A War with a Silver Lining: Canadian Protestant Churches and the South African War, 1899-1902 (McGill-Queen’s Studies in the Hist of Re)

by Gordon L. Heath

On 11 October 1899, Britain was officially at war in South Africa against the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State. While the war was thousands of kilometres away, and Canada's contribution of over 7,000 troops to the imperial cause was relatively small, the war is considered to be one of the critical events in the nation-building process of the young dominion.
Gordon Heath's A War with a Silver Lining is a ground-breaking analysis of why the Canadian Protestant churches enthusiastically supported the war effort. Extensive archival research allows Heath to show how the churches' concern for international justice, the development of the nascent nation Canada, the unifying and strengthening of the empire, and the spreading of missions led to passionate and widespread support for the war effort.
Providing a valuable link between Victorian and twentieth-century Protestantism, war, and the British Empire, "A War with a Silver Lining" is a revealing account of the significant role that churches played in nineteenth-century Canadian public life.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2009