On War & Society

On War & Society features interviews with the most prominent historians of war and society. Host Kyle Falcon sits down with his guests to discuss cutting-edge research, the challenges associated with doing history, and life 'behind the book.'

Oh! What a Visual War with Beatriz Pichel 09/07/2021

Oh! What a Visual War with Beatriz Pichel In this episode of On War & Society, Dr. Beatriz Pichel, author of the new book Picturing the Western Front: Photography, Practices and Experiences in First World War France discusses the visual legacy of the First World War, the importance of treating photographs as primary sources, the controversies over colourisation and the future of photographic history in an age of visual abundance. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/20397383

The American War in Vietnam with Rob Thompson 08/01/2021

The American War in Vietnam with Rob Thompson In this episode, Dr. Robert Thompson explains the significance of pacification to America’s defeat, his thoughts on Ken Burn’s popular documentary, and some of the myths that have shaped our understandings of America’s War in Vietnam. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/19990811

In the Path of War with David Borys 07/09/2021

In the Path of War with David Borys In this episode, David Borys, producer of the Cool Canadian History podcast and author of the new book, Civilians at the Sharp End: First Canadian Army Civil Affairs in Northwest Europe, discusses the monumental task facing Canadian Civilian Affairs in the Second World War, their crucial role in military operations and humanitarian aid, and the myths and realities behind the liberation of Northwest Europe. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/19749038

Broken Promises with Christopher Capozzola 06/03/2021

Broken Promises with Christopher Capozzola Christopher Cappozzola, Professor of History at MIT and author of Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America’ First Pacific Century, recently joined our program to discuss his new book, the colonization of archives, memory and forgetting, and the efforts of Filipino-American veterans to undo the broken promises of the past. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/19332089

A Curious Case of Shell Shock with Joy Porter 05/04/2021

A Curious Case of Shell Shock with Joy Porter In this episode of On War & Society, Professor Joy Porter author of the new book Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War: The Making of Frank Prewett, discusses Pretwett's life and legacy, cultural appropriation, and the challenges of writing difficult histories. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/18962591

A War of Emotions with Lucy Noakes 04/06/2021

A War of Emotions with Lucy Noakes In this episode, Lucy Noakes, Professor of History at the University of Essex discusses the truths and falsities behind the Blitz spirit and the process of writing an emotional study of the Second World War. Whether Britons confronted loss with a quiet stoicism, utilitarian memorials or personalised inscriptions on headstones, the Second World War was a war of emotions. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/18622352

The Great War at Home with Martha Hanna 03/01/2021

The Great War at Home with Martha Hanna In this episode of On War & Society, Martha Hanna author of Anxious Days and Tearful Nights: Canadian War Wives during the Great War, discusses the challenges and ethics of working with private correspondence as well as the differences between how Canadian and European wives experienced the Great War at home. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/18142400

Biodefense and the War on Terror with Gwen D'Arcangelis 02/01/2021

Biodefense and the War on Terror with Gwen D'Arcangelis In this episode, Professor Gwen D'Arcangelis observes how the anthrax scare, the war on terror, and the current COVID-19 pandemic are part of a broader and ongoing history of American bio-imperialism. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/17744246

Disaster in Halifax, 1917 with Roger Sarty 01/01/2021

Disaster in Halifax, 1917 with Roger Sarty In this episode, Professor Roger Sarty, a leading Canadian Naval and military historian discusses the late T. Joseph Scanlon's book Catastrophe: Stories and Lessons from the Halifax Explosion and the military history of the disaster in Halifax. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/17372702

Reclaiming Canada's Second World War with Tim Cook 12/01/2020

Reclaiming Canada's Second World War with Tim Cook In his new book Tim Cook reminds us that "if we do not tell our own stories, no one else will." But the ways in which Canadians have chosen to remember the Second World War has been far from consistent. As veterans dwindle and historians open up new avenues for understanding this contentious past, Tim Cook joins us once again to make a plea to fellow Canadians to continue the fight for their history. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/17007530

The Black Watch Snipers with David O'Keefe 11/02/2020

The Black Watch Snipers with David O'Keefe Historian David O’Keefe is a professor and an author and has created and collaborated in more than fifteen documentaries. In this wide-ranging interview, O’Keefe discusses the thirty-year journey behind his research into Canada's Black Watch snipers, the benefits and challenges of doing history on film and television and the impact that the pandemic has had on research and public outreach. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/16638422

Episode 35 - Writing Public History with Tim Cook 10/01/2020

Episode 35 - Writing Public History with Tim Cook Tim Cook is that rare historian who has managed to find success both within and beyond the academy. With a scarcity of academic jobs and a new generation of historians embracing digital outlets to disseminate their work, Kyle Falcon discusses with Tim the importance and challenges of writing public history. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/16217267

Episode 34 - The Medic's Tale with Ted Barris 09/01/2020

Episode 34 - The Medic's Tale with Ted Barris Ted Barris discusses his new book, a 153-year journey into the burning question he never had a chance to ask his father, a combat medic of the Second World War: what motivates medics to rush into danger? /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/15836882

Episode 33 - Voicing Dissent during the First World War 07/02/2020

Episode 33 - Voicing Dissent during the First World War Henri Bourassa was a French Canadian nationalist, politician, journalist, and a vocal dissenter of the war effort in Canada. Despite Bourassa’s significance, his story is little-known outside of Quebec. Geoff Keelan sits down with Kyle Falcon to discuss Bourassa’s life and legacy. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/15059663

Episode 32 - The American Civil War: Under the Knife 06/01/2020

Episode 32 - The American Civil War: Under the Knife Approximately 750,000 people were killed during the American Civil War. This staggering death count was a shock to American physicians who were unregulated, undertrained and operating in the dark. But the war also offered opportunities. In her book, Learning from the Wounded, historian Shauna Devine argues that the violence had a profound and lasting influence on American medical science and practice. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/14648537

Episode 31 - Haunted by Hitler 01/17/2020

Episode 31 - Haunted by Hitler In the summer of 1937, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King spent four days in Berlin and sat face to face with Adolf Hitler. In this episode of On War and Society, Robert Teigrob of Ryerson University sits down with Kyle Falcon to discuss McKenzie King’s four days in Berlin and the complicated moral questions that it raises about present-day diplomacy and historical commemoration. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/12778685

Episode 30 - Malplaquet: The Myth of Decisive Battle 12/02/2019

Episode 30 - Malplaquet: The Myth of Decisive Battle Eight years into the War of the Spanish Succession, and threatened with the prospect of invasion, the French forces met the allied armies in the field during the climactic Battle of Malplaquet. There they halted the allied advance and changed the course of the war. Or so this is how the battle if often remembered. Darryl Dee's research questions the idea that the Battle of Malplaquet, and battles in general, can ever be so decisive. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/12240590

Episode 29 - Making a Historian 10/01/2019

Episode 29 - Making a Historian On this month's episode Kyle Pritchard sits down with Dr Roger Sarty to discuss the life and career of CP Stacey. Sarty explains how CP Stacey went from being a young student with no interest in research to the founding father of Canadian military history. Sarty explores the challenges that shaped Stacey, Stacey's correspondence with his family and the challenges he faced in developing a new field of study. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/11459759

Episode 28 - The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists 09/01/2019

Episode 28 - The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists In this episode, Kyle Pritchard sits down with Blaine Chiasson about the historical importance of the Boxer rebellion and how questions around war and empire continue to shape multilateral relations today. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/10712345

Episode 27 - Assault on the Winter Line 08/01/2019

Episode 27 - Assault on the Winter Line The Italian Campaign during the Second World War remains a subject of controversy. Terry Copp believes he has found a new multinational approach to studying the Italian Campaign as he zeroes in on the late 1943/early 1944 Allied assault on the Axis Winter Line. He insists to properly comprehend the campaign historians should look passed the national narratives and address the combat operations across the entire peninsula. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/10669145

Episode 26 - Nazis, Canadian Jews and the Second World War 07/01/2019

Episode 26 - Nazis, Canadian Jews and the Second World War Ellin Bessner, in her new book Double Threat, insists that at least in the case of Jewish Canadians, they were not just victims of the Second World War but also active players in the eventual victory of the Allies against Germany and the Axis powers. Canadian Jews enlisted at the same proportional rates as the rest of Canada and served valiantly and bravely in the face of an enemy that not only wanted to see them defeated in battle but exterminated from the face of the earth. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/10314557

Episode 25 - Ted Barris and the Dam Busters 06/01/2019

Episode 25 - Ted Barris and the Dam Busters During the Second World War, within the crews of airmen responsible for breaching the Ruhr dams of Nazi Germany, there were thirty Canadians. In 1943, these men, along with about a hundred others, took to the skies in May 1943 aboard nineteen Lancaster Bombers to drop the now infamous bouncing bombs that would devastate enemy power plants, factories and German infrastructure after blowing up several dams. Ted Barris discusses the deeds of these Canadian airmen and legacies they left behind. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/9827309

Episode 24 – Ambitions Unrealized 05/01/2019

Episode 24 – Ambitions Unrealized Largely ignored is the role of the middle class and educated, though largely unqualified, women who assisted in filling in the gaps at overburdened hospitals and convalescent homes as voluntary nurses during the First World War. Many experienced difficult and mundane work as a result of hostility from professional nurses and doctors who doubted their abilities. While some continued in emerging disciplines like physiotherapy and dietetics after the war, others had difficulties finding employment. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/9594647

Episode 23 – Stalin's Gulag 04/01/2019

Episode 23 – Stalin's Gulag Sometimes we forget that the field of war and society encompasses so much more than Canada. Many of the guests we've had on our show study the history of war and society in Canada, but in this episode, Wilson Bell speaks about the Soviet Gulag system during the Second World War and his new book, Stalin's Gulag at War. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/9108164

Episode 22 – Shell Shock 03/01/2019

Episode 22 – Shell Shock Mark Humphries, associate professor history at Wilfrid Laurier University and Director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, has contributed another addition to the ever-growing literature on shell shock with his new book. Looking at the experience of doctors and patients as well as the medical management system that developed overseas, he investigates how shell shock was managed and mismanaged and how the search for a solution remained elusive. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/8832482

Episode 21 – Rural Canada at War 01/31/2019

Episode 21 – Rural Canada at War We know a lot about the urban experience during the First World War in Canada but far less about the rural equivalent. Jonathan Vance's new book shows that the conventional narrative of the First World War in Canada did not match that of East Flamborough. Prohibition, conscription, suffrage, enemy alien internment––these are the issues encountered time and again when writing about the First World War. But in a small rural southern Ontario community, these were not the pressing issues of the day. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/8415929

Episode 20 – Uncovering the Secret History of Soldiers 12/31/2018

Episode 20 – Uncovering the Secret History of Soldiers In Tim Cook's two-volume social history of the war, he spoke of a soldiers’ culture, which bound Canadians together on the battlefields and helped them cope with the immense stress and strain of war from 1914 to 1918. This year, Tim released The Secret History of Soldiers, a book dedicated solely to this soldiers’ culture that has become his most significant contribution to our understanding of the First World War in Canada. In the episode, Tim discusses what exactly this soldiers culture entails. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/7921235

Episode 19 – How to Write 7,000 Words in a Week 11/30/2018

Episode 19 – How to Write 7,000 Words in a Week As many Canadian historians will attest, Tim Cook is one of the most prolific writers in the profession. Since 1998, he has published a dozen books on the First and Second World Wars. But how does he do it? In this month’s episode, Tim discusses the process of researching and writing, as well as his new book, The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War, published with Allen Lane this year. In a jaw-dropping statement, Tim revealed how many words he writes per week. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/7756175

Episode 18 – Why Military Families Matter, Pt. 2 10/31/2018

Episode 18 – Why Military Families Matter, Pt. 2 Military families have been essential to the care veterans both in the past and present. Yet current veteran policies and programs do not fully provide the necessary services military families require for the process of healing and recovery. For the final episode of our four-part series on the past and present experiences of veterans in Canada, two scholars, a veteran and a caregiver continue their discussion of the effects of military service on veterans’ families. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/7359251

Episode 17 - Why Military Families Matter, Pt. 1 10/01/2018

Episode 17 - Why Military Families Matter, Pt. 1 Soldiers returning from the battlefield rarely return unscathed. Yet veterans’ families continue to be inadequately prepared for the difficulties of military life. Two scholars and two veterans discuss the effects of cycles of veteran deployment and eventual discharge on military family well-being. /episode/index/show/lcmsdsproductions/id/7028700

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