Jonathan F. Vance

An A–Z reference guide that provides a valuable overview of the history of prisoners of war and interned civilians, from earliest times to the present. This invaluable A–Z reference work presents nearly 300 entries that survey the history of prisoners of war and interned civilians from the earliest times to the present, with emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Medical conditions, international law, exchanges of prisoners, organizations working on behalf of POWs, and trials associated with the treatment of captives are just some of the themes explored. Entries range from the Ardeatine Caves Massacre to Kurt Vonnegut.

Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War and Internment

Tulip Has A Room

A Gallant Company goes beyond the bestselling Great Escape by Paul Brickhill and tells the only full and complete account of the dramatic escape of Allied airmen from Stalag Luft III in World War II that was the basis for the hit movie The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen. On the night of March 24-25, 1944, seventy-nine Allied airmen clambered through a tunnel at Stalag Luft III in eastern Germany in the final act of what history and Hollywood have dubbed "The Great Escape." Built around a cast of colorful and engaging characters from every corner of the world, it describes their ongoing struggle to outwit their captors. It is a tale of ingenuity, perseverance, courage, and is a testament to what ordinary men can achieve under extraordinary circumstances.

The True Story of the Man of the Great Escape

A Gallant Company

Kellen Kurschinski

Steve Marti

Alicia Robinet

Matt Symes

The Great War: From Memory to History offers a new look at the multiple ways the Great War has been remembered and commemorated through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Drawing on contributions from history, cultural studies, film, and literary studies this collection offers fresh perspectives on the Great War and its legacy at the local, national, and international levels. More importantly, it showcases exciting new research on the experiences and memories of “forgotten” participants who have often been ignored in dominant narratives or national histories. Contributors to this international study highlight the transnational character of memory-making in the Great War’s aftermath. No single memory of the war has prevailed, but many symbols, rituals, and expressions of memory connect seemingly disparate communities and wartime experiences. With groundbreaking new research on the role of Aboriginal peoples, ethnic minorities, women, artists, historians, and writers in shaping these expressions of memory, this book will be of great interest to readers from a variety of national and academic backgrounds.

From Memory to History

The Great War

This book examines Canada's collective memory of the First World War through the 1920s and 1930s. It is a cultural history, considering art, music, and literature. Thematically organized into such subjects as the symbolism of the soldier, the implications of war memory for Canadian nationalism, and the idea of a just war, the book draws on military records, memoirs, war memorials, newspaper reports, fiction, popular songs, and films. It takes an unorthodox view of the Canadian war experience as a cultural and philosophical force rather than as a political and military event.

Memory, Meaning, and the First World War

Death So Noble

Fifteen thousand Canadians were captured during Canada's twientieth-century wars. They experienced the bewilderment that accompanied the moment of capture, the humiliation of being completely in the captor's power, and the sense of stagnating in a backwater while the rest of the world moved forward. Jonathan Vance provides the first comprehensive account of how the Canadian government and non-governmental organizations have dealt with the problems of prisoners of war, examining Canada's role in the formation of aspects of international law, the growth and activities of national and local philanthropic agencies, and the efforts of ex-prisoners to secure compensation for the long-term effects of captivity.

Canadian Prisoners of War Through the Twentieth Century

Objects of Concern

In his wide-ranging and well-researched history, Jonathan F. Vance considers a range of recurring issues in the evolution of Canadian culture, including the divide between 'culture' and mass entertainment, the thriving arts in Quebec, the CBC, and new media. Vance also reveals that the hot-button cultural issues we all know and love-government funding for the arts, the cultural brain drain, the drive to preserve distinctly Canadian forms of expression, concerns over copyright protection, the economic impact of cultural industries-can be traced back to previous centuries.

A History of Canadian Culture

The prison break from Stalag Luft III in eastern Germany was the largest of its kind in World War II. Seventy nine Allied soldiers and airmen made it outside the wire - but only three made it outside Nazi Germany. Fifty were executed by the Gestapo.

Stalag Luft III, March 1944

The True Story of the Great Escape

A Township at War takes the reader from rural Canadian field and farm to the slopes of Vimy Ridge and the mud of Passchendaele, and shows how a tightly knit Ontario community was consumed and transformed by the trauma of war. In 1914, the southern Ontario township of East Flamborough was like a thousand other rural townships in Canada, broadly representative in its wartime experience. Author Jonathan Vance draws from rich narrative sources to reveal what rural people were like a century ago—how they saw the world, what they valued, and how they lived their lives. We see them coming to terms with global events that took their loved ones to distant battlefields, and dealing with the prosaic challenges of everyday life. Fall fairs, recruiting meetings, church services, school concerts—all are reimagined to understand how rural Canadians coped with war, modernism, and a world that was changing more quickly than they were. This is a story of resilience and idealism, of violence and small-mindedness, of a world that has long disappeared and one that remains with us to this day.

Jonathan F. Vance

About

Books

Join the club