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History General

Zombie Army

The Canadian Army and Conscription in the Second World War

by (author) Daniel Byers

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2016
Category
General, General
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774830546
    Publish Date
    Jul 2016
    List Price
    $125.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774830515
    Publish Date
    May 2016
    List Price
    $95.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774830522
    Publish Date
    Jan 2017
    List Price
    $34.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Zombie Army tells the story of Canada’s Second World War military conscripts – reluctant soldiers pejoratively referred to as “zombies” for their perceived similarity to the mindless movie monsters of the 1930s. In the first full-length book on the subject in almost forty years, Byers combines underused and newly discovered records to argue that although conscripts were only liable for home defence, they soon became a steady source of recruits from which the army found volunteers to serve overseas. He also challenges the traditional nationalist-dominated impression that Quebec participated only grudgingly in the war.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Daniel Byers is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Laurentian University. He has published in the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, Canadian Military History, the Canadian Army Journal, the Bulletin d’histoire politique, and Ontario History.

Editorial Reviews

Zombie Army adds yet another important study to the large codex of Canadian Second World War literature, adding new life to a topic that has not been investigated in detail for many years.

Canadian Army Journal, 17.2

Zombie Army tells the whole arresting story with an even hand and smart commentary. The work is as compelling as the subject.

Blacklock's Reporter, February 2017

Since it illustrates a topic that could not have been written in earlier decades, there is much for the Second World War historian to learn from Zombie Army.

The Canadian Historical Review, Volume 98, Number 4

Somewhat ironically given the book’s title, Zombie Army is a very human story about the Canadian World War II experience. It deserves a prominent place in both libraries and university classrooms.

Canadian Journal of History, Volume 52, Number 2

Byers provides us with an impeccably researched look at the daily grind of these soldiers, the way they were perceived by the local populations, their ethnic composition, or where and how they served.

The British Journal of Canadian Studies, Volume 31, Number 1

…by far the most complete account to date of conscription in Canada during the Second World War.

Canadian Military History, Vol 27, Issue 2