In the Midst of Alarms

Readers are Dianne and her husband Don have been personal friends for many years. Like many people, I was deeply saddened by her untimely death last year. Dianne had a wonderfully fluent written style, so easy to read, and could capture a moment like few others. Her book gives insights into wartime life and the role of women in the early 19th Century in Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto (the York), as well as in Washington DC and Philadelphia. While the men did the fighting, the women backed them up – on the frontier, quite literally. A fascinating book… show more.

The title tells you the subject of this book. The experiences and roles of women in that war receive little treatment in most accounts which creates a serious gap in our understanding of how the war affected the people of the Canadas. Who looked after the farms, mills, shops, and families when the men were away serving in the militia or if they were injured or killed? This scholarly yet easy-to-read volume offers a fresh perspective.