Authority, Identity and the Social History of the Great War

Authority, Identity and the Social History of the Great War

Author: Frans Coetzee

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9781571810670

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The unprecedented scope and intensity of the First World War has prompted an enormous body of retrospective scholarship. However, efforts to provide a coherent synthesis about the war's impact and significance have remained circumscribed, tending to focus either on the operational outlines of military strategy and tactics or on the cultural legacy of the conflict as transmitted bythe war's most articulate observers. This volume departs from traditional accounts on several scores: by exploring issues barely touched upon in previous works, by deviating from the widespread tendency to treat the experiences of front and homefront isolation, and by employing a thematic treatment that, by considering the construction of authority and identity between 1914 and 1918, illuminates the fundamental question of how individuals, whether in uniform or not, endured the war's intrusion into so many aspects of their public and private lives.


Evidence, History and the Great War

Evidence, History and the Great War

Author: Gail Braybon

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2003-11-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 178238183X

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In the English-speaking world the Great War maintains a tenacious grip on the public imagination, and also continues to draw historians to an event which has been interpreted variously as a symbol of modernity, the midwife to the twentieth century and an agent of social change. Although much 'common knowledge' about the war and its aftermath has included myth, simplification and generalisation, this has often been accepted uncritically by popular and academic writers alike. While Britain may have suffered a surfeit of war books, many telling much the same story, there is far less written about the impact of the Great War in other combatant nations. Its history was long suppressed in both fascist Italy and the communist Soviet Union: only recently have historians of Russia begun to examine a conflict which killed, maimed and displaced so many millions. Even in France and Germany the experience of 1914-18 has often been overshadowed by the Second World War. The war's social history is now ripe for reassessment and revision. The essays in this volume incorporate a European perspective, engage with the historiography of the war, and consider how the primary textural, oral and pictorial evidence has been used - or abused. Subjects include the politics of shellshock, the impact of war on women, the plight of refugees, food distribution in Berlin and portrait photography, all of which illuminate key debates in war history.


The Great War

The Great War

Author: Ian F. W. Beckett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-14

Total Pages: 812

ISBN-13: 1317866142

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The course of events of the Great War has been told many times, spurred by an endless desire to understand 'the war to end all wars'. However, this book moves beyond military narrative to offer a much fuller analysis of of the conflict's strategic, political, economic, social and cultural impact. Starting with the context and origins of the war, including assasination, misunderstanding and differing national war aims, it then covers the treacherous course of the conflict and its social consequences for both soldiers and civilians, for science and technology, for national politics and for pan-European revolution. The war left a long-term legacy for victors and vanquished alike. It created new frontiers, changed the balance of power and influenced the arts, national memory and political thought. The reach of this acount is global, showing how a conflict among European powers came to involve their colonial empires, and embraced Japan, China, the Ottoman Empire, Latin America and the United States.


The Great War

The Great War

Author: Hunt Tooley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-11-29

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1137471271

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We have often heard about the brutal world of the trenches, the willingness of brave young soldiers and the apparent indifference of the generals, but reevaluations of the Great War in previous decades have shown us much more complexity, and in many cases some surprising reconstructions of very standard narratives of the war. The traditional isolation of the battle front from the home front, which historians have tended to observe, has given us an incomplete understanding of both fronts. In this study of Word War I, Hunt Tooley crosses the boundaries of national histories to examine the various connections between the 400-mile-long Western Front and the home fronts of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and the United States. Tooley draws on recent research and the wealth of primary souce material available to provide a broad synthesis of a complex event, and to create a more holistic view of the war - as men stayed in touch with those at home, as governments responded to events on the battlefield, and as writers, poets and artists brought the cultural impulses of Europe to the deadly world of the Western Front. In his clearly-written, wide-ranging study, Tooley argues that the seeds of much of the 20th century may have been planted well before the First World War, but - as many social critics, politicians, soldiers, women's movement leaders, and others predicted - the cultivation of these seeds in war would have a powerful and formative effect on the social, political and cultural processes which shaped the 20th century.


Women and the First World War

Women and the First World War

Author: Susan R. Grayzel

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-04

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 131787577X

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The First World War was the first modern, total war, one requiring the mobilisation of both civilians and combatants. Particularly in Europe, the main theatre of the conflict, this war demanded the active participation of both men and women. Women and the First World War provides an introduction to the experiences and contributions of women during this important turning point in history. In addition to exploring women’s relationship to the war in each of the main protagonist states, the book also looks at the wide-ranging effects of the war on women in Africa Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Topical in its approach, the book highlights: the heated public debates about women’s social, cultural and political roles that the war inspired their varied experiences of war women’s representation in propaganda their roles in peace movements and revolutionary activity that grew out of the war the consequences of the war for women in its immediate aftermath Containing a document section providing a wide range of sources from first-hand accounts, a Chronology and Glossary, Women and the First World War is an ideal text for students studying the First World War or the role of women in the twentieth century.


The Great War

The Great War

Author: John Howard Morrow

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780415204408

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Includes index . bibliography, p. [333] - 347.


The Great War

The Great War

Author: John Morrow

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-09-17

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 1134957068

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The Great War is a landmark history that firmly places the First World War in the context of imperialism. Set to overturn conventional accounts of what happened during this, the first truly international conflict, it extends the study of the First World War beyond the confines of Europe and the Western Front. By recounting the experiences of people from the colonies especially those brought into the war effort either as volunteers or through conscription, John Morrow's magisterial work also unveils the impact of the war in Asia, India and Africa. From the origins of World War One to its bloody (and largely unknown) aftermath, The Great War is distinguished by its long chronological coverage, first person battle and home front accounts, its pan European and global emphasis and the integration of cultural considerations with political.