• April 11, 2017
• 7:00pm–8:30pm
• McMaster University, David Braley Health Sciences Centre Auditorium, room 2032 100 Main Street West , Hamilton, ON

What’s wrong with Vimy? The Uses and Abuses of Canada’s First World War

In 2017 Canadians are summoned to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge as a valiant feat of Canadian arms, a turning point in the Great War of 1914-18, and the Birth of the Nation. Yet the tradition that glorifies Vimy Ridge and sees it as a climactic moment of Canada’s War of Independence could be an official narrative that conceals the inconclusive and tragic outcome of the War. Is this a disservice to the memories of the Canadian soldiers who fought in it? Is the celebration of Vimy a misrepresentation of the past, disguising the actual nature of war in a modern industrial society?

Join Dr. Ian McKay as he answers these questions from his new book The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War.

For more information see here.