Awards

• Short-listed for C. P. Stacey Prize, Canadian Commission for Military History and the Canadian Committee on the History of the Second World War 2013 (Canada)
• Short-listed for C.P. Stacey Award for scholarly work in Canadian Military History 2013 (Canada)

Overview

We often picture life on the Canadian home front as a time of austerity, as a time when women went to work and men went to war. A Small Price to Pay, the first full-length study of consumer culture in wartime Canada, explodes this myth of home front sacrifice by bringing to light the contradictions of consumer society during the Second World War. Wartime governments pressured Depression-weary citizens to save for the sake of the nation, but Canadians had money in their pockets after years of want, and the fantasy realm of advertisements promised them fresh groceries, glamorous movies, and new cars and appliances. Graham Broad reveals that our “greatest generation” was not impervious to temptation but rather embarked on one of the biggest spending booms in our nation’s history. Cutting through the fog of patriotic enthusiasm, this richly illustrated book reveals that the consumer-spending boom of the 1950s and 1960s was not a “postwar” phenomenon after all.

Full Product Details

9780774823630

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Reviews

A Small Price To Pay is wry, ironic and wonderfully researched. It is also a dramatic resetting of the record. Far from the media depiction of 1940s Canada as a bleak and downcast place, Broad makes a persuasive case that most people never had it so good...for young Canadians and even for those who lived it, the war years are immortalized as a black-and-white period of communal misery and sacrifice. A Small Price To Pay reruns the memory reel in brilliant colour punctuated with an astonishing fact: in no year of the war did Canada spend more on the military than it did on shopping. -- Holly Doan Blacklock's Reporter: Minding Ottawa's Business

I encourage neophytes and specialists alike interested in the Canadian home front to read this book. It should not be ignored for anyone interested in this topic. -- Daniel German, Library and Archives Canada * Canadian Military History * A Small Price To Pay is wry, ironic and wonderfully researched. It is also a dramatic resetting of the record. Far from the media depiction of 1940s Canada as a bleak and downcast place, Broad makes a persuasive case that most people never had it so good...for young Canadians and even for those who lived it, the war years are immortalized as a black-and-white period of communal misery and sacrifice. A Small Price To Pay reruns the memory reel in brilliant colour punctuated with an astonishing fact: in no year of the war did Canada spend more on the military than it did on shopping. -- Holly Doan * Blacklock's Reporter: Minding Ottawa's Business *

A Small Price To Pay is wry, ironic and wonderfully researched. It is also a dramatic resetting of the record. Far from the media depiction of 1940s Canada as a bleak and downcast place, Broad makes a persuasive case that most people never had it so good...for young Canadians and even for those who lived it, the war years are immortalized as a black-and-white period of communal misery and sacrifice. A Small Price To Pay reruns the memory reel in brilliant colour punctuated with an astonishing fact: in no year of the war did Canada spend more on the military than it did on shopping. -- Holly Doan Blacklock's Reporter: Minding Ottawa's Business I encourage neophytes and specialists alike interested in the Canadian home front to read this book. It should not be ignored for anyone interested in this topic. -- Daniel German, Library and Archives Canada Canadian Military History

Author Information

Graham Broad is a member of the Department of History at King’s University College, Western University.

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