In examining a major twentieth-century voluntary organization of the British Empire, Katie Pickles contributes to the growing literature on ideological connections forged in Britain and its dependencies during the last two hundred years. Pickles's subject, the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE), is a particularly intriguing one as it deals with two areas of historiography that need developing: Canadian imperial sentiments and female voluntary societies. The IODE, a quintessential imperial service club for women, emerged at virtually the same time as the better-known Victoria League, in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War. Like many of the other expressly imperial organizations for females created in the first decade of the twentieth century (e.g., Girl Guides, Voluntary Aid Detachments), IODE was a creation of war, and its emphasis was on marshaling women's special maternal roles in defense of empire. Despite its early ambitions to cross national boundaries, IODE became and remains a Canadian institution, which forms the crux of Pickles's argument. She claims, quite persuasively, that IODE helped shape an Anglo-Canadian identity that shifted from “a Canada seeking a ‘sense of power’ within the British Empire to that of a nation situated in its own geographic space” (169).

The book follows a loosely chronological framework that examines IODE's founding years, its highpoints (mostly during the two world wars), and its retooling to fit a changing Canada, particularly during the cold war and movements for indigenous people's rights. Chapter 1 explores the organization's roots in the Anglo-Boer War, its founder Margaret Clark Murray, and its early ideas of fostering patriotism, maternalism, and “female imperialism.” Chapters 2–4 look at IODE's attempts to bolster and support the British Empire, through its war work, its “canadianization” activities for immigrants, and its support of movements aimed at British immigration to the white settler colonies. Chapter 4 is particularly innovative in its examination of IODE's sponsorship of an English Schoolgirl Tour in 1928, which brought British public school girls to Canada for a two-month tour. Here, Pickles shows quite clearly the interactive dialogue occurring between Canada and Britain regarding the meaning of the Commonwealth relationship. While chapters 5 and 6 note a continuing interest in British imperial identity, the Second World War brings a subtle shift in emphasis as IODE members focus on events within Canada, such as the internment of enemy aliens and the supplying of Canadian troops abroad. In the postwar period, the creation of Rhodes-type War Memorial Scholarships for Canadian men and women constitute a shift from IODE's former activities of memorializing Canada's war dead in stone and mortar. The last two chapters chronicle a declining organization that is perhaps still trying to reposition itself in relationship to changing racial and class views in Canada. After the cold war and IODE's anti-Communist activities, the group in effect tried to become imperialists within Canada itself by the latter part of the twentieth century, focusing efforts on “civilizing” Canada's indigenous people of the north.

Within this chronological framework, Pickles identifies moments of fractured identity, when a national and imperial dialogue required a response from IODE, and she documents the ways in which the movement tried to rearticulate its goals. Although the book occasionally lapses into dissertation mode, with rapid-fire references to other secondary works without sufficient explanation, the writing is clear and Pickles's research is exhaustive. She uses the organization's archive, oral histories from across Canada, local and provincial sources, diaries and newspapers to help piece together a well-documented view of the organization's national ideology. The strengths of the book, Pickles's impressive research and the broad scope of the project, lead in some ways to the frustrations readers may experience. The material is so rich and varied that at times I felt a bit short-changed and wanted more explanation—for example, on the extraordinary English Schoolgirls Tour and on IODE's work in the citizenship courts. Because Pickles wants to cover the whole century and all of Canada, she must necessarily gloss over some of the details of regional differences and disputes. This is not so much a criticism as a recognition of the limitations that authors such as Pickles face in trying to show the national and international significance of such an organization—some of the nitty-gritty details have to be set aside for another project.

Pickles's work is an important contribution to the literature on women's history and imperialism broadly, but it will also interest those scholars interested in “imagined communities,” identity politics, historical memory, and nationalism. Pickles's real triumph here is her ability to use one organization to tap into a wealth of historiographical and historical debates and to do so with authority and clarity.