The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is a defining event in the Canadian consciousness, yet it has never been the subject of a sustained analytical history. Astonishingly, government archives that contain first-hand accounts of the disaster and chronicle the response of national authorities have never been systematically consulted - until now.

This book carefully retraces the events preceding the disaster and the role of the military in its aftermath. Armstrong's compelling analysis of the legal maneuvers, rhetoric, blunders, public controversy, and crisis management that ensued reveals, for the first time, the rationale behind the public inquiry findings.

His disturbing conclusion is that federal officials knew of potential dangers in the harbour before the explosion, took no corrective action, and kept that information from the public. The result was the scapegoating of a Halifax naval officer and the lasting - and mostly undeserved - vilification of the navy.

Author - John Griffith Armstrong