As an American, studying at WLU proved an invaluable academic experience. Arriving with scattered interests in modern military history, my one year in Waterloo pushed me towards the study of US-Commonwealth relations.  While at Laurier I became interested in America’s late entry into the Great War and the nation’s deployment of the Coast Artillery Corps.  […]

“It’s war out there.” “That guy’s a real hero.” “We’ll battle this thing out until one of us comes out on top.” “Aw man! That guy really took his legs out.” To the layman, these are the kinds of things you might hear at a casualty clearing station or first aid post on the battlefield. […]

In the fall of 2008 I was on my way home from Germany, a bit tired after spending several weeks in the field at the U.S. Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels.  I had been there with a large operational research team to study various aspects of the ABCA (America Britain Canada Australia and New […]

One of the great perks of working through LCMSDS is the faculty and staffs’ varied work experiences.  Roger Sarty, my advisor always encouraged me to look outside of the ‘normal’ streams for employment for a doctoral candidate.  So I did.  A couple years ago I decided to take the plunge and join the Canadian Forces.  I thought my […]

When I excitedly departed for London to search the National Archives on 11 June, I felt – thanks to the encouraging words of my colleagues (“the archives are amazing,” “a million times better than any in Canada,” etc.) – that I was headed for the historians’ Shangri-la.  It would be a nerd’s paradise with organisation, efficiency, and a never ending […]

Neither of the towns above ranks among the destinations that attract so many travellers to Italy, but for Canadians they represent the beginning and the end of a significant chapter in our history. That chapter opens on July 10, 1943, when 1st Canadian Division came ashore with the Anglo-American forces committed to the invasion of […]

My wonderful existence as a Research Coordinator at the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies and a first year PhD student at Royal Military College ended when my husband secured a great new job in Arizona. I loved my affiliation with LCMSDS and I could not wait to be a trail blazer with […]

It has recently been estimated that sixty-two percent of all war related deaths in the twentieth-century were non-combatant.  This translates to more than 54 million civilians having perished in all military conflicts of the last century.  Much has been written on the cataclysmic impact of war on society in the Second World War and continues […]

I recently completed a two-year research fellowship at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. In July 2007 I arrived at the Museum with plans to explore the history of Canadian military mechanization and logistics. After completing a few trial articles on various aspects of the twentieth-century experience, I settled on the First World War as […]

Security at mega-events has been much on the minds of Canadians this year, as we host the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the upcoming G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto at the end of June. These events have been secured at huge tax payer expense – pushing a billion dollars each. What are we getting for […]