When the Second World War broke out, Winnipeg was Canada’s fourth-largest city, home to strong class and ethnic divisions, and marked by a vibrant tradition of political protest. Citizens demonstrated their support for the war effort through their wide commitment to initiatives such as Victory Loan campaigns or calls for voluntary community service. But given Winnipeg’s diversity, was the Second World War a unifying event for Winnipeg residents? In The Patriotic Consensus, Jody Perrun explores the wartime experience of ordinary Winnipeggers through their responses to recruiting, the treatment of minorities, and the adjustments made necessary by family separation.

Jody Perrun teaches history at the University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba, and the Royal Military College of Canada, specializing in the Second World War, post-Confederation Canada, and the Holocaust.

Jody Perrun's profile page

• Winner, Manitoba Day Award, Association for Manitoba Archives

"Provides a refreshing look at how Western Canada participated in the war effort. Given that Western Canada is often overlooked in histories of the Second World War, in favour of industrial Ontario or dissenting Quebec, it is a valuable addition to the national story of how Canadians experienced the war at home.”

Histoire sociale/Social history

“An original and important scholarly contribution to the literature on Canada’s history during the Second World War.”

Canada’s History

“The Patriotic Consensus skillfully executed study that provides an important contribution to the growing number of works demonstrating the diversity and complexity of Canada’s war experience.”

Labour/Le Travail

“An excellent study on the influences and responses to total war at the local level in Canada through the medium of Winnipeg. By focusing on a microcosm of the nation-state, the diverse voices of the community speak through the pages and the war becomes more real.”

Great Plains Quarterly

“A a careful, nuanced, and effective contribution to the evolving scholarship on the history of the wartime home front in Canada.”

canadianmilitaryhistory.ca

“The Patriotic Consensus is a work of local history filtered through the larger geopolitical events of the Second World War. The result is a fascinating look at Winnipeg’s response to national wartime policies.”

Douglas J. Johnston

“Winnipeg during wartime comes alive in his masterful narrative that reminds readers that the domestic experience of the Second World War in Canada was not unitary, but was built upon and drew together the fragmented voices of many.”

Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine