Soldiers found guilty of desertion or cowardice during the Great War faced death by firing squad. Novels, histories, movies, and television series often depict courts martial as brutal and inflexible, and social memories of this system of frontline justice have inspired modern movements to seek pardons for soldiers executed on the battlefield.

In this revealing look at military law in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Teresa Iacobelli brings to light not only the trials of 25 Canadian soldiers who were executed but also the untold cases of 197 men sentenced to death but spared. Looking beyond stories of callous generals and quick executions, Iacobelli reveals a disciplinary system capable of thoughtful review and compassion for the individual soldier.

Published to coincide with the centennial anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, Death or Deliverance reconsiders an important and unexamined chapter in the history of both a war and a nation.

Bill Rawling, author of Surviving Trench Warfare: Technology and the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918:
Death or Deliverance tells an important story, that of desertion in the First World War and the ways in which the army reacted. Investigating the later campaign to pardon the soldiers shot for that offence, Iacobelli adopts an entirely original approach – she incorporates the stories of those soldiers found guilty of desertion but who avoided the firing squad. The book’s conclusions and its many comparisons between military law and civilian jurisprudence at the time are sure to spark scholarly debate.