Anxious Days and Tearful Nights

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Rich in analysis and uncommonly sharp insights, Anxious Days and Tearful Nights recounts evocative stories of women experiencing the war at home. It is a compelling read, tragic and awful in places, but also revealing of the stoic courage of many women who worried and waited at home, and then found ways to fend for themselves. It will become a foundational text for understanding the complex and nuanced war experience." Tim Cook, Canadian War Museum and author of The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering, and Remaking Canada's Second World War "In September 1917, Secretary of State Arthur Meighen spoke of Canadian women spending their 'days in anxiety and their nights in tears'. Taking this as her inspiration, Hanna spotlights the disparate experiences of the war wife, an under-analysed historical subject. There is always a danger in attempting to position a particular group within a hierarchy of emotional suffering. ... By illuminating the specific circumstances and hardships endured by Canadian wives, Hanna's fresh perspective adds greatly to our understanding of the effect of the Great War on the civilian populations of the combatant nations." Medicine, Conflict, and Survival "Hanna creates arresting immediacy throughout her book, bringing anecdotes to life to demonstrate the psychological impact the First World War had on everyday lives. Anxious Days and Tearful Nights vividly captures the impact of a defining conflict on women who embarked on emotional and physical journeys, both at home and abroad." Literary Review of Canada "By focusing on the marital relationships and domestic concerns of married couples in wartime, the book makes it clear that geographic distance and imminent danger complicated but did not sever the intertwined emotional and economic bonds of marriage. Even more powerfully, it demonstrates that the psychological impacts of WWI were not limited to men, nor to those living close enough to see the carnage first-hand." Canadian Journal of History