Awards

• Short-listed for Atlantic Book Awards: Margaret and John Savage First Book Award 2002
• Short-listed for Dartmouth Medal 2002
• Short-listed for Dartmouth Non-Fiction Book Award, Atlantic Writing Awards 2002 (Canada)
• Short-listed for Keith Matthews Award for Best Book 2003
• Short-listed for Keith Matthews Prize, Canadian Nautical Research Society 2003 (Canada)
• Short-listed for Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, Atlantic Writing Awards 2002 (Canada)
• Shortlisted for Atlantic Book Awards: Margaret and John Savage First Book Award 2002.
• Shortlisted for Dartmouth Medal 2002.
• Shortlisted for Keith Matthews Award for Best Book 2003.

Overview

The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is a defining event in the Canadian consciousness, yet it has never been the subject of a sustained analytical history. Astonishingly, government archives that contain firsthand accounts of the disaster and chronicle the response of national authorities have never been systematically consulted - until now. This book carefully retraces the events preceding the disaster and the role of the military in its aftermath. Armstrong's compelling analysis of the legal maneuvers, rhetoric, blunders, public controversy, and crisis management that ensued reveals, for the first time, the rationale behind the public inquiry findings. His disturbing conclusion is that federal officials knew of potential dangers in the harbour before the explosion, took no corrective action, and kept that information from the public. The result was the scapegoating of a Halifax naval officer and the lasting - and mostly undeserved - vilification of the navy. This comprehensive and revealing study will be of interest to military and naval devotees, those interested in disaster response and in political and legal affairs, and the general public.

Full Product Details

9780774808903

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Reviews

While the disaster has been subject of several popular histories, until now, the event has not been given the detailed scholarly study required to sweep away myth and provide an accurate account of what took place. John Griffith Armstrong has undertaken the first such academic work, and it is a very good study indeed. Armstrong's focus is the role of the Royal Canadian and Royal navies in the events leading up to the explosion, its aftermath, and the investigations that followed. By shifting the attention of the reader away from the calamity that befell the city, Armstrong has provided a remarkable fresh look into the explosion. -- David Zimmermann, University of Victoria * International Journal, Summer 2005 * Armstrong's account and analysis adds considerably to our knowledge not only of the explosion, but also of the influence of the media, and the concerns of Ottawa. Having spent years in the latter as an official historian, the author has had first-hand knowledge of how covers-up work. -- Robin Highman * American Review of Canadian Studies, Winter 2005 *

Armstrong's account and analysis adds considerably to our knowledge not only of the explosion, but also of the influence of the media, and the concerns of Ottawa. Having spent years in the latter as an official historian, the author has had first-hand knowledge of how covers-up work. -- Robin Highman American Review of Canadian Studies, Winter 2005 While the disaster has been subject of several popular histories, until now, the event has not been given the detailed scholarly study required to sweep away myth and provide an accurate account of what took place. John Griffith Armstrong has undertaken the first such academic work, and it is a very good study indeed. Armstrong's focus is the role of the Royal Canadian and Royal navies in the events leading up to the explosion, its aftermath, and the investigations that followed. By shifting the attention of the reader away from the calamity that befell the city, Armstrong has provided a remarkable fresh look into the explosion. -- David Zimmermann, University of Victoria International Journal, Summer 2005

Author Information

John Griffith Armstrong is a retired career officer who taught history at the Royal Military College of Canada and was part of the team at DND's Directorate of History that wrote Volume 3 of The Official History of the RCAF. Studies in Canadian Military History series

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