‘This is culture as a shield,’ says author Tim Cook of the poems, papers, and plays produced by soldiers in the First World War

‘There are millions of Canadians today who are a descendent of a veteran of the war, and I hope that this book helps them, and others, to know this generation of Canadians,’ says Tim Cook, author of The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War.

A sculpture of soldiers from the National War Memorial in Ottawa, where Canadians will soon help mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Canadian military historian and author Tim Cook takes a unique look at the culture that developed among soldiers in the trenches of the Great War using first hand accounts compiled over 20 years of research. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia

Feature

BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT

November 5, 2018

The First World War is rightly remembered for the unprecedented death and destruction that trench warfare wrought, but there’s also a rich and little-explored culture that developed among soldiers on the front lines, as Canadian military historian and Carleton University Professor Tim Cook explore...

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