Controlling civilian volunteering : Canada and Australia during the Second World War

Comparative research stimulates historical enquiry and debate. A comparison of the Canadian and Australian national governments’ response to civilian wartime volunteering in the Second World War provides us with another lens with which to understand how societies responded to that war. It allows us to think again about our assumptions about wartime activity on the Australian and Canadian home fronts, and helps us to reflect in new ways about how and why both federal governments reacted as they did to the demands placed upon them during the Second World War.