Innocent Women and Children: Gender, Norms and the Protectionof Civilians. By R. Charli Carpenter. Burlington, VT:Ashgate, 2006. 230p. $89.95 cloth.

On the occasion of Remembrance Day in grade six and as my classmatesand I cut small poppies out of red construction paper, we learnedabout the brave young Canadian men who died fighting for our freedomand were laid to rest in Flanders Field. A striking memory of thishistory lesson was that I secretly congratulated myself for being agirl. If I ever found myself in the midst of a war, it was the boyswho would have to fight. A narrow escape from a dreadful fate!