The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of distinction between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
-- Sir William Francis Butler
Painting the Map Red is based on extensive research into public and private papers from printed and manuscript sources in both Canada and Britain. Carman Miller attempts to explain why men volunteered for service in this distant conflict despite the rancorous pre-war debate on the wisdom of Canadian participation. He examines the difficulties of leading citizen soldiers and compares the differing styles of leadership. He also reveals how the soldiers' experiences in the field and the public's perceptions of the war altered Canadian opinion, politics, and military development.