A Township at War, Jonathan F. Vance
A Township at War, Jonathan F. Vance
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
Club: $17.49

A Township at War

Author: Jonathan F. Vance

Narrator: Costas Halavrezos

Unabridged: 11 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/22/2020


Synopsis

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.

About Jonathan F. Vance

Jonathan Vance teaches military history and Canadian history at Western University, Canada. He is the author of more than ten acclaimed works.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jason

It's a neat idea, and one that will be absolutely loved by some readers (especially those who seek it out) but I'm not sure how successful it was at its goal. The pieces of the book - the popular history of the town, the history of individual soldiers that go quickly, and the individual pieces the a......more

Goodreads review by Dave

Not a great book but an excellent read. Many anecdotes that were pertinent and would never be told in another format. The inclusion of personal comments by a veteran, Clare Laking, were revealing in their subtlety.......more

Goodreads review by Carrie

Excellent perspective of a rural township, East Flamborough, during World War 1. Interesting reading.......more

Goodreads review by John

I couldn't get into it. I abandoned it at about the 1/3 point.......more