Recommended "Great War" books, submitted by Dwight Mercer

 

Marching to Armageddon - Canada and the Great War 1914-1919

Desmond Morton and J. L. Granatstein, Lester & Orpen Dennys, (1989) - provides a good initial overview of the conflict from a CEF perspective

 

When Your Numbers Up - The Canadian Soldier in the First World War

Desmond Morton, Random House of Canada (1993)

-  details training and life of a typical Canadian soldier

 

The Journal of Private Fraser - Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1918

CEF Books, Edited by Reginald Roy, (1998)

-  excellent, observant, personal journal on one man's direct experiences

 

Barker VC - William Barker, Canada's Most Decorated War Hero

Wayne Ralph, Doubleday Canada (1997)

-  Canada tends not to honour any war hero - Barker included

 

Vimy

Pierre Berton, McClelland and Steward, (1986)

-  a classic, easy-read of one of the pivotal battles of the Canadian Corps but with some inaccuracies

No Place to Run - The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War

Tim Cook, UBC Press (1999)

-  documents poison gas by and on the CEF - will become a classic reference text

 

Shock Army of the British Empire - The Canadian Corps in the Last 100 Days

Shane B. Schreiber, Vanwell Publishing Ltd. (2004/1997)

-  a well written account by an active Canadian military officer of the Corps and reasons for its success

 

Canada's Army, Waging War and Keeping the Peace

J. L. Granatstein, Univ. of Toronto Press (2002)

-  sound overview of many conflicts including the Great War

 

Paris 1919

Margaret MacMillan, Random House, (2003)

-  very well written with a great deal of information packed into it

 

Passchendaele - The Sacrificial Ground

Nigel Steel and Peter Hart, Cassel Military Paperbacks (2000)

-  an extended series of personal accounts of the true horror of this battle

 

Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War - Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919,

Colonel G. W. L. Nicholson, C.D., Army Historical Section

Canadians on the Somme - The Neglected Campaign

William F. Stewart - Helion & Company August 2017 Hardback, 432 pages

-  one of those rare books on the Great War which presents (i) a fresh illumination to challenge long-standing assumptions coupled with (ii) very detailed and well researched material;

(iii) and a new perspective on a major battle.  It  destined to become a key reference text to be studied rather than casually read.