Keshen, Jeff 1962–

(Jeffrey Keshen, Jeffrey A. Keshen)

PERSONAL: Born 1962. Education: York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—Gaston Heon House, University of Ottawa, 155 Seraphin Marion, Room 105, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada.

CAREER: Community Service Learning program, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from architect to manager; University of Ottawa, professor of history. Has also worked variously as a consultant to Canadian Museum of Civilization and Canadian War Museum, and as a commentator on Canadian military and political history for several local and international media outlets.

AWARDS, HONORS: Alberta Scholarly Title of the Year, Alberta Book Awards, and Excellence in Book Design in Canada, Alcuin Society, both 1997, both for Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War; Excellence in Education Award, University of Ottawa, 2004.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Raymond B. Blake) Social Welfare Policy in Canada: Historical Readings, Copp Clark (Toronto, Canada), 1995.

Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War, University of Alberta Press (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1996.

(Editor) Age of Contention: Readings in Canadian Social History, 1900–1945, Harcourt Brace (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

(Editor, with others) Material Memory: Documents in Post-Confederation Canadian History, Addison-Wesley (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

(Editor, with M.D. Behiels) Canada at the Crossroads: Special Edition of Natural History, Irwin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

(Editor, with Nicole St.-Onge) Construire une Capitale—Ottawa—Making a Capital, University of Ottawa Press (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

(As Jeffrey A. Keshen) Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers: Canada's Second World War, University of British Columbia Press (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS: War and Canadian Society: Confederation to the Present, expected in 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: An award-winning history professor, Jeff Keshen has written or edited many books highlighting notable occurrences and issues in Canadian history. Keshen has also authored and published a multitude of articles predominantly focusing on twentieth-century events in Canada. In his Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War he examines the tactics used by the Canadian government during World War I to encourage young men to join the army and garner patriotic support from the country's citizens, as well as the harsh realities these men eventually faced as soldiers. The author's study reveals how the misleading actions of officials benefited the Canadian government, and how the suppression of true accounts of the war proved to be detrimental to returning soldiers at the war's end. In a review of the book for the Canadian Historical Review, Tom Mitchell observed that Keshen's text is "well researched and informative." Leo Launitz-Shurur, a contributor to the Australian Journal of Politics and History, felt that the book is "an interesting and valuable study."

Keshen's next authorial effort, Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers: Canada's Second World War, addresses the lasting impression left on Canadian society from World War II. In this book, Keshen illustrates the "problematic" aspects of Canada's contribution to the Allied cause and the negative impact it had on the country's citizens both during and after the war. Writing for Beaver: Exploring Canada's History, Graham Broad found Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers to be a "pioneering work." Michael D. Stevenson described Keshen's book in the Canadian Historical Review as a "groundbreaking examination" of World War II and its effect on Canada and its people.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Australian Journal of Politics and History, fall, 1997, Leo Launitz-Shurur, review of Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War, p. 456.

Beaver: Exploring Canada's History, February-March, 1998, Paula E. Kirman, review of Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War, p. 43; December, 2004, Graham Broad, "Meanwhile, on the Homefront," p. 451.

Books in Canada, August, 2004, Nathan Greenfield, review of Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers: Canada's Second World War, p. 26.

Canadian Book Review Annual, 1996, review of Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War, p. 260.

Canadian Historical Review, June, 1998, Tom Mitchell, review of Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War, p. 395; June, 2005, Michael D. Stevenson, review of Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, p. 365.

Choice, February, 1997, review of Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War, p. 1025; December, 2004, P.B. Waite, review of Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, p. 722.

Esprit de Corps, September, 2004, David Pugliese, "Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers: Life during WWII Wasn't All Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice," p. 24.

International History Review, March, 1998, Robert Craig Brown, review of Propaganda and Censorship during Canada's Great War, p. 216.

International Journal, spring, 2005, Tim Cook, review of Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, p. 599.

Journal of Military History, October, 2004, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, review of Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, p. 1281.

Reference and Research Book News, August, 2004, Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, p. 77.

ONLINE

Canada Club of Victoria Web site, http://www.canadaclub-vic.org.au/ (January 13, 2006), "Celebrate Canadian History and Honour Those Canadians Who Died in Conflict."

University of Ottawa Web site, http://www.uottawa.ca/ (January 13, 2006), biography of Jeff Keshen.