When I was married to a Canadian [who loves history almost as much as I do], I quickly learned how woefully uneducated I was on 1. what the Baltic states went through [his family was from Estonia and ha to flee in the middle of the night from the incoming Russians] and suffered, and 2. just how involved Canada was involved in the war [part deux] and how closely they worked with the US [even more so than with Britain] and he took great pleasure making sure I had a "proper" education [all of the war books I have read this year, especially the ones about the subs and ship are all his fault; don't have to be married to him anymore to still blame him right? ;-) ] about all the amazing things Canada accomplished during BOTH wars [he wasn't wrong there].

This excellent book just added to what I had already learned [and fleshed so much of that out into a more cohesive story] and amplified my already deep respect for my former home and its amazing citizens.

Written in a straightforward, captivating way, and deeply [and lovingly] researched, this is a MUST READ for any true history buff - the stuff I learned is STILL blowing me away, days later.

Absolutely fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tim Cook, and Penguin Random House Canada/Allen Lane for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

At the end of the 1930s, Canada was a young nation, barely 70 years old, still developing itself. A government report claimed that Canada was then “one of the least self-sufficient countries in the world.” The US, while reeling from the Great Depression, was an established economic and cultural dynamo, a preeminent world power. Canada was largely seen as just another part of the British Empire; America was its own man. The US largely ignored Canada; and Canada, despite splitting two-thirds of a continent with the US, seemed to operate in a different political region than the US.


By 1945, Canada was a united and highly industrialized country. It was one of the world’s great “creditor nations, second only to the US.” Its navy was the fourth largest in the world. In 1945, it was said that Canada had “developed … into a nation of importance.” Canada had also developed a tight political, military, and economic alliance with the United States. The event that produced these drastic changes was the Second World War. The story of Canada during that war, and of its alliance with the US, is the subject of Canadian military historian Tim Cook’s blandly-titled new book The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War.


Cook’s book is also somewhat misleadingly-titled, as it is just as much a book about how the Second War World changed the relationship of the US and Canada as it is about how the Second World War changed Canada. Much of The Good Allies is devoted to Canada’s provincial disputes, its wartime industrial revolution, the development of a Canadian comic book industry (producing such patriotic heroes as Johnny Canuck and Nelvana of the Northern Lights), and such important things. When Cook does turn towards the global scene, it is from a Canadian perspective that it is seen. The Good Allies is, in short, thoroughly Canada’s book.


Canadian historians do, of course, have permission to write such books; and Tim Cook has done a fine, if workmanlike, job in writing one. His writing is lucid and often intelligent, though he is better on internal Canadian affairs than he is on international affairs.

One of Cook’s chief contentions about the latter is that Canada was greatly beneficial to the US in World War II because of its importance “in defending North America during the Second World War.” This claim is certainly valid (Canada was a willing and helpful North American partner of the US)—insofar as North America needed defending during a war fought in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Because it was a relatively insignificant part of the war, Cook’s emphasis on North American defense is misplaced, and quickly gets tiring.


Fortunately, most of the time, Cook is properly aware of the significance of the events he describes, especially when showing the relationships between the US and Canadian leaders. American President Franklin Roosevelt—chummy, charming, chain-smoking, and utterly self-confident—at first seems to contrast sharply with Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, who is unassuming, cautious, and awkward. But both men’s penchant for political deception and manipulation quickly reveals them to be rather similar political spirits. But, unfortunately for King, the might of his and Roosevelt’s countries were drastically different, and King never forgot that he was undoubtedly the junior partner in the Canadian-American alliance he and Roosevelt were key in forming. Cook can be refreshingly blunt on this subject: “King had almost no say in matters of strategy in Washington, or indeed throughout the war;” “Canada was the third ranking member of the Western alliance, albeit a distant third.” (The second-ranking member of the alliance was, of course, Britain, led by, of course, Winston Churchill, who makes a few cameo appearances, and of whom Tim Cook is overly-fond.)


It is not just Canadian inferiority that causes subtle tensions in the Canadian-American alliance. For the opening segment of the book, the fact that Canada, loyal to Britain, immediately joined the war in Europe, while the US was (supposedly) at peace with all the world for the first two-and-a-half years of war, causes some difficulties. But more troubling are Prime Minister King’s fears of the sheer power of the United States. King, and many Canadians, were acutely aware that the US didn’t exactly have a superb record of respecting Canadian sovereignty, and that the US, if it was drawn into the war, could very easily “assimilate” Canada. This could result from an occupation of Canada if North America became a theater of war and Canada did not adequately defend itself (again, the theme of continental defense!), but it might also result through Canada’s excessive reliance on US economic and military aid. Thus, Canada not only needed to fight the Nazis, but in doing so, it also needed to become self-reliant enough to eliminate the American threat to Canadian sovereignty.


The wily and determined Canadians officials mostly overcome these issues by the end of the war, with their nation emerging as a helpful, reliable, but independent partner of the US (even providing the “uranium that was weaponized in the atomic bombs used against” Japan to end the war in the Pacific). Despite its flaws, The Good Allies will certainly give readers a greater appreciation of the United States’ good fortune in having a healthy, powerful democracy with whom to share the world’s longest international border. And, even if The Good Allies overestimates Canada’s importance in World War II, it reliably documents the great importance World War II had for Canada.

What about Canada, eh? I've read many books about World War II. References in most of these books to the people from the Great White North usually amount to, "Oh, yeah and the Canadians were there, too." Tim Cook seeks to address these historical gaps in The Good Allies.

Cook is very successful when it comes to providing new information not covered in those other books I mentioned. The vast majority of the narrative focuses on Canadian Prime Minister King and the march towards war. To make a long story short, I learned a lot, but I did not enjoy the journey as much as I had hoped.

The book clocks in at over 500 pages. At the same time, it felt like a very high-level overview of Canada and World War II. Cook's research is excellent but there is no narrative tension and he tries to cover a lot of ground. For instance, Cook doesn't even get to D-Day until the very end of the book and it only takes up a few pages. While it is just one day in the war, the event is too hallowed to not spend more time on it. It's a symptom of Cook's attempt to jam everything into one book. The same issues happen with specific characters as well. The author tells us a lot about PM King, but often it is literally telling us things like, "Cook didn't like Churchill." I would much rather have a few quotations of King's showing us why as opposed to the other stating it. Show, don't tell.

Ultimately, if you want to learn a lot about Canada and U.S. relations before and during World War II, then this book will satisfy your need. It's a dry read but not without merit.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada.)

Tim Cook continues to be the foremost scholar of Canadian military history. The book is masterful in its account of the transition of Canada from cautious U.S. ally to full-fledged partner in the war effort. I most enjoyed the political commentary regarding the shift away from Britain and towards the US as Canada entered the post-war era. Essential reading for historians and general audiences alike.