ARTICLES

BOOK REVIEWS
present, of women and their connection to armies. The images run the gamut from fighting
women through to scenes of daily military life, and include an excellent selection of enlistment
posters that featured women front and centre. My favourite, as an armoured officer, was a
1909 photo of two horse-mounted members of the British First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (or
FANY—a most unfortunate acronym, to say the least) serving in Africa.
Source: Library and Archives Canada
Personnel of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC) taking part in a firefighting exercise, London, England,
28 February 1943
The final part of the book explores specific case studies of women. The eight essays within this
part of the book include an examination of women in 17th and 18th century Russia; US
military wives in the Philippines from the Philippine War through to World War I; a study of
women and their representation on World War I posters; German women during the world
wars; the role of Jewish women during the Holocaust; a fascinating study of “wartime
representations of foreign women in English-Canadian Press, 1941–1943”; the experience of
women who enlisted in the US Army during the post-World War II era through to the present;
and a fascinating article by Jan Noel that explores the activities of religious women (nuns and
others) in Quebec during the conflict of the years 1640 to 1775.
Overall, A Companion to Women’s Military History is a solid addition to the field of military
history and an excellent start to the authors’ goal of “institutionalizing women’s military history
as a distinct historical field of study.” From a historiographical point of view, this Companion
volume is a recommended first stop.
Note that this is Volume 74 of Brill’s “History of Warfare” series and is available as an
e-book as well.
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