{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1554589002?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1554589002","authors":["Christopher J. Greig"],"book_id":"9781554589005","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/ontario-boys-1554589002","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781554589005.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","description":"Ontario Boys explores the preoccupation with boyhood in Ontario during the immediate postwar period, 1945–1960. It argues that a traditional version of boyhood was being rejuvenated in response to a population fraught with uncertainty, and suffering from insecurity, instability, and gender anxiety brought on by depression-era and wartime disruptions in marital, familial, and labour relations, as well as mass migration, rapid postwar economic changes, the emergence of the Cold War, and the looming threat of atomic annihilation. In this sociopolitical and cultural context, concerned adults began to cast the fate of the postwar world onto children, in particular boys. In the decade and a half immediately following World War II, the version of boyhood that became the ideal was one that stressed selflessness, togetherness, honesty, fearlessness, frank determination, and emotional toughness. It was thought that investing boys with this version of masculinity was essential if they were to grow into the kind of citizens capable of governing, protecting, and defending the nation, and, of course, maintaining and regulating the social order. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Ontario Boys demonstrates that, although girls were expected and encouraged to internalize a “special kind” of citizenship, as caregivers and educators of children and nurturers of men, the gendered content and language employed indicated that active public citizenship and democracy was intended for boys. An “appropriate” boyhood in the postwar period became, if nothing else, a metaphor for the survival of the nation.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781554589005","publication_date":"20140204","publisher":"Wilfrid Laurier University Press","slug":"ontario-boys","subtitle":"Masculinity and the Idea of Boyhood in Postwar Ontario, 1945--1960","title":"Ontario Boys"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS006020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Post-Confederation Canada","score":0.7519,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027160","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Canadian Military History","score":0.7024,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV006020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Ontario Travel","score":0.6865,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS006020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Post-Confederation Canada","score":0.7519,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027160","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Canadian Military History","score":0.7024,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV006020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Ontario Travel","score":0.6865,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"EDU016000","confidence_band":"high","label":"History of Education","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS006020","confidence_band":"high","label":"Post-Confederation Canada","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS054000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Social History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Post-Confederation Canada","score":0.7519,"slug":"post-confederation-canada"},{"label":"Canadian Military History","score":0.7024,"slug":"canadian-military-history"},{"label":"Ontario Travel","score":0.6865,"slug":"ontario-travel"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Post-Confederation Canada","Good for fans of History","Good for readers who enjoy Post-Confederation Canada and Canadian Military History."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Randall Wakelam","William March","Peter Rayls","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9781487526764","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781487526764.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":8.7584,"title":"On the Wings of War and Peace","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781487526764"},{"authors":["Colonel Bernd Horn","Tony Balasevicius","Bernd Horn"],"book_id":"9781459706255","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781459706255.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":8.7309,"title":"Casting Light on the Shadows","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781459706255"},{"authors":["Leslie Miller","Graham Broad"],"book_id":"9781487522940","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781487522940.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":8.6655,"title":"Part of Life Itself","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781487522940"},{"authors":["Brandon Marriott"],"book_id":"9781668208236","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781668208236.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":8.6493,"title":"Till We Meet Again","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781668208236"},{"authors":["Grant Cameron"],"book_id":"9781459737808","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781459737808.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":8.5448,"title":"Charlie Red Star","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781459737808"},{"authors":["Greg Young","Tom Meyers"],"book_id":"9781612435572","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781612435572.jpg?v=20260418T080002Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-18T08%3A00%3A02Z","score":6.1689,"title":"The Bowery Boys: Adventures in Old New York","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781612435572"},{"authors":["John A. 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