|
|
Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
The Women of the Great War
It has been a salient feature of twentieth century warfare that
the industrial nature of conflict, combined with the huge number of
men required and the numerous machines and armaments involved, has
meant that industry has-of necessity-had to increase its capacity
to keep the fighting forces constantly and consistently supplied.
Yet each conflict has inevitably drained the places of industry of
the very workforce it required to function effectively. The
solution in both World Wars has been for women to step forward to
fill the roles formally undertaken by men who were by then enlisted
into the armed services. Of course, women invariably proved
themselves to be equal to the tasks assigned to them and indeed
without them wartime industrial production would inevitably have
been compromised to the point of peril for the military outcome.
The work was invariably hard and often dangerous, but women on the
home front have long been regarded as the essential, if largely
unsung, heroines of the war effort. The principal benefit of this
book is that it not only describes the activities of women in the
workplace, but that it includes many photographs of women at work,
demonstrating the multitude of weapons, armaments, equipment and
vehicles they manufactured during the First World War. This concise
Leonaur edition includes two books-that were originally so short as
to not have seen re-publication in modern times-for good
value.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
From the late imperial period until 1922, the British and French
made private and government loans to Russia, making it the foremost
international debtor country in pre-World War I Europe. To finance
the modernization of industry, the construction of public works
projects, railroad construction, and the development and adventures
of the military-industrial complex, Russia's ministers of finance,
municipal leaders, and nascent manufacturing class turned, time and
time again, to foreign capital. From the forging of the
Franco-Russian alliance onwards, Russia's needs were met, first and
foremost, its allies and diplomatic partners in the developing
Triple Entente. In the case of Russia's relationships with both
France and Great Britain, an open pocketbook primed the pump,
facilitating the good spirits that fostered agreement. Russia's
continued access to those ready lenders ensured that the empire of
the Tsars would not be tempted away from its alliance and entente
partners. This web of financial and political interdependence
affected both foreign policy and domestic society in all three
countries. The Russian state was so heavily indebted to its western
creditors, rendering those western economies almost prisoners to
this debt, that the debtor nation in many ways had the upper hand;
the Russian government at times was actually able to dictate policy
to its French and British counterparts. Those nations' investing
classes-which, in France in particular, spanned not only the upper
classes but the middle, rentier class, as well-had such a vast
proportion of their savings wrapped up in Russian bonds that any
default would have been catastrophic for their own economies. That
default came not long after the Bolshevik Revolution brought to
power a government who felt no responsibility whatsoever for the
debts accrued by the tsars for the purpose of oppressing Russia's
workers and peasants. The ensuing effect on allied morale, the
French and British economies and, ultimately, on the Anglo-French
relationship, was grim and far-reaching. This book will contribute
to understandings of the ways that non-governmental and sometimes
transnational actors were able to influence both British and French
foreign policy and Russian foreign and domestic policy. It will
address the role of individual financiers and policy makers-men
like Lord Revelstoke, chairman of Baring Brothers, the British and
French Rothschild cousins, Edouard Noetzlin of the Banque de Paris
et de Pays Bas, and Sergei Witte, Russia's authoritative finance
minister during much of this age of expansion; the importance of
foreign capital in late imperial Russian policy; and the particular
role of British capital and financial investment in the
construction and strengthening of the Anglo-Russo-French entente.
It will illustrate the interrelationship of political and economic
decision-making with the ideas and beliefs that inform security
policy. Drawing upon both the traditional archival sources for
diplomatic history-the government holdings of Great Britain,
France, and Russia-and the non-governmental archival holdings of
international finance-this project looks beyond the realm of high
politics and state-centered decision making in the formation of
foreign policy, offering insights into the forms and functions of
diplomatic alliances while elucidating the connections between
finance and foreign policy. It is a classic tale of money and power
in the modern era-an age of economic interconnectivity and great
power interdependency.
The First World War (1914-1918) marked a turning point in modern
history and culture and its literary legacy is vast: poetry,
fiction and memoirs abound. But the drama of the period is rarely
recognised, with only a handful of plays commonly associated with
the war."First World War Plays" draws together canonical and
lesser-known plays from the First World War to the end of the
twentieth century, tracing the ways in which dramatists have
engaged with and resisted World War I in their works. Spanning
almost a century of conflict, this anthology explores the changing
cultural attitudes to warfare, including the significance of the
war over time, interwar pacifism, and historical revisionism. The
collection includes writing by combatants, as well as playwrights
addressing historical events and national memory, by both men and
women, and by writers from Great Britain and the United
States.Plays from the period, like "Night Watches" by Allan
Monkhouse (1916), "Mine Eyes Have Seen" by Alice Dunbar-Nelson
(1918) and "Tunnel Trench" by Hubert Griffith (1924), are joined
with reflections on the war in "Post Mortem" by Noel Coward (1930,
performed 1944) and "Oh What A Lovely War" by Joan Littlewood's
Theatre Workshop (1963) as well as later works "The Accrington
Pals" by Peter Whelan (1982) and "Sea and Land and Sky "by Abigail
Docherty (2010).Accompanied by a general introduction by editor, Dr
Mark Rawlinson.
In the First World War, civilian life played a fundamental part in
the war effort; and music was no exception. Performing Propaganda
looks at musical life in Paris during the First World War. This
conflict was one in which civilian life played a fundamental part
in the war effort; and music was no exception. The book examines
how Western art music became a central part of the home-front war
effort, employed by both musicians and government as a powerful
tool of propaganda. It situates French art music of the First World
War within its social, cultural and political context, and within
the wider temporal framework of the Franco-Prussian and Second
World Wars. Drawing on a diverse range of archival material,
including concert and operatic programmes, the musical and daily
press, documents detailing government involvement in musical
activity, and police records, it explores how various facets of
French musical life served, in very different ways, as propaganda.
In short, it explores why music mattered during a period of
prolonged conflict, whether as emotional catalyst, weapon, or tool.
This book will be of interest to musicologists, to cultural
historians working on early twentieth-century France, and to
scholars of the First World War,as well as to a more general
readership with an interest in music during times of adversity.
RACHEL MOORE is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Music,
University of Oxford.
The fall of 2016 saw the release of the widely popular First World
War video game Battlefield 1. Upon the game's initial announcement
and following its subsequent release, Battlefield 1 became the
target of an online racist backlash that targeted the game's
inclusion of soldiers of color. Across social media and online
communities, players loudly proclaimed the historical inaccuracy of
black soldiers in the game and called for changes to be made that
correct what they considered to be a mistake that was influenced by
a supposed political agenda. Through the introduction of the
theoretical framework of the 'White Mythic Space', this book seeks
to investigate the reasons behind the racist rejection of soldiers
of color by Battlefield 1 players in order to answer the question:
Why do individuals reject the presence of people of African descent
in popular representations of history?
A great war correspondent reports from the Great War
Richard Harding Davis is well regarded as a writer of fiction, but
it is for his work and writings as a journalist-particularly when
covering the battle front-that posterity has awarded him the
accolade 'the first famous American war correspondent.' Davis'
first experience as a war correspondent was during the
Spanish-American War and he later covered the Boer War in South
Africa. The outbreak of the Great War saw him travelling to Europe
and once there his pursuit of the story and vital information
propelled him through many theatres of the conflict. The passage of
time filters away those who have experienced momentous events until
the few who are remembered are those who have left a written
record. Each account is beyond value when their number is finite,
but occasionally we are blessed not only with an invaluable account
but also a fine author to convey it. By this time Davis had
perfected his craft and these two books brought together by Leonaur
for good value demonstrate that perfectly. They are augmented here
with some of Davis' letters sent during the Great War. This was to
be Davis' last campaign on returning home to New York he fell ill
and died suddenly in 1916 aged just 52 years old. Available in
softcover and hardback with dust jacket for collectors.
War in the East African bush
The First World War was inevitably a global conflict because the
rush by the principal powers of Europe to establish trading bases
and colonies, principally during the 19th century, guaranteed it
would be so. In Africa, German and British settlers were close
neighbours and at the outbreak of hostilities were ready for
immediate confrontation. National and imperial forces were
dispatched to augment local military operations. This book concerns
the struggle for East Africa. It was written, drawing on memory and
diary entries, by a British senior staff officer, a
brigadier-general, who was central to the organisation of the
British campaign and who has left posterity a concise, thorough and
detailed historical overview of it from the British perspective.
This book qualifies as a campaign history rather than a first hand
account and is recommended to readers seeking that perspective on
this interesting 'sideshow' theatre of the war.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
A German view of war at sea
It is inevitable that most books in English on any conflict in
which British Forces were engaged tend to view the subject from a
British perspective. The number of accounts or histories from the
other side of the battle smoke translated and published in English
are Hard to find and in the minority, they are therefore essential
for any student who seeks a well-rounded view of a historical
event. The great actions at sea during the First World War were few
in number so it is fortunate that we have been left with this
account by von Hase, who was both a German and a sailor in the
service of his country. The book is part history and part a report
from an eyewitness and it examines in depth the momentous Battles
of Kiel and Jutland fought in the Skagerrak. An invaluable source
work on the Imperial German Navy at War.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
A unique Leonaur edition-never before available in this form
John Buchan was a popular author of historical and adventure
fiction whose works remain in print to the present day. He also
wrote important works of non-fiction that are less well remembered.
Among these was a commissioned, multi-volume history of the First
World War that was so well regarded that it became a source-work
for other historians. This Leonaur Original, drawn from Buchan's
history, and including many maps, battle plans, photographs and
illustrations, has been published to mark the centenary of the
outbreak of the First World War on the Western Front as
overwhelming German forces swept through Belgium and France. This
was a mobile war-much like the wars fought in Europe for hundreds
of years-of marching infantry and cavalry armed with lances and
swords. The battle at Mons, the dogged retreat of the 'Contemptible
Little Army' of the B. E. F., the incredible resistance of the
out-dated Belgian Forces, the battles of the Marne and Aisne as the
tide turned, and the carnage of the First Battle of Ypres as the
war became a stalemate of wire, mud and trenches at the close of
the year, are all covered in Buchan's brilliant take on just six
months of war in 1914.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
The quantity of journalism produced during World War I was unlike
anything the then-budding mass media had ever seen. Correspondents
at the front were dispatching voluminous reports on a daily basis,
and though much of it was subject to censorship, it all eventually
became available. It remains the most extraordinary firsthand look
at the war that we have. Published immediately after the cessation
of hostilities and compiled from those original journalistic
sources-American, British, French, German, and others-this is an
astonishing contemporary perspective on the Great War. This replica
of the first 1919 edition includes all the original maps, photos,
and illustrations, lending an even greater immediacy to readers a
century later. Volume X features personal sketches by war leaders,
the formulation of postwar treaties, a chronology of the war, and
the index for all 10 volumes. American journalist and historian
FRANCIS WHITING HALSEY (1851-1919) was literary editor of The New
York Times from 1892 through 1896. He wrote and lectured
extensively on history; his works include, as editor, the
two-volume Great Epochs in American History Described by Famous
Writers, From Columbus to Roosevelt (1912), and, as writer, the
10-volume Seeing Europe with Famous Authors (1914).
|
You may like...
The Creeper
A. M. Shine
Paperback
R305
R272
Discovery Miles 2 720
|