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A Tale of Two Nations

Melina Druga

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Aug 09, 2021 Jamie Bee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2021, history

Compilation of Series’ Books; Wonderful Series!

Though the title doesn’t make it clear, this is a compilation of the author’s quick-read nonfiction books about WWI. I enjoyed reading the series one book at a time, and this is a great way to get all the separate books together in one volume. The series looks at the Great War from the perspectives of Canada and the US… which were very different countries back then (think population, the influence of Great Britain on Canada, and their respective ori Compilation of Series’ Books; Wonderful Series!

Though the title doesn’t make it clear, this is a compilation of the author’s quick-read nonfiction books about WWI. I enjoyed reading the series one book at a time, and this is a great way to get all the separate books together in one volume. The series looks at the Great War from the perspectives of Canada and the US… which were very different countries back then (think population, the influence of Great Britain on Canada, and their respective origin stories and cultures). Until the book of the last year of the war, the author looks at a keystone event for each country in the given year through the prism of contemporary newspapers in both countries. I found it fascinating to see the European war as North American people at home would.

Here’s my full review of 1915: Short, But Insightful Look at WWI from Two Perspectives

I have read this author’s fictional series that takes place during WWI. I imagine this series of nonfiction books, each looking at a year during that war from both Canadian and American perspectives, stems from her research for that series. I'm glad she decided to share! I liked that this looks at that time from both those countries' perspectives as shown by newspaper coverage at the time. My own grandfather was American-born to Canadian parents... and he decided to join in the European war effort but chose to do so through his Canadian roots; the pro-war fervor made him not want to wait until (or if) America decided to enter. In fact, I believe he joined his Canadian unit in the year this book discusses, 1915. In reading this book, I came to better understand his decision, one that ultimately cast a long net, affecting his life forevermore after shrapnel injury during his time overseas. This book is very short, with less than 50 PDF pages in the ARC copy I downloaded from a book review site. After a brief introduction where she discusses the surprisingly fractious nature of US-Canada relations prior to WWI, the author narrowly focuses on two key events that year, one for Canada (the second battle of Ypres) and one for the US (the sinking of the Lusitania). As she states in the introduction, the author tries not to look at this through a contemporary 21st-century lens—although a little of that does creep in—but rather at what newspapers at the time had to say about them. At that time, newspapers were a powerful reflective and shaping force for society, yet they were often inaccurate or reflected the position of those in power at the newspaper. This quick read is a fascinating dip into the world that was in 1915 near the start of the first world war, or as they knew it at the time, the Great War.

I received a free copy of this compilation, but that did not affect my review.

My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com ...more

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