The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology during the Second World War by Donald Avery (review)

686 The Canadian Historical Review Hewitt's argument can be found in the fact that RCMP fans have, in public celebrations and written depictions of the force, consistently adorned its twentieth-century history in the often ill-fitting scarlet garb of the frontier-era plains. Yet such public celebrations also offer evidence of the changing nature of Canadians' veneration of the Mounties. During the past twenty-five years, RCMP handlers have responded to a political culture that not only looks back fondly on the nineteenth century as a respite from the hectic maelstrom ofmodernity but does so with a twist - a new reading of RCMP history that purges the original mythology so reliant on stories of British imperialism ofits racist, sexist, and rugged individualist characteristics. Each of these books has something to offer those seeking to fully understand the power and persistence ofMountie mythology. From Sam Steele we see not simply Steele's heroic and successful exploits that brought the force fame and respect, but also the increased willingness that emerged in the 1970s to explore the disruptions and contradictions in the force's past. Yet one also sees in Stewart's study the temptations of imposing new and comfortable renovations in their place. (At times in Stewart's account, for instance, Steele appears less an agent of British imperialism than a prototypical Trudeau liberal championing bilingualism and ethnic tolerance.) From Red Coats we obtain a vast storehouse of detailed information that offers new leads on what promises to be a fruitful journey to a more nuanced and complex history ofthe force. The NWMP's success during this era, despite its administrative and moral shortcomings, certainly did much to augment its position in the eyes of the public. Yet here again we are faced with the comforting suggestion that there is a great deal of continuity between the NWMP's nineteenthcentury Prairie activities and the force's modern duties in the twentieth century. From Baker's collection the reader obtains a fine selection of scholarly writing produced on the NWMP over the past twenty-five years that highlights both the complexity of RCMP history and the need to look carefully at all-too-comforting tales of continuity and progress highlighted sometimes - though not always - by well-groomed cattle and inflated balloons. MICHAEL DAWSON Queen's University The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology during the Second World War. DONALD AVERY. Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1998. Pp. xv, 406, illus. $40.00 The focus of Avery's book is the interplay between Canadian scientists engaged in war work and those in Great Britain and the United States Book Reviews 687 with whom they collaborated. This is not a book specifically about the accomplishments of Canadian scientists alone, nor does it attempt a comprehensive survey of Canada's scientific war effort. Rather, The Science ofWar wrestles with the contribution ofCanadian scientists and research programs to Allied scientific research and development, and how that relationship strengthened and developed Canadian science in the process. To obtain the measure of this complex and dynamic relationship, Avery has mastered the literature on science and war in Canada, Britain, and the United States, used the key primary sources in each country, and conducted an extensive intervi~w scheme. The result is a fairly thorough survey ofthe high points ofthe Allied scientific war effort, and - more importantly - the first major scholarly assessment of the role of Canadian scientists. The Science ofWarbegins with two chapters laying down the basic state ofscience in Canada onthe eve ofwarand outlining the interpersonal and institutional contacts between scientists in three nations. The book then moves on to five thematic chapters on major joint programs: radar, weapons systems such as the proximity fuse and the new explosives, chemical warfare, biological and toxic weapons, and Canadian involvement in the Manhattan Project- the building ofthe atomic bomb. The central theme is the attempt to determine just where and when Canadian contributions made a difference to the success ofthese Allied projects. Canadians, it seems, made useful contributions to early radar research and development, chemical and toxic weapons, and early atomic research (before concerns over security squeezed the Montreal Laboratory out ofan increasingly secretive...