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History World War Ii

The Volunteers

How Halifax Women Won the Second World War

by (author) Lezlie Lowe

Publisher
Nimbus Publishing
Initial publish date
Mar 2022
Category
World War II, Social History, Canada
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781774710548
    Publish Date
    Mar 2022
    List Price
    $22.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781774710555
    Publish Date
    Mar 2022
    List Price
    $10.99

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Description

The long-awaited narrative history of the women who volunteered in Nova Scotia during the Second World War by award-winning journalist and author of No Place to Go.

"I was home cooking carrots because my mother was off winning the war."

-- Patricia Timbrell, whose mother, Amy Jones, along with her friend Una Smith, established and ran the Central Magazine Exchange, which distributed four million used magazines and 30,000 packs of cards by June 1942 alone for troop and merchant ships in Halifax Harbour.

Halifax women won the Second World War -- but not in the ways you might have been told. We all know the stories of Canadian women during the war who trained as machinists, welders, and streetcar drivers to fill the shoes of men who answered the call. We know how women kept the home fires lit while their husbands, brothers, and fathers fought. This is not that story.

The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War is the untold story of Halifax women who geared up in a flash to focus on the comfort, community connections, and mental health of Halifax's exploding population of sailors, soldiers, airmen, and merchant mariners. They did a job no government could have organized or afforded. They did it without being asked. And they did it with no respite from their daily duties.

Thoroughly researched and compellingly told, and with a dozen archival images, The Volunteers examines the untold stories of the hardworking women whose unpaid and unacknowledged labour won the Second World War.

About the author

Lezlie Lowe is a freelance journalist and journalism instructor based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has been recognized for her long-form journalism by the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Atlantic Journalism Awards. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College, where she also teaches in the Journalism department. No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs is her first book.

Lezlie Lowe's profile page