Tim Cook (historian)


Tim Cook is a Canadian military historian and author. Cook is an historian at the Canadian War Museum and the author of eleven books about the military history of Canada during World War I. Having written extensively about World War I, Cook's focus shifted to Canada's involvement in World War II with the 2014 publication of the first volume in a two-volume series chronicling Canada's role in that war. He is a two time recipient of the C.P. Stacey Prize. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2019. He is a member of the Order of Canada.

Background

Cook was born in Kingston, Ontario, and raised in Ottawa. He studied history at Trent University in Peterborough, and later obtained a master's degree at the Royal Military College of Canada and a doctorate at the University of New South Wales.

Awards

His 2000 book, No Place to Run, was awarded the C.P. Stacey Prize for best written work in Canadian military history. At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914-1916, won the 2007 J.W. Dafoe award for literary non-fiction and the 2008 Ottawa Book award. His 2008 book Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1917–1918 won the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize. The Madman and the Butcher: The Sensational Wars of Sam Hughes and General Arthur Currie was a finalist for the 2011 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, the 2011 J.W. Dafoe prize, and the 2011 Ottawa Book Award. His 2012 book Warlords: Borden, Mackenzie King, and Canada's World Wars was a finalist for the 2013 Charles A. Taylor award for Literary Non-Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award.
The Necessary War received the 2015 C.P. Stacey Prize for best book in Canadian Military History and Fight to the Finish received the 2016 Ottawa Book Award. In 2017, Cook published Vimy: Battle and Legend and in 2018 he published The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War. Both were national best-sellers.
Cook was the recipient of the 2013 Pierre Berton Award, which is awarded by Canada's National History Society. The award was given to Cook for his work making military history "more accessible, vivid and factual", both in his role as an author and as the First World War Historian at the Canadian War Museum.
Tim Cook was appointed a member of the Order of Canada on December 26, 2014.

Published works

Books

Chapters in Books
Immortalizing the Canadian Soldier: Lord Beaverbrook, the Canadian War Records Office in the First World War, Briton Busch Canada and the Great War: Western Front Association papers 46–65.
“More as a medicine than a beverage”: ‘Demon Rum’ and the Canadian Trench Soldier in the First World War, in J.M. Bumsted and Lent Kuffert, Interpreting Canada's Past - A Post-Confederation Reader, Third Edition.
“The Gunners at Vimy: ‘We are Hammering Fritz to Pieces,’” Geoff Hayes, Michael Bechthold, and Andrew Iarocci, eds., Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment.
“Storm Troops: Combat Effectiveness and the Canadian Corps in 1917,” in Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Grey 1917: Tactics, Training and Technology 43–61.
“Bloody Victory: The Canadian Corps in the Hundred Days Campaign,” Ashley Ekins 1918 Year of Victory: The End of the Great War and the Shaping of History 161–181.
“Black-hearted Traitors, Crucified Martyrs, and the Leaning Virgin: The Role of Rumor and the Great War Canadian Soldier,” in Michael Neiberg and Jennifer Keene Finding Common Ground: New Directions in First World War Studies 21–42.
"'He was determined to go': Underage Soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force," in J.M. Bumsted, Len Kuffert, Michel Ducharme Interpreting Canada's Past: A Post-Confederation Reader, 4th Edition.
“Warrior Nation,” in Imagining Canada: A Century of Photographs from the New York Times 48–62.
“Life in the Trenches,” in Mark Reid Canada's Great War Album.

“Trench Culture,” in Mark Reid Canada's Great War Album.
“Animals in War,” in Mark Reid Canada's Great War Album
"'He was determined to go': Underage Soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force," in Mona Gleason and Tamara Myers, The Difference Kids Make: Bringing Children and Childhood into Canadian History.
“Forged in Fire: John McCrae in the Great War,” in Amanda Betts In Flanders Fields: 100 Years 17–58.
Tim Cook, ““Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Canadian Medical Officers in the Great War,” in Stephen Craig and Dale C. Smith Glimpsing Modernity: Military Medicine in World War I 34–59.
“The Fire Plan,” in Doug Delaney and Serge Durflinger, Capturing Hill 70 Canada's Forgotten Battle of the First World War 102–136.
“Medicine in the Great War,” in Caitlin Bailey The First World War in Colour.
“The Canadian Corps and the Hundred Days Campaign,” in Peter Liddle Britain and Victory in the Great War.
“Who Were the Canadian Soldiers?,” in Stephen Black Sir Alfred Munnings and the First World War.