Carleton professor Tim Cook released his new book The Necessary War Sept. 8 at an event sponsored by the Writer’s Festival and the university.
Throughout his presentation, Cook thanked those who had helped the book, described the writing process, explained why he chose the title, and spoke on a variety of topics covering the history of the Second World War.
Afterwards, there was an informal interview with biographer and historian Charlotte Gray and a Q&A with the audience.
Cook began by introducing the war, or as he called it, “the war of great horror.” Of the roughly 11 million people living in Canada at the start of the war, roughly one million served, according to Cook.
“It’s a war that killed 60 million people on the battlefield,” he said. “More than 100 million wounded in body, mind, and spirit.”
While Cook originally envisioned a one-volume history of the war, he said as he was writing, he realized he needed two volumes to tell the story he wanted.
He also spoke about his own battle with cancer and how working on the book provided him with a much needed way to focus on something other than his illness.
Stuart MacKay, a Carleton PhD candidate in history attended the event.
“It was a great learning experience in how to write. . . history for a larger audience,” he said. “As history students, we need to learn to do more in order to make history more relevant.”
Fellow history PhD canadiate Nick Hrynyk added he thought it was “very informative and very eloquent.”
“As somebody who’s not a war historian, I felt compelled to read it,” he said.
Oliver Anderson, a masters student studying history, said he was looking forward to reading the book.
“To scale between the trench level of the war all the way up to the prime ministerial level of the war,” he said. “Clearly the book is a wonderful blend of this whole scaling from top to bottom.”
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