Gregory M.W. Kennedy

Gregory M.W. Kennedy, Lost in the Crowd: Acadian Soldiers of Canada’s First World War. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024.

Gregory M.W. Kennedy’s Lost in the Crowd explores the experiences of Acadian soldiers who served during World War One in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, with a particular focus on those within the 165^th Battalion, a distinctly Acadian unit. Drawing on an impressive array of French and English sources, including official military collections, newspapers, census data, personal papers and private correspondence, and addressing issues such as disease, discipline and desertion, Kennedy offers a nuanced account of Acadians’ lives before, during and following World War I, and the ways these were shaped by a distinctive, but far from monolithic, Acadian culture. While adding in a substantial way to the historiography about Acadians in the 20^th century, Lost in the Crowd also demonstrates how social history methodologies deepen our understanding of wartime experiences.