Holiday Reading (2024)

Published on

The year 2024 is drawing to a close, and it’s an understatement to say that the Company Canada team is very happy with its results! With the release of Honouring Bravery, our Ontario chapter, our new exhibition on the Normandy landings, the new virtual version of our Remembering Afghanistan exhibition and, above all, our new website… it’s been a busy year! So the vacations are a welcome break. So, to celebrate the occasion, we got together again this year to present our recommendation of readings, films and podcasts!

Indigenous History

  • Invisible women: WWII Aboriginal servicewomen in Canada (Grace Poulin) – According to our Ontario coordinator, Anthony: “It is one of the only sources I know that actually tells the stories of Indigenous women in the second world war.” The book is available for free online!
  • Pegahmagabow: Life-Long Warrior (Adrian Hayes) – A biography of Pegahmagabow that is very well-researched and written. A warm recommendation to learn more about this historic figure!
  • The History and Archaeology of the Iroquois du Nord (Ronald F. Williamson & Robert von Bitter) – The Haudenosaunee confederacy was one of America’s most powerful native groupings. This book attempts to reconstruct their presence using the latest advances in archaeology.

Ancient conflicts

  • Chartier de Lotbinière : Sur tous les fronts 1723-1798 (Dave Noël) – Based on Chartier de Lotbinière’s diary, this comprehensive biography presents a nuanced portrait of this key figure of New France.
  • La Guerre civile en Acadie au XVIIe siècle (M.A. MacDonald) – This book tells the little-known story of the Acadian Civil War, which took place against the backdrop of French colonization and British incursions into the region.
  • Montréal, nid d’espions : Les opérations sudistes à Montréal pendant la guerre de Sécession américaine (Barry Sheehy) – Outside the French-speaking sphere, Montreal was home to many English-speaking personalities who gravitated to the upper echelons of society. In this book, Barry Sheehy presents the links between a number of players from the Confederate United States and Montreal during the 19th century!
  • Par le fer et par le feu : Combattre dans l’Atlantique (XVIe –XVIIe siècles) (Alexandre Jubelin) – The territory of Quebec was the scene of major battles between two colonial empires: France and Great Britain. For many centuries, they fought great naval battles on the Atlantic seas. In this book, Alexandre Jubelin examines the conditions of the naval battles fought on the Atlantic. A fascinating book for those interested!

World War II

  • A Soldier Remembers – A Memoir (Pritam Singh Jauhal et Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra) – Pritam Singh Jauhal fought with the Indian Army on several fronts in Africa during the Second World War, before immigrating to Canada. There, he led a long struggle for recognition of Indian troops. His memoirs are available entirely online!
  • Calepin d’espoir : Mémoires d’un soldat de la Seconde Guerre mondiale (Émilien et Danielle Dufresne) – A reprint of the memoirs of soldier Émilien Dufresne, deployed with the Régiment de la Chaudière and captured by the German army after the Normandy landings.
  • De Sable et d’Acier : Nouvelle histoire du Débarquement (Peter Caddick-Adams) – At almost 900 pages, this new book provides an extremely comprehensive history of the Normandy landings, from their preparation to the beaches. What sets it apart is the range of points of view the author presents throughout: from infantrymen to airmen to German defenders.
  • La Seconde Guerre mondiale. Allemands et Canadiens face à face (Stéphane Roussel) – One of the latest additions to the Aujourd’hui l’histoire collection, this little book by Stéphane Roussel tells the story of the confrontations between the German and Canadian armies during the war.
  • My Father’s House (Joseph O’Connor) – An historical fiction, set in Rome in 1943, loosely based on real events. In this book, an Irish priest in the Vatican helped Jews and Allied soldiers escape from Nazi-occupied Italy.
  • No Road Leading Back: An Improbable Escape from the Nazis and the Tangled Way We Tell the Story of the Holocaust (Chris Heath) – This book tells the story of 12 prisoners who escaped from the Nazis in the Lithuanian forest of Ponar, where over 70,000 Jews were massacred. It also explores why this story has so rarely been told, how inconsistencies in historical record can exist and the ways we use and misuse Holocaust stories.
  • The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War (Tim Cook) –  The book explores how the diplomatic relationship between Canada and the United States evolved and solidified during WWII.
  • When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day (Garrett M. Graff) – From an American author, but there’s a lot of variety here as it uses accounts from soldiers, sailors, paratroopers, nurses, intelligence analysts, officers, and even several accounts from the German side. This book is really complete in its research!

Military History

  • No Names No Pack Drill: An Oral History of Canadians at War in Afghanistan (Steve MacBeth) – Another oral history based on interviews with 150 Canadian soldiers. The book allows interviewees to speak unfiltered and provides a raw and intimate historical record of the Canadian soldier’s experience of Afghanistan.
  • Out Standing in the Field: A Memoir by Canada’s First Female Infantry Officer (Sandra Perron) – Sandra Perron’s autobiography of her experiences as a woman in the Canadian Forces, after being deployed to Bosnia and Croatia. Super interesting!
  • The Eastern Front: A History of the First World War (Nick Lloyd) – In Canada, we rarely talk about the Eastern Front when talking about WWI, so here is a comprehensive look at how the Eastern Front devastated the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
  • The Vietnam War: A Military History (Geoffrey Wawro) – A critical look at a war that Canada was not (really) involved in, but a very interesting history of how Cold War politics and lackluster military strategy shaped US involvement in the Vietnam War.
Mainly for mother can be entirely read online with this link! !

Comic books

  • Cocon (Machiko Kyô) – Inspired by the story of the Himeyuri squadrons (units of young girls conscripted into the Japanese army during WWII), this manga deals with themes of trauma and memory. It’s a very dramatic book that hides under fine lines!
  • Jules Matrat (Serge Fino) – This comic book tells the story of a French veteran traumatized by the Great War. The first volume was published this year by Glénat!
  • La Bombe (Alcante, Bollée, Denis Rodier) – A real brick! In this one, the authors tell the story of the atomic bomb and uranium mining during the Second World War from the point of view of several characters. A thrilling historical comic book!
  • Jours d’attente (Thomas Desaulniers-Brousseau et Simon Leclerc) – A horror comic made in Quebec! A young man fleeing conscription hides out in a cabin in the woods, where he discovers various sordid stories about his refuge.

Podcasts

Our coordinator Marina listens to a lot of podcasts. Especially for this year, she has prepared a special list of her favorite shows:

  • Evil Genius – On each episode, the dark side of important historical figures is revealed to a group of comedians who must then decide whether the great deeds of the figure in question outweigh the horrible things they’ve done…
  • The Rest is History – The most widely listened to history podcast for a reason! Thorough, entertaining and covers an enormous variety of historical events.
  • You’re Dead to Me – Historians teach comedians about history.
  • Real Dictators – In depth explorations of the lives of dictators throughout history. Excellent research and narration.
  • Stuff the British Stole – There are not enough episodes of this podcast… especially since the British have stolen a lot of stuff! Pretty self-explanatory, the story of how some items from around the world ended up in British museums.

Movies

  • The Zone of Interest (dir. Jonathan Glazer) – A deeply moving film about the Holocaust, recounting the family life of Major Rudolf Höss, who lived just a few meters from the Auschwitz camp. The atrocity is fully depicted here via sound, offering a particularly intense experience!

Finally, Honouring Bravery and Je me souviens have both released new videos this year! In collaboration with TVOntario, Honouring Bravery has released four videos from its Forgotten War documentary series. All videos can be viewed on TVOntario’s YouTube channel:

As for Je me souviens, this year we have released five new videos to accompany our Remembering Afghanistan exhibition! All our videos can be heard on our YouTube channel:

Happy reading from the Je me souviens team!