This cultural history of the amateur military tradition traces the origins of the citizen soldier ideal from long before Canadians donned khaki and boarded troopships for the Western Front. Before the Great War, Canada’s military culture was in transition as the country navigated an uncertain relationship with the United States and fought an imperial war in South Africa. Militia Myths explores the ideological transformation that took place between 1896 and 1921, arguing that by the end of the War, the untrained citizen volunteer had replaced the long-serving militiaman as the archetypal Canadian soldier.

James Wood's profile page

James Wood teaches history at the University of Victoria and is the author of We Move Only Forward: Canada, the United States, and the First Special Service Force, 1942-44 and Army of the West: The Weekly Reports of German Army Group B from Normandy to the West Wall.

Wood’s work expands our knowledge of the Canadian militia beyond the elite imperialists and general officers commanding. By a close study of the Canadian Military Gazette and the speeches of militia officers and advocates, he shows the complex varieties of thought regarding the role of the citizen soldier in Canadian defense. By doing so he muddies the waters of the traditional historiography surrounding imperialism and the militia in Canada. More a history of military thought than a discursive study of popular conceptions, the work will appeal to academic military historians, while leaving gendered analysis and discourse and identity studies to the social historians.

H-War

This is a very good study of the development of the Canadian citizen soldier ... that makes a significant contribution to the scholarly literature in the field of Canadian military history.

Canadian Military Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, Spring 2012

In the superb analysis of Militia Myths ...Canadian historian James Wood recaptures the ideological origins and evolution of the conceptual foundations that shaped Canada’s Army during its most formative years ... he has in a single effort replaced many outdated and erroneous myths about Canada’s Army with solid evidence-based research and analysis, effectively delivering what will undoubtedly become a must-have book in every Canadian military library. Militia Myths is one of the best books in Canadian military - history I’ve read this year, and it is highly recommended to all.

Canadian Army Journal, V. 14.1