Book review: The Italian empire and the great war
| Author | Jessi A. J. Gilchrist |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020221097992 |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
1914–18 is not paradoxical; it is the peculiarity of 1914–18 that needs explanation.
Neither 1939–45, nor Korea, nor 1812 (despite the Harper government’s attempt), has
struck Canadians as intensely as 1914–18. Moreover, other places of memory are also
suffering from neglect. To give one example, the largest repository of sources on
Canadian history, Library and Archives Canada (LAC), operates in scattered buildings,
some dilapidated, as was the case with the former incarnation of the Canadian War
Museum. Despite a website that gives pride of place to the forgotten, LAC remains
shunned by the public, politicians, and increasingly by academics. While the deni-
gration of battle facts exists, the lobbying force of veterans has offset it. LAC has never
had such support. It begs the question: is it not better to be denigrated than ignored?
Except when discussing official history, for which Cook cites archival records, his
analysis is based mostly on the use of published sources, relying heavily on docu-
mentation from the Royal Canadian Legion. Reflective of a study of social memory
where use of popular culture is customary, the book relies on journalism, select works
of fiction, and documentary or dramatic cinema.
Materially, the book disappoints. The hardcover is printed on ugly paper, and the
illustrations integrated into the text are not well reproduced, often poorly referenced or
not at all, and possess distressingly overt patriotic captions. Moreover, Cook every-
where expresses himself in this type of openly acclaimed tone: for example, of the
permanent exhibition of the new CWM, of which he is one of the authors, he writes that
it “was unabashedly national history, and far different from what was taught in most
universities at the time”(405).
The book can be read without sharing the fervour of its author, however. Criticism of
superficialwar culture, exaggeratingthe disasters of Hong Kong and Dieppe,and that of a
mea culpa culture (Japanese-Canadians,merchant seamen, et cetera)is rather compelling,
but Cook’s celebrationof the liberation of Holland (to tell us thatthe Dutch remember the
Canadian liberators even if Canadians ignore Holland of 1944–45) should not make us
forget that the Netherlands was a peripheral theatre at the end of the war.
That a book on memory—a subject less catchy than the biography of a general or a
politician, the account of famous battles, or the description of living conditions of
soldiers, subjects Cook masters—manages to engage readers is a feat that few authors
can brag about.
Vanda Wilcox. The Italian Empire and the Great War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 288
pp. $56.96 CAD (cloth) ISBN: 978-0-19882-294-3
Reviewed by: Jessi A. J. Gilchrist, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Many scholars have explored Liberal Italy’s (1861–1922) grandiose territorial am-
bitions during the First World Warand the myth of the “mutilated victory ”that followed
when Italy failed to secure them all. Yet historians have tended to view imperialism as
146 International Journal 77(1)
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