{"product_id":"the-secret-history-of-soldiers-isbn-9780735235281","title":"The Secret History of Soldiers","description":"There have been thousands of books on the Great War, but most have focused on commanders, battles, strategy, and tactics. Less attention has been paid to the daily lives of the combatants, how they endured the unimaginable conditions of industrial warfare: the rain of shells, bullets, and chemical agents. In \u003ci\u003eThe Secret History of Soldiers\u003c\/i\u003e, Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian, examines how those who survived trench warfare on the Western Front found entertainment, solace, relief, and distraction from the relentless slaughter. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMined from the letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral accounts of more than five hundred combatants, rare examples of trench art, postcards, and even song sheets offer insight into a hidden society that was often irreverent, raunchy, and anti-authoritarian. While novels and poetry often depict the soldiers of the Great War as mere victims, this new history shows how the soldiers pushed back against the grim war, refusing to be broken in the mincing machine of the Western Front. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fighting at the front was devastating, but behind the battle lines, another layer of life existed, one that included songs, skits, art, and soldier-produced newspapers. Over the years, both writers and historians have overlooked this aspect of the men's lives, but Cook reveals the gallows humour the soldiers employed to endure the trenches. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith his trademark narrative abilities and an unerring eye for the telling human detail, Cook has created another landmark history of Canadian military life as he reveals the secrets of how soldiers survived the carnage of the Western Front.\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eGLOBE AND MAIL\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “It’s a reminder, an often grim one, that humans are resilient, capable of enduring the most harrowing of experiences.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Toronto Star\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Cook takes an unprecedented dive into . . . a rich and little-explored culture that developed among soldiers on the front lines” —\u003ci\u003eHill Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “An insightful and readable narrative … At once heartwarming for the reminders of a simpler time and heartbreaking for the unimaginable losses of a century ago . . . it will breathe added life into all other Great War books.” —\u003ci\u003eEsprit de Corps\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Cook has revealed many of the secrets of the Great War’s soldiers’ lives. The veil of secrecy has been lifted and every chapter can be read over and over.” —\u003ci\u003eWinnipeg Free Press\u003c\/i\u003eTIM COOK is Chief Historian and Director of Research at the Canadian War Museum. His bestselling books have won multiple awards, including three Ottawa Book Awards for Literary Non-Fiction and two C.P. Stacey Awards for the best book in Canadian military history. In 2008 he won the J.W. Dafoe Prize for \u003ci\u003eAt the Sharp End\u003c\/i\u003e and again in 2018 for \u003ci\u003eVimy\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003ci\u003eThe Battle and the Legend\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eShock Troops\u003c\/i\u003e won the 2009 RBC Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Cook is a frequent commentator in the media, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the Order of Canada. \u003cbr\u003e In the soldiers’ songs, the patriotic discourse of the home front, with its exalted speech-making of one more push, was buried under a chorus of deliberately shocking satire, anti-conformity, relentless vulgarity, and merry-making. This was the grousing of everyday soldiers put to song. The cynicism expressed in the songs did not mean that the soldiers were willing to give up or embrace defeat. In fact, to sing about the army discipline, which in its extreme form was much hated, or about escaping the trenches, was a way of coping with the strain at the front and finding strength to go on. Chester Routley of the 18th Battalion was so taken with one untitled and impertinent song that he wrote it down from memory in his postwar memoirs:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e They say we’re going over the ocean\u003cbr\u003e They say we’re going over the sea, \u003cbr\u003e They say that we’re going to Blighty, \u003cbr\u003e But it all sounds like bull-shit to me. \u003cbr\u003e Bull-shit, bull-shit, it all sounds\u003cbr\u003e Like bull-shit to me, to me, \u003cbr\u003e Bull-shit, bull shit, it sounds\u003cbr\u003e Just like bull-shit to me.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e These satirical send-ups also allowed for the trivialization of mud, lice, and sudden death. In the strange world of the trenches, where lives were ruled by fate or military discipline, one simply had to grin and bear it. This sentiment was expressed in many ways, but the soldiers’ song “Never Mind” (also known as “If the Sergeant Steals Your Rum”) captured it well:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e If the sergeant drinks your rum, never mind \u003cbr\u003e And your face may lose its smile, never mind\u003cbr\u003e He’s entitled to a tot but not the bleeding lot \u003cbr\u003e If the sergeant drinks your rum, never mind \u003cbr\u003e When old Jerry shells your trench, never mind \u003cbr\u003e And your face may lose its smile, never mind\u003cbr\u003e Though the sandbags bust and fly you have only once to die, \u003cbr\u003e If old Jerry shells the trench, never mind\u003cbr\u003e If you get stuck on the wire, never mind  \u003cbr\u003e And your face may lose its smile, never mind\u003cbr\u003e Though you’re stuck there all the day, they count you dead and stop your pay\u003cbr\u003e If you get stuck on the wire, never mind\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Some troops added their own fun to the lyrics by mimicking officers or NCOs, either in speech or tone, to personalize the song for their comrades.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Though soldiers liked to take their superiors down a notch, reminding those in power that the rank and file were on to their tricks, they reserved a special vitriol for those at home who would not fight. The anonymous satirical attack on conscientious objectors, “I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier,” was sung with vigour:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e I don’t want to be a soldier, I won’t be compelled to fight:\u003cbr\u003e I much prefer to stay in England than to battle for the right: \u003cbr\u003e Others may be patriotic and answer King and Country’s call, \u003cbr\u003e But my conscience won’t allow me—no, my conscience won’t \u003cbr\u003e Allow me—or I’d sacrifice my all.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChorus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I don’t want to be a soldier,\u003cbr\u003e I have nought worth fighting for; \u003cbr\u003e If I had, my conscience tells me \u003cbr\u003e It’s not right to go to war\u003cbr\u003e I don’t want to be a soldier, I feel quite happy singing psalms, \u003cbr\u003e Tho’ I’ve often heard the bugle sounding the call to arms:\u003cbr\u003e I would rather be a shirker and sleep upon a feather bed, \u003cbr\u003e Than to doss within a dug-out—a dirty, muddy dug-out—\u003cbr\u003e And plaster Ticker’s jam upon my bread.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “It won’t be good to be a chap who stayed at home, when the boys return,” wrote one Canadian stretcher-bearer in a letter about those young men who did not serve. “This thing is just a bit too serious. We know what it is here.” Motivated by anger at the unfair burden shouldered by those at the front, many soldiers dreamed and sang lustily about postwar revenge against the slackers at home and their own abusive superiors. The moving “When This Lousy War Is Over,” which was sung to the tune of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” fantasized about postwar payback.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e When this lousy war is over no more soldiering for me, \u003cbr\u003e When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be.\u003cbr\u003e No more church parades on Sunday, no more begging for a pass. \u003cbr\u003e You can tell the sergeant-major to stick his passes up his arse. \u003cbr\u003e When this lousy war is over no more soldiering for me,\u003cbr\u003e When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be. \u003cbr\u003e No more NCOs to curse me, no more rotten army stew.\u003cbr\u003e You can tell the old cook-sergeant, to stick his stew right up his flue. \u003cbr\u003e When this lousy war is over no more soldiering for me,\u003cbr\u003e When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be. \u003cbr\u003e No more sergeants bawling, “Pick it up” and “Put it down” \u003cbr\u003e If I meet the ugly bastard I’ll kick his arse all over town.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Such feelings of anger and discontent could be aired safely in the songs, in a way that they could not be presented in private letters home, which were censored, or in direct talk with superiors, which could result in confrontations and punishment.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e There were also multiple songs devoted to the popular subjects of booze and sex. “Here’s to the Good Old Beer” and “Drink It Down” were celebrations of alcohol, and even abstainers were known to join in to the chorus to be a part of the social activity. The songs of drink quenched a thirst of the spirit and facilitated male bonding. The rough culture of the soldiers was revealed more boldly, and bawdily, through sexual songs such as “My Nelly, Skibboo,” “I’m Charlotte, the Harlot,” “Oh, Florea’s [or Florrie’s] New Drawers,” and “Three German Officers.” The most famous dirty song of them all, “Mademoiselle from Armentières,” with its ever-changing and increasingly vulgar lines, is known to have at least 700 recorded versions. And this doesn’t include most of the unprintable ones, with the lyrics degenerating into incest and bestiality. “Certainly some of the verses we sang were pretty ripe,” said Ernest Black in his memoirs, with little more than a literary shrug.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The more blasphemous the song, the more it was sung with gusto, with some of the raunchiest songs being belted out on the march. Soldiers were not known as foot-sloggers for nothing, and it was not uncommon for them to march in their heavy hobnailed boots for kilometres behind the lines, carrying gear weighing more than sixty pounds. Lieutenant Thomas Dinesen, a Danish national who enlisted in the CEF and would later receive the Victoria Cross for fierce fighting at the Battle of Amiens, recounted the joy men took in shouting irreverent lyrics while on the march:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Again and again we go back to the good old \u003ci\u003ePack Up Your Troubles\u003c\/i\u003e; or else we roar so that the whole countryside may hear: \u003ci\u003eThe Gang’s All Here!\u003c\/i\u003e But the best of the lot is the everlasting and ever-varying song of \u003ci\u003eMademoiselle from Armentières\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Oh, madam, have you any good wine?\u003cbr\u003e Parley voo,\u003cbr\u003e Oh, madam, have you any good wine?\u003cbr\u003e Parley voo,\u003cbr\u003e Oh, madam, have you any good wine, \u003cbr\u003e Fit for a soldier from the line?\u003cbr\u003e Hinky dinky, parley voo.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e It continued, “Oh, madam, have you a daughter fine? Yes, I have a daughter fine. Then …” Our imagination pictures the continuation of the song in lusty and vivid colouring, although in any case we have now turned our back on all such pleasures for some time to come.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eExcerpted from \u003ci\u003eThe Secret History of Soldiers\u003c\/i\u003e by Tim Cook. Copyright © 2018 by Tim Cook. Published by Allen Lane, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Penguin Canada","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302109040869,"sku":"NP9780735235281","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780735235281.jpg?v=1767741403","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-secret-history-of-soldiers-isbn-9780735235281","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}