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As personal memory of the Second World War flickers more dimly, historians and film directors of the 1990s now illuminate the intense experiences of the 1940s. This series of essays describes the development of the 'veterans charter' for Canada. As the editors correctly note, that charter is not so well known as the American 'GI Bill,' but its impact was similarly great. Desmond Morton's opening essay describes how ineffectively the Canadian state dealt with the challenge of the returning veteran after 1918, and other essays emphasize how the memory of abandoned farms, broken bodies, and heroes living in penury deeply influenced the planning for postwar rehabilitation and reconstruction. Jeff Keshen points out in a fine survey of veterans' benefits that, 'with the anger of Great War veterans lingering so long and so profoundly, concern was strong ... that such a scenario should not be repeated.' And it was not.
The veterans charter affected all Canadians. Peter Neary explains how the Canadian university was transformed by the arrival of veterans with their benefits and how the postwar expansion enhanced the role of the university in society. Mary Tremblay cogently argues that, between 1945...