Jack Lawrence Granatstein (May 21, 1939) is a Canadian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who specializes in Canadian political and

military history Military history is the study of War, armed conflict in the Human history, history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to Politics, local and international relationships. ...

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Jack Granatstein
from

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

Education

Born on May 21, 1939, in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Ontario, into a Jewish family, Granatstein received a graduation diploma from

Royal Military College Saint-Jean , mottoeng = Truth, Duty, Valour , established = 1952 , type = Military college , chancellor = Anita Anand (''ex officio'' as Defence Minister) , principal = Command ...

in 1959, his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from the

Royal Military College of Canada '') , established = 1876 , type = Military academy , chancellor = Anita Anand ('' la, ex officio, label=none'' as Defence Minister) , principal = Harry Kowal , head_label ...

in 1961, his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1962, and his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

in 1966.

Career

Granatstein served in the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

from 1956 to 1966. He then taught at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...

until 1996 where he is Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus. Granatstein is an outspoken defender of traditional narrative history in lectures, books, print, and broadcast media. Perhaps his best known work is ''

Who Killed Canadian History? ''Who Killed Canadian History?'' is a 1998 book by Canadian historian J. L. Granatstein. The book argues that Canadians lack national unity because of their failure to teach their country's history. Granatstein contends that multiculturalism ...

'', which expressed his alarm at the widespread ignorance of history among students, and the distortions he complained were perpetrated by a new generation of social historians. He wrote of an ideological war waged inside university history departments: Granatstein is the author of over sixty other books, including ''Yankee Go Home?'', '' Who Killed The Canadian Military?'', and ''Victory 1945'' (with Desmond Morton). ''The Generals'' won the J.W. Dafoe Prize and the UBC Medal for Canadian Biography. ''The Last Good War'' was awarded the Canadian Authors Association's 2005 Lela Common Award for Canadian History. Granatstein was a member of the RMC Board of Governors and is Chair of the Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century. Granatstein has also been involved in television coverage of political and military events. On June 6, 1994, he was part of the CBC's coverage of the 50th anniversary of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, as the network's chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge got expert help in the commentary from Granatstein. Granatstein helped Mansbridge again on May 8, 1995, during the CBC's coverage of the 50th anniversary of

VE Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...

. He reprised the same role on the 60th and 65th anniversaries of D-Day and V-E Day. Granatstein served as the head of the

Canadian War Museum The Canadian War Museum (french: link=no, Musée canadien de la guerre; CWM) is a national museum on the country's military history in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum serves as both an educational facility on Canadian military history, in ad ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

from 1998 to 2001 and was a driving force behind the building of the museum's new home that opened in 2005. He currently sits on the Advisory Council and is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the

Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute The Canadian Global Affairs Institute (Global Affairs) is an independent, non-partisan research institute based in Calgary with offices in Ottawa. Incorporated as a charitable organization in 2000, the institute pursues new ideas to focus the nat ...

Honours

The

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

awarded him the J. B. Tyrrell Historical Medal (1992) for "outstanding work in the history of Canada". In 1996, the Conference of Defence Associations Institute named him winner of the Vimy Award. In 1996, he became an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

, and he won the National History Society's

Pierre Berton Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, CC, O.Ont. (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a Canadian writer, journalist and broadcaster. Berton wrote 50 best-selling books, mainly about Canadiana, Canadian history and popular culture. He also wr ...

Prize in 2004 and the Organization for the History of Canada's National History Award in 2006. He has received honorary degrees from the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

, the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

, as well as

Memorial University of Newfoundland Memorial University of Newfoundland, also known as Memorial University or MUN (), is a public university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook, elsewhere in Newfoundland and ...

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. App ...

, and Ryerson University. He was awarded the C.P. Stacey Prize, in collaboration with Dean Oliver, in 2011 for their '' The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History''.

Family

Jack Granatstein is a descendant of Mendel Granatstein, a Polish Jew, who emigrated to Toronto in 1880 where he became a successful business owner in the junk and later textile industry. He became the first Jew to own a home (1895 at 42 St. George Street since demolished) in Toronto.

Bibliography

Best Little Army in the World
(2015)

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

, preview from

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* ''Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace'' (2002) overview of Canadian military history ** Second Edition published 2011 with several new chapters about both Afghanistan and the effect of increased federal funding. * ''

'' (1998) argues that national history has become too splintered for the nation's good
online
* '' Whose War Is It?'' (2007) critique of Canadian foreign policy and defense * '' Who Killed the Canadian Military?'' (2004) critique of the Canadian military * ''Canada's War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939-1945'' political maneuvers of the King government during World War I
online
* ''The Ottawa Men: The Civil Service Mandarins, 1935-1957'' (1982)

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

examines the development of the federal civil service and its contribution to Canada's coming of age as a nation
online
** reissued (2015

by Rock's Mills Press, with a new introduction surveying research since 1982, and more photographs. * ''Mackenzie King'' (1975), for secondary students
online

References

External links

Order of Canada citation
a

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by th ...

Jack Granatstein
from

online copies of his books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Granatstein, J. L. 1939 births Living people Military personnel from Toronto Canadian curators Canadian military historians Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Duke University alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Jewish Canadian writers Officers of the Order of Canada Writers from Toronto University of Toronto alumni Royal Military College of Canada alumni York University faculty Historians of Canada Royal Military College Saint-Jean alumni 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian historians 21st-century Canadian historians Conservatism in Canada Jewish historians