managed to stay five thousand miles away from where the poppies grow, and who were at that moment emerging from the hotel, gallantly rushed to the woman's aid and forced me to submit, as she pinned a white feather through my coat into my flesh: the badge of white-livered cowardice. The last I saw of her was through a pair of badly battered eyes as she laughingly picked up some of the feathers which had dropped from her ba<span style="font-size: large;">g</span> in the scuffle.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">...The following day I enlisted.</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Cited in Granatstein, p. 39)</span></span></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/systems/toronto.arch/resource/fo1244/f1244_it0687.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/systems/toronto.arch/resource/fo1244/f1244_it0687.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1244, Item 687<br />
Title Mother of military personnel, World War I<br />
Date(s) of creation of record(s) [ca. 1916]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">W<span style="font-size: large;">hen in 1917, <span style="font-size: large;">the Borden government finally acknowledged that <span style="font-size: large;">the robust commitments of Canadian troops would <span style="font-size: large;">necessitate conscription if the war were to continu<span style="font-size: large;">e grinding on</span></span></span></span></span></span>, the <span style="font-size: large;">position of Canadian women was far from clear<span style="font-size: large;">-cut. <span style="font-size: large;">The attitude of women whose sons were still in Canada would, of course, be much different from that of the <span style="font-size: large;">mourner</span> <span style="font-size: large;">Paasen encountered.<span style="font-size: large;"> In February 1917, <span style="font-size: large;">t</span>he jou<span style="font-size: large;">rnal <i>Everywoman'</i><i>s World </i></span></span></span></span></span></span>had organized a "woman's parliament"<span style="font-size: large;">, which <span style="font-size: large;">stated that a <span style="font-size: large;">6:1 ratio<span style="font-size: large;"> of members were against compulsory service <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Gran</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">atstein, p. 80). </span> <span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he national women's organi<span style="font-size: large;">zations were <span style="font-size: large;">broadly in support of Union government and conscription<span style="font-size: large;">, but <span style="font-size: large;">o</span></span>ne should no<span style="font-size: large;">t assume this m<span style="font-size: large;">eant that </span></span>half the nation's population</span></span></span></span></span></span></span> to have a unanimous opinio<span style="font-size: large;">n on the matter. <span style="font-size: large;">The <span style="font-size: large;">women's groups of feminist legend may not have had the influence on public opinion that <span style="font-size: large;">historians at times ascribe to them. </span></span></span>It does seem <span style="font-size: large;">clear, however, that<span style="font-size: large;"> women<span style="font-size: large;"> whose sons were lost in the war were given a<span style="font-size: large;"> status</span></span></span></span></span> which was leveraged to promote conscription and shame "shirkers".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700907434528681113.post-51865345450900224752012-10-16T09:54:00.000-06:002012-10-19T20:10:24.553-06:00Swamp Insurgency: Fighting Seminole Guerrillas in Nineteenth Century<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
Seminole <span style="font-size: large;">W</span>ars<span style="font-size: large;"> show the <span style="font-size: large;">problems that a conventional army can <span style="font-size: large;">encounter when <span style="font-size: large;">their enemies <span style="font-size: large;">adopt guerilla tacti<span style="font-size: large;">cs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">. Ian Beckett, in his survey work </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Modern
Insurgencies and Counter-insurgen</span>cies</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">
(Routledge, 2001) describes the Seminoles as “particularly <span style="font-size: large;">skillful</span>
opponents”<span style="font-size: large;"> of the Uni<span style="font-size: large;">ted States Army.</span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(p.29)</span> Throughout the first ha<span style="font-size: large;">lf of the <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">eighteenth-century</span>, skirmishes, ambushes, <span style="font-size: large;">and raids typified <span style="font-size: large;">a conflict, where <span style="font-size: large;">American's had as much trouble finding their enem<span style="font-size: large;">ies as defeating them on the battlefield.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
Seminoles were largely Lower Creek people which had been drive<span style="font-size: large;">n</span>
into Spanish Florida, w<span style="font-size: large;">ith other members from the Oconee, Y<span style="font-size: large;">uchi, Alabama, Choctaw<span style="font-size: large;"> and Shawnee tribes</span></span></span>. By the mid eighteenth century, familial li<span style="font-size: large;">nks had also been made to runaway slaves which had found refuge in Floridian vill<span style="font-size: large;">ages. </span></span>The<span style="font-size: large;">ir name has been variously suggested to derive from the Creek wor<span style="font-size: large;">d</span> <i>simano-li</i><span style="font-size: large;">, meaning "separatist" or "runaway", o<span style="font-size: large;">r the Spanish terms <i>cimarron</i>, for </span></span></span>"wild" or <i>cimarrones</i> for "rebel" or "outlaw". When <span style="font-size: large;">Spain <span style="font-size: large;">re-acquired Florida from Britain after the American Revolution, <span style="font-size: large;">Spanish colonists, and American settlers <span style="font-size: large;">alike aim<span style="font-size: large;">ed to settle in the area, coaxed in part by Spanish land grants. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Seminoles were allowed to take up land grants as well, as <span style="font-size: large;">Spain hoped they would form a divide between the Spaniards and America</span>ns.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Seminole_War_in_Everglades.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Seminole_War_in_Everglades.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="description">Marines battle Seminole Indians in the Florida War--1835-1842. Defense Dept. Photo (Marine Corps) 306073-A</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Causes for American-Seminole violence may relate to older British tactics of using Seminoles against American settlers.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> In the war of 1812 the Seminoles had <span style="font-size: large;">supported</span> Britain. Harbouring runaway slaves was one offence
that later caused the Americans to seek punitive justice against the
tribe. Beckett suggests the First Seminole War (1816-18) was largely motivated
by the need to fight back against Seminole raiding parties<span style="font-size: large;">. <a href="http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-842">Else</a><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-842">where</a><span style="font-size: large;">, the murder of several Georg<span style="font-size: large;">ia families by chief Neamathla h<span style="font-size: large;">as been suggested as the event that sparked the conflict.</span></span></span></span></span> General Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida with around 3,000 soldiers and pushed the Seminoles further south. Jackson disper<span style="font-size: large;">sed villagers<span style="font-size: large;">, burnt towns and seized Pensacola and St. Marks. The S<span style="font-size: large;">eminoles<span style="font-size: large;">, in turn, conducted hit and run attacks on <span style="font-size: large;">towns and plantations. American <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">ambitions</span> for control o<span style="font-size: large;">f </span>the peninsula <span style="font-size: large;">we</span>re another <i>casus bell<span style="font-size: large;">i</span></i>, and <span style="font-size: large;">i</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>n 18<span style="font-size: large;">19</span>, Florida was ceded by Spain to the United States</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1823 a large reservation was established for the Seminoles, but this four million acre <span style="font-size: large;">tract was not to remain a sanctioned home for long.</span> In 1830, <span style="font-size: large;">w</span>ith Jackson as president, the Indian Removal Act become law<span style="font-size: large;">.</span> The
United States governments attempts to remove all Indians west of the
Mississippi into "Indian Territory" was accepted by some leaders who signed the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832. Others refused to leave and moved deeper into the Everglades.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPyIkmMkIxitcV5rxQYn4R17TV0XbaBf8QsqJLk77fxoDVpKryQ1URFs8R806Q8hnVx_gsU5jyA-CAAFs1IIKH94g2CZGa2mA1CB_z1WNZ844TCxBESt_0NOiji9nk3kAJ_GbhwJvcCM4/s1600/seminole.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPyIkmMkIxitcV5rxQYn4R17TV0XbaBf8QsqJLk77fxoDVpKryQ1URFs8R806Q8hnVx_gsU5jyA-CAAFs1IIKH94g2CZGa2mA1CB_z1WNZ844TCxBESt_0NOiji9nk3kAJ_GbhwJvcCM4/s320/seminole.gif" width="220" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="itemTitle">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Oseola (As-se-he-ho-lor, Black Drink),</span></div>
<div class="itemTitle">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> a Seminole; bust-length, 1837. </span></div>
<div class="itemTitle">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://research.archives.gov/description/530983">National Archives Identifier:</a><a href="http://research.archives.gov/description/530983"> 530983 </a></span></div>
<div class="itemTitle">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span>
</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The trea<span style="font-size: large;">ty of 1832 <span style="font-size: large;">allowed for three years for the <span style="font-size: large;">Seminol<span style="font-size: large;">es to move west, and in 1835 the <span style="font-size: large;">sta<span style="font-size: large;">ge was set for conflict with the hold-outs. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">In
December 1835, a 108 man detachment of Major Francis Dade’s forces w<span style="font-size: large;">as</span> ambushed in the
Wahoo swamp of the Withlacoochie River. <span style="font-size: large;">A conte<span style="font-size: large;">mporary <a href="http://www.flheritage.com/facts/history/seminole/wars.cfm">heritage website</a> notes that, "As Major Francis Dade</span></span></span> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">marched from Fort Brooke toward
Fort King, 180 Seminole warriors led by Micanopy,
Alligator and Jumper attacked. Only one man of that army detachment survived
the ambush." That the Seminole War was "the fiercest war waged by the U.S. government against American Indians", <span style="font-size: large;">would presumably be <span style="font-size: large;">contested by <span style="font-size: large;">some </span>historians. Florida Her<span style="font-size: large;">itage claims that more than 1500 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">American </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">soldiers<span style="font-size: large;"> died in the conflict.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The action would begin the
Second Seminole War (1835-42), which would see a series of
frustrating actions for American generals.<span style="font-size: large;"> The Seminoles <span style="font-size: large;">crossed the Georgia border constantly and established safe <span style="font-size: large;">havens</span> in the Oke<span style="font-size: large;">fenokee Swamp. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-842">Megan Kate Nelson</a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> quotes Ware Coun<span style="font-size: large;">ty milit<span style="font-size: large;">ia commander Thomas Hill<span style="font-size: large;">iard <span style="font-size: large;">who<span style="font-size: large;"> complained<span style="font-size: large;"> in <span style="font-size: large;">1836 that </span>the Seminoles, <span style="font-size: large;">"go concealed as much as possible, and are committing depredations con<span style="font-size: large;">tinually, robbing our corn fields and killing our stock."</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> Seminoles destro<span style="font-size: large;">ye</span>d <span style="font-size: large;">numerous sugar plantations in Florida, crippl<span style="font-size: large;">ing</span> the industry and free<span style="font-size: large;">img</span> numerous slaves. In February 1836, Major General Edmund Gaines' <span style="font-size: large;">force of over<span style="font-size: large;"> 1,000 men was <span style="font-size: large;">bes<span style="font-size: large;">ieged and forced to <span style="font-size: large;">retreat. Subsequent gener<span style="font-size: large;">als fielding even more troops <span style="font-size: large;">could not even find the enemy. Campai<span style="font-size: large;">g<span style="font-size: large;">ning in the summer months was difficult due to <span style="font-size: large;">torrential rainfall and d<span style="font-size: large;">i<span style="font-size: large;">sease.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One noteworthy exception
to American defeat<span style="font-size: large;"> is found in the campaign</span> of future president Zachary Taylor, who benefited
from the Seminoles abandonment of <span style="font-size: large;">guerrilla</span> tactics. At Lake
Okeechobee in December of 1837, the Seminoles defended a fixed
position in the everglades, and the Americans triumphed. The
tribe did not make the mistake again, and Taylor’s
counter-insurgency techniques divided the area and patrolled from
outposts. <span style="font-size: large;">It may have been racial concepti<span style="font-size: large;">ons of superiority which led American forces under General T<span style="font-size: large;">.S. Jesup </span>to ignore <span style="font-size: large;">military custo<span style="font-size: large;">m and capture leader Osceola while under a flag of truce. Osceola die<span style="font-size: large;">d in confinement several months later. Meanwhile,</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> Taylor destroyed crops and removed livestock, to little
effect, and Taylor’s war continued until April 1840 when he
asked to be removed from his command. Jesup had some successes establishing forts and using mobile columns to sweep the co<span style="font-size: large;">u</span>ntry.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Thomas_Sidney_Jesup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Thomas_Sidney_Jesup.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="description"><b>Thomas Sidney Jesup</b> (1788–1860), </span><br />
<span class="description"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As
Beckett notes the war ended in 1842, not through any military
success, but “largely by the army announcing it was over.” (p.
29) While 3800 Seminoles had been removed, there remained 500 <span style="font-size: large;">guerrillas</span> left in the swamps. The Third Seminole War (1855-58)
reduced this number to mere 100 who continued to hide out in ever
more remote areas of the everglades. Beckett suggests that the Americans little learned very <span style="font-size: large;">little</span> about counterinsurgency these early
actions.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0