Book cover for Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War by David Roberts

Boosters and Barkers

Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War

2024 Released
408 Pages
6-9 Hours
Ebook Unavailable
Audiobook Unavailable
Paperback Unavailable
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University of British Columbia PressISBN 9780774869591
How bond campaigns used coercive, modern marketing techniques to sell Canadians on the First World War.

"Stick it, Canada! Buy more Victory Bonds!" The First World War demanded deep personal sacrifice in the field and at home, even when home was far from the front. It also made unrelenting financial demands on both the governments and populations of Canada and Newfoundland. Boosters and Barkers is a highly original examination of the drive to finance Canadian participation in the conflict: Ottawa's calls for direct public contributions in the form of war bonds; the intersections with imperial funding, taxation, and conventional revenue; and the substantial fiscal implications of participation in the conflict during and after the war. Canada's bond-selling campaigns used print, images, and music to sell both the war and public engagement. They received an astounding response, generating revenue that covered almost a third of the country's total war costs, which were estimated at $6.6 billion-- a dramatic charge on a dominion so far from the front. This is a story of inexorable need, shrewd propaganda, resistance, engagement, and long-term consequences.

David Roberts

David Roberts is a hugely talented and versatile artist and author. David began his career in fashion illustration, and his sharp eye for form and composition is showcased beautifully in his books with Andrea Beaty, which include Ada Twist, Scientist and Iggy Peck, Architect. His work ranges from feisty retellings of fairy tales created in collaboration with his sister, Lyn (Little Red, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel), to his brilliantly funny books with Julia Donaldson such as Tyrannosaurus Drip, The Troll and The Cook and the King. In 2006 he won the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize Gold Award for his line drawings in Mouse Noses On Toast, and Little Red was shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. David’s sense of humour shines through in all his work, but especially his illustrations for The Bolds series by Julian Clary and the madcap Dirty Bertie books. Suffragette: The Battle for Equality was David’s first self-authored book and is an exquisitely illustrated history of the women’s suffrage movement, which has been a passion of David’s since his school days.

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