Military service is finite. It lasts for the duration of a war, a career, or sometimes merely weeks or months. Yet the repercussions don't end when the uniform is removed. Ripples of War explores an elementary truth: those who have served are veterans forever, and the impact ripples through not only their own lives but also those of the people they love, influencing them in profound ways. Veterans' experiences - how they understand their service, how it changes them, how they remember it - are frequently overlooked by historians and too seldom discussed by veterans themselves. Ripples of War changes that, bringing together essays by leading scholars who have had access to more than two hundred oral-history interviews of Canadian veterans and their relatives, as well as moving personal reflections by veteran contributors. Authors explore themes such as reintegration into the civilian workplace, veteran status as a tool to advance equity and social mobility, and remembrance and commemoration. Innovative research into the experiences of Indigenous, racialized, female, and 2SLGBTQ+ veterans gives voice - often for the first time - to those who have struggled to achieve recognition and fellowship with other veterans.

Ripples of War advances our understanding of how military service since the Second World War has shaped veterans, their families, communities, and Canada itself.