The Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies describes the book as follows:
“On the morning of April 9, 1917, troops of the Canadian Corps under General Julian Byng attacked the formidable German defences of Vimy Ridge. Since then, generations of Canadians have shared a deep emotional attachment to the battle, inspired partly by the spectacular memorial on the battlefield. Although the event is considered central in Canadian military history, most people know very little about what happened during that memorable Easter in northern France.
Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment draws on the work of a new generation of scholars who explore the battle from three perspectives. The first assesses the Canadian Corps within the wider context of the Western Front in 1917. The second explores Canadian leadership, training, and preparations and details the story of each of the four Canadian divisions. The final section concentrates on the commemoration of Vimy Ridge, both for contemporaries and later generations of Canadians.
This long-overdue collection, based on original research, replaces mythology with new perspectives, new details, and a new understanding of the men who fought and died for the remarkable achievement that was the Battle of Vimy Ridge. “
Here are a sampling of the reviews of the book:
“The best book on this battle remains Geoffrey Hayes, Andrew Iarocci and Mike Bechthold (eds. ), Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Assessment. “
– Major John R. Grodzinski, CD, MA, Canadian Military Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1
“Practical, detailed, and superbly researched. “
– Vivien Hughes, British Journal of Canadian Studies, Volume 21, #1
“Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Assessment . .. attempts to understand World War I by looking closely at the facts and documents of the period and by placing the war in its socio-political, military, and rhetorical context [and] strives to slice through sentiments, propaganda, political maneuvering, and jingoism that seem to stick to the Great War to arrive at a deeper appreciation of what was at stake for the Canadian nation and its citizens, at home and on the battle front. It . … goes some distance towards establishing clarification and balance in our ongoing analysis of Canada’s role in the war and our understanding of what it continues to mean for us. … Upon reflection, I am struck by the implicit warnings these authors offer which I take to be that the legacy of war is terrible, that we forget this legacy at our peril, and that the rhetoric of national glory leads directly to the inglorious language of intolerance, demonization of enemies, aggression, and violence. “