Overview

“Stick it, Canada! Buy more Victory Bonds.” The First World War demanded deep personal sacrifice on the battlefield and on the home front – and it also made unrelenting financial demands. Boosters and Barkers is a highly original examination of the drive to finance Canadian participation in the conflict. David Roberts examines Ottawa’s calls for direct public contributions in the form of war bonds; the intersections with imperial funding, taxation, and conventional revenue; and the substantial fiscal implications of participation in the conflict during and after the war. Canada’s bond campaigns used print, images, and music to sell both the war and public engagement. They received an astounding response, generating revenue to cover almost a third of the country’s total war costs, which were estimated at $6.6 billion – a dramatic charge on a dominion so far from the front. This story is one of inexorable need, shrewd propaganda, resistance, engagement, and long-term consequences.

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9780774869591

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"""David Roberts should be proud of the notable contribution he has made to the history of Canada in the First World War. This is an important and indeed groundbreaking work, both adding to existing scholarly debates and initiating new ones.""-- ""Graham Broad, author of ""A Small Price to Pay"" Consumer Culture on the Canadian Home front, 1939-45"""

Author Information

David Roberts is a retired editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada. In addition to writing many entries for the DCB, he is also the author of In the Shadow of Detroit: Gordon M. McGregor, Ford of Canada, and Motoropolis. He lives in Don Mills, Ontario.

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