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Orangeville Citizen | November 21, 2024

By Constance Scrafield 

Multi-award-wining author Dr. Tim Cook has been chief historian and director of research at the Canadian War Museum for the last 25 years.

On Nov. 28, he will be at the Monora Park Pavilion at 7 p.m. to talk about Canada’s many roles during World War II and his new book, The Good Allies, as part of the series of talks with Small Town Big Ideas.

With a PhD in history, Cook has won several awards for his outstanding books about Canada’s military history, particularly about the aspects of Canada’s contributions to the war efforts during the two World Wars. For this considerable list, Cook has won four Ottawa Book prizes for Literary Non-Fiction, and two C.P. Stacy Awards for the best book in Canadian military history. In 2008 and 2018, he won the J.W. Dafoe Prize and in 2009, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.

One can only admire Cook’s remarkably easy style of writing, rendering his clear and concise recounting of the wars so readable, that the books are hard to put down. Throughout The Good Allies, Cook has made fulsome endnotes. 

During an interview with the Citizen, he commented, “I want to make it clear. I like to be thorough, so readers can confirm the sources. I spent a lot of time at the archives. I’m not making it up.”

The Good Allies follows William Lyon Mackenzie King (referred to as King in the book), the longest-serving Canadian Prime Minister, well known for his eccentricities, his seances.

“He was a complex character, fascinating in itself,” was Cook’s appraisal of the man. He added that King’s diary, to which he refers throughout the book, “is the most important Canadian document of 30,000 pages. King comes out well.”

Cook’s path of research took him to the library archives in Canada, as well as being able to get into other archives in the States, by his American friends and scholars.

He reported that many of them did not understand our service and commitment during WWII. One million Canadians went to fight and three million were here in Canada, involved in wartime production. That is a huge number, Cook made the point, considering the population at the time (just over 10 million)

“This is not well known in the U.S.,” he said. “I wanted them to know. 

“If the book means anything, this is my 19th. I think what was revealed to me during WWII, was we needed the U.S. to help defend Britain.”

If we needed the U.S. then, Cook is clear that now, “They can’t to do without us; they still need us in to protect the North and for trade.”

There is peace in our time between our two countries now but not always. He instructed us that we had been at war with the States early in the 1800’s (the War of 1812) and later, there were struggles about the Americans not becoming involved, while Canada was at war in Europe in support of Britain, especially after the successful Battle of Dunkirk.

President Franklin Roosevelt and King extended a visit King was later making to include a side trip to Hyde Park, where there was negotiated a tremendous accomplishment by King, with reference to shipping war supplies and paying for their manufacture. He dodged for Canada the lend/lease agreement the U.S. and Britain had between them (from page 112…), saving Canada a fortune.

Our interview turned to Cook’s passionate interest in Canada’s military history and the why of it.

“I’ve always been drawn to men and women in times of war,” he said. “The personal experience of war. My grandfather served in WWII. Millions of Canadians have a story connected in the two World Wars. Many died or came back wounded. Many Canadians have these strong links.” 

The crisis of wars demanded in the First and Second World Wars defined the development of war and the fundamental changes in our country; the creation of the security state.

A person can not understand the evolution of our country without taking in the history of wars. Even though he is a military historian, Cook also writes about other societal aspects, like art and culture. As research and understanding progress, war historians and writers are fascinated or horrified, he confirmed. 

Talking about his fellow authors, Cook said, “I am always interested in what other writers do and even how they write, what their routines are.”

With this book, this is the world we live in and in the course of reading The Good Allies, one has the chance to learn much more about this world than one might expect.

It is a fascinating read. 

For tickets to Dr. Tim Cook’s informal conversation with STBI, please go to eventbrite.ca/e/in-conversation-with-dr-tim-cook-tickets-990897780937

Please note the venue was recently changed to take place at the Monora Park Pavilion (500 Monora Park Rd. Mono). It was formerly slated to take place at Grace Tipling Hall.

A book signing will follow the event on Nov. 28.

Click here to view the article on the Orangeville Citizen website.