For All We Have and Are makes an important contribution to the growing literature on how Canadian communities experienced the First World War. Using newspaper archives, memoirs, and letters, James Pitsula looks at how issues such as class, anti-immigrant actions, volunteer movements, local politics, and the social gospel played out against the backdrop of the war overseas.
Regina in 1914 was a new, vibrant frontier city. As provincial capital, it was also the stage on which the major political dramas of the day took place. For many Reginans, the fight against German militarism merged with the struggle against social evils and the "Big Interests," adding new momentum to the forces of social reform, including the battles for prohibition and woman's suffrage. More than one-quarter of Reginans were "foreign-born," and the war unleashed a fierce public battle over schools and language that would lead to the fall of premier Walter Scott. Pitsula traces these social movements against the background of the lives of Regina men in the trenches overseas, such as the 28th Battalion that fought at Passchendale and Vimy Ridge.
Skilfully combining vivid detail with the larger social context, Pitsula gives us a nuanced picture of how one Canadian community rebuilt both its realities and myths in response to the cataclysm of the "war to end all wars."
Regina in 1914 was a new, vibrant frontier city. As provincial capital, it was also the stage on which the major political dramas of the day took place. For many Reginans, the fight against German militarism merged with the struggle against social evils and the "Big Interests," adding new momentum to the forces of social reform, including the battles for prohibition and woman's suffrage. More than one-quarter of Reginans were "foreign-born," and the war unleashed a fierce public battle over schools and language that would lead to the fall of premier Walter Scott. Pitsula traces these social movements against the background of the lives of Regina men in the trenches overseas, such as the 28th Battalion that fought at Passchendale and Vimy Ridge.
Skilfully combining vivid detail with the larger social context, Pitsula gives us a nuanced picture of how one Canadian community rebuilt both its realities and myths in response to the cataclysm of the "war to end all wars."
