Carleton history professor and military historian Tim Cook won the Ottawa Book Award for nonfiction for his book Fight to the Finish on Oct. 19. Part of a two-volume set, it chronicles Canadian efforts in the late stages of World War II.
This is the second time Cook has won the Ottawa Book Award. In 2008 he received it for his book At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914-1916. Fight to the Finish was preceded by his 2014 book The Necessary War, which covered the earlier stages of the war.
The jury statement for the award states the book is “a massive, deeply researched, wide-ranging, and brilliantly told story of the Canadian participation in the second half of the Second World War, that deserves to be read by all Canadians who want to know how the experience of war affected our forebears and shaped our national character.”
Cook said the award is a “lovely recognition.”
“I try to write in an engaging manner, with a strong narrative running through, and my books have been recognized by a number of writing awards for that reason,” Cook said.
Fight to the Finish “combines detailed military history with personal accounts of what it was like to be in the battle, on the airplane, or on the ship; and it poignantly describes the heroism, endurance, tragedy, and horror the war brought to the men and women who fought in it, their families, and the civilians caught in the maelstrom,” according to the jury award statement.
Focusing mainly on 1944-45, the book covers topics such as Allied efforts in Italy, the preparations for D-Day landings, the Normandy assault, and the liberation of France and Belgium. Cook also touches on the bombing campaigns and the air battles.
“I tried to use eyewitness accounts of the soldiers who were there, who served, who fought, who died,” Cook said. “I used their letters and diaries, and to some degree I’ve had the chance to interview these guys over the years.”
“It’s their words that drive the story along,” he added.
One thing that struck Cook during his research was the “precarious situation at the front” reported by soldiers at the time.
“They were watching their friends, their buddies, their comrades, being killed all around them, and each man had to struggle with that,” Cook said. “How do you keep fighting? How do you find that courage, that endurance, that fortitude to keep going forward?”
“I think this very human element of my book reflects the war effort,” he added.
Another focus of Cook’s was creating a distinctly Canadian depiction of the Second World War.
“I think Canadians have a sense of the Second World War, but often the history that we get is American history,” Cook said. “In Canada we don’t often tell our own stories, and I hope that my books contribute to the general knowledge of Canadians.”
Cook said it is important for Canadians to understand their history and tell their own stories.
“If we don’t do that, no one else will,” he said.
