Unwanted Warriors

Download or read book Unwanted Warriors written by Nic Clarke and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unwanted Warriors uncovers the history of Canada’s first casualties of the Great War – men who tried to enlist but were deemed “unfit for service.” What impact did military exclusion have on these men? Nic Clarke looks for answers in the service files of 3,400 rejected volunteers and explores the mechanics of the medical examination, the physical and psychological qualities that the authorities believed made a fighting man, and how evaluations changed as the war dragged on. In the process, he exposes the deleterious effects that socially constructed norms about health and fitness had on individual men and Canadian society during the First World War.