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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
The year 2000 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of one of the most original and gripping volumes ever written about the First World War. Fussell illuminates a war that changed a generation and revolutionized the way we see the world. He explores the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, focusing on the various literary means by which it has been remembered, conventionalized and mythologized. It is also about the literary dimensions of the experience itself. Fussell supplies contexts both actual and literary, for writers who have most effectively memorialized the great War as an historical experience with conspicuous imaginative and artisitc meaning. These writers include the classic memoirists Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Edmund Blunden, and poets David Jones, Isaac rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen. In a new introduction Fussell discusses the critical responses to his work, and the books that have influenced his writing and thinking about war. Fussell also shares the stirring experience of his research at the Imperial War Museum's Department of Documents. Fussell includes a new Suggested Further Reading List.
A famous battalion on the Western Front
The appalling losses to the British regular army during the first
period of the Great War prompted the creation of the New Army-an
enormous influx of citizen soldiers driven by feelings of
patriotism determined to 'do their bit' for the cause. Such a
massive increase in the size of the army required a huge expansion
in the number of battalions to accommodate them. These came under a
myriad of identities-public schools, chums, footballers etc-and
included adding battalions to well known regiments of the regular
army. The Royal Fusiliers gained many such battalions and the
subject of this book, the 23rd, was one of the most notable. As its
name suggests the battalion attracted a distinctive
type-particularly those with a spirit of sportsmanship and
adventure. The war service of this battalion was as exemplary as
any that served on the Western Front and the places it
fought-listed in detail within these pages-are a catalogue of the
famous actions of the conflict, though perhaps its greatest day of
reckoning came at Delville Wood in 1916 during the Somme offensive.
Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket for
collectors.
This book provides a historical narrative to tell the story of
interwar German reparations the debates, controversies and
diplomacy surrounding the issue from the 1919 Paris peace
conference to the abandonment of reparations at the Lausanne
Conference in 1932.
"Spies of the Kaiser" examines the scope and objectives of German
covert operations in Great Britain before and during the First
World War. It assesses the effect of German espionage on
Anglo-German relations and discusses the extent to which the fear
of German espionage in the United Kingdom shaped the British
intelligence community in the early twentieth century. The study is
based on original archival material, including hitherto unexploited
German records and recently declassified British documents.
This book shows the strong influence of judgements made of Wilson
by the British diplomatists during the early years of his national
prominence (1912-1914) on the way the British dealt with Wilson at
the Paris Peace Conference. It also shows the strong effect which
practitioners of the so-called "Old Diplomacy" had on Lloyd George
on this key issue of wartime and peace diplomacy. It shows that the
British diplomatists viewed Wilson as a very successful American
politician, but not as a prophet, or saviour. The religious imagery
used by certain historians and more junior British diplomats, such
as Harold Nicolson and John Maynard Keynes does not reflect the
views of their more senior colleagues.
This book on the Treaty of Versailles constitutes a new synthesis of peace conference scholarship. It illuminates events from the armistice in 1918 to the signing of the treaty in 1919, and scrutinizes the motives, actions, and constraints that informed decision making by the French, American, and English politicians who bore the principal responsibility for drafting the peace settlement. It also addresses German reactions to the draft treaty and the final agreement. A detailed examination of the proceedings from the point of view of the main protagonists forms the core of the investigation.
The famous camel borne infantry of the Middle East campaigns
Oliver Hogue's account of the Imperial Camel Corps in action during
the desert and Palestine campaigns of the First World War is one of
the first books written on the subject shortly after the events
themselves took place. Hogue was a serving Australian soldier with
the unit and so had the advantage of witnessing the events
portrayed here at first hand. His is an easy reading, personable
and journalistic style-very much of its day-which weaves a romance
into this story of war against the declining Ottoman Turkish Empire
and it's German allies. There are very few books concerning the
Camel Corps and this is a true rarity and its re-publication after
so many years will be warmly greeted by aficionados of the subject.
This book examines the working of the Munition of War Acts
1915-1917, during the First World War. The munitions code, parts of
which remained in force until 1921, appeared at first to constitute
a radical break with the pre-war voluntarist system of industrial
relations. It aimed to prevent strikes by law, it imposed wage
controls and tighter factory discipline and discouraged munitions
workers from leaving their jobs. Munitions tribunals were
established to enforce the law. Using, among other sources, the
evidence offered by the tribunal proceedings under the Acts, the
author suggests that a policy of strict enforcement of the law was
transformed to one of sensitive conflict management, involving
trade unionists, employers, and the tribunal judges. The
identification of complex working-class attitudes to the wartime
state accounts largely for the creation of this modus vivendi,
despite the controversial nature of the legislation. This book,
though dealing with events which arose during wartime in an
atmosphere of militarism, radicalism as well as patriotism,
inflation and full employment, may nevertheless offer glimpses of
insight to analysts of modern industrial relations.
Donald Hankey was a writer who saw himself as a 'student of human
nature' and peacetime Edwardian Britain as a society at war with
itself. Wounded in a murderous daylight infantry charge near Ypres,
Hankey began sending despatches to The Spectator from hospital in
1915. Trench life, wrote Hankey, taught that 'the gentleman' is a
type not a social class. In one calm, humane, eyewitness report
after another under the byline 'A Student in Arms', Hankey revealed
how the civilian volunteers of Kitchener's Army, many with little
stake in Edwardian society, put their betters to shame nonetheless.
A runaway best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic, Hankey's prose
vied in popularity with the poetry of Rupert Brooke. After he was
killed on the Somme in another daylight infantry charge, Hankey
joined Brooke as an international symbol of promise foregone.
British propaganda backed publication in the-then neutral United
States, yet at home Hankey had to dodge the censors to tell the
truth as he saw it. This, the first scholarly biography, has been
made possible by the recovery of Hankey papers long thought lost.
Dr Davies traces the life of an Edwardian rebel from privileged
birth into a banking dynasty that had owned slaves to spokesman for
the ordinary man who, when put to the test of battle, proves to be
not-so-ordinary. This study of Hankey's life, writing and vast
audience - military and civilian - enlarges our understanding of
how throughout the English-speaking world people managed to fight
or endure a war for which little had prepared them.
Writers at War addresses the most immediate representations of the
First World War in the prose of Ford Madox Ford, May Sinclair,
Siegfried Sassoon and Mary Borden; it interrogates the various ways
in which these writers contended with conveying their war
experience from the temporal and spatial proximity of the warzone
and investigates the multifarious impact of the war on the
(re)development of their aesthetics. It also interrogates to what
extent these texts aligned with or challenged existing social,
cultural, philosophical and aesthetic norms. While this book is
concerned with literary technique, the rich existing scholarship on
questions of gender, trauma and cultural studies on World War I
literature serves as a foundation. This book does not oppose these
perspectives but offers a complementary approach based on close
critical reading. The distinctiveness of this study stems from its
focus on the question of representation and form and on the
specific role of the war in the four authors' literary careers.
This is the first scholarly work concerned exclusively with
theorising prose written from the immediacy of the war. This book
is intended for academics, researchers, PhD candidates,
postgraduates and anyone interested in war literature.
Two linked books of the Irish on many fronts of the Great War
This book concerns the service of the regiments of the British Army
raised in Ireland before and during the First World War together
with those with Irish affiliations. So within its pages readers
will discover not only The Irish Guards, the Connaught Rangers, The
Royal Munster Fusiliers and many other regiments with long and
venerable histories and battle honours but also the London Irish,
the Tyneside Irish and the battalions of the new army. Each chapter
features a particular front or action providing an excellent
overview of the Irish in action throughout the conflict. Here we
join them on the Retreat from Mons, on the Gallipoli peninsula, at
Loos and during the Somme offensive. No account of the Irish could
possibly be complete without the inclusion, as here, of anecdotes
from the irrepressible Irish soldier himself, with all his wry
humour and indomitable bravery and fighting prowess. This book
brings together two volumes on the same theme by the same author.
Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.
The Shelf2Life WWI Memoirs Collection is an engaging set of
pre-1923 materials that describe life during the Great War through
memoirs, letters and diaries. Poignant personal narratives from
soldiers, doctors and nurses on the front lines to munitions
workers and land girls on the home front, offer invaluable insight
into the sacrifices men and women made for their country.
Photographs and illustrations intensify stories of struggle and
survival from the trenches, hospitals, prison camps and
battlefields. The WWI Memoirs Collection captures the pride and
fear of the war as experienced by combatants and non-combatants
alike and provides historians, researchers and students extensive
perspective on individual emotional responses to the war.
A highland regiment at war in the East
When this book was originally published both the regiment and
author remained anonymous. Today we know it concerns the wartime
experiences of the 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch and that its
author-an officer of the regiment-was Blampied. To make the book
more relevant to modern readers references to the regiment,
division etc. have been inserted into this edition. The war in
Mesopotamia-known as Iraq since the 6th century-against the Ottoman
Turkish empire was very different to the experience of the Western
Front, but the fighting could be no less fierce and in one of its
earliest engagements the regiment suffered terribly, providing yet
another example of how the Great War destroyed 'family' regiments
in minutes.
This book provides an excellent insight into a highland regiment at
war and is particularly interesting since the theatre of operations
is familiar as the same one as the most recent conflict in the
region.
Lord D'Abernon was the first British ambassador to Berlin after the First World War. This study, which challenges his positive historical reputation, assesses all the key aspects of Anglo-German relations in the early 1920s. Particular attention is paid to the reparations question and to issues of international security. Other topics include D'Abernon's relationship with the principal British and German politicians of the period and his attitude towards American involvement in European diplomacy.
With the Middlesex Regiment against the Bolsheviks 1918-19
This unusual book from the First World War period. It tells of the
attempts of the British-in company with European and American
allies and the Japanese-to stem the red tide of Bolshevism in
Russia by providing military aid to the White Russian forces. These
are the experiences of the men of Middlesex
Regiment-'B-oners'-already worn out in other theatres of war and
hoping their days of campaigning were about to be over-as they rose
to an extraordinary challenge in the harshest of environments in
the Siberian winter. This is a fascinating book for those
interested in the sideshows of the Great War in which the typically
stolid 'Tommy' served-here portrayed in the most affectionate terms
by the author-who was also their Colonel. It is also a vital work
for those interested in the Russian Revolution, the Civil War and
the policies and attitudes of the involved nations as they created
the conditions for another World War and helped establish the
international balance of power for three quarters of a century.
The London Rifles in the Trenches
The London Rifle Brigade was one of the famous territorial
regiments that saw service during the Great War. This book-for the
sake of good value-brings together two accounts of its service on
the Western Front. The first is a short history written by an
anonymous author that briefly, with the aid of photographs and
maps, outlines the activities of the regiment during its time in
Europe; the reader can therefore follow the Rifles battalions
through the war in detail. The second title in this volume is
Gilbert Nobb's 'On the Right of the British Line.' Nobbs was an
officer of the regiment and saw much active service before being
seriously wounded. His first hand account adds the immediacy of
personal experiences in the trenches and under fire to the
accompanying history. Available in softcover and hardback with dust
jacket for collectors.
This book contributes to the global turn in First World War studies
by exploring Australians' engagements with the conflict across
varied boundaries and by situating Australian voices and
perspectives within broader, more complex contexts. This diverse
and multifaceted collection includes chapters on the composition
and contribution of the Australian Imperial Force, the experiences
of prisoners of war, nurses and Red Cross workers, the resonances
of overseas events for Australians at home, and the cultural
legacies of the war through remembrance and representation. The
local-global framework provides a fresh lens through which to view
Australian connections with the Great War, demonstrating that there
is still much to be said about this cataclysmic event in modern
history.
Experiences of the momentous fleet battle of the Great War at sea
The narratives of the fighting at Jutland which are collected in
this book were all written by officers or men who were present at
the battle, and they are, therefore, first-hand evidence of the
detailed events of the fighting. The book is not a criticism; it is
a record of personal experiences. One has often felt that a great
gap would be filled in the histories of old-time naval battles if
one could read true stories of all the hundred and one personal
incidents of the fighting that must have occurred in the days of
old. Imagine the adventure that could be contained in a book truly
describing the fighting incidents of Trafalgar What an insight it
would give us into the character and courage of the men who served
Nelson. So this book of the Fighting at Jutland is an endeavour to
fill a like gap for the one fleet action of the War of 1914-18.
(From the Introduction) This book benefits from the inclusion a
useful supporting narrative of the action in detail and at large to
give the experiences of the individual authors context and to
clarify their role in the wider conflict, as well as numerous
photographs, illustrations, maps and diagrams demonstrating the
manoeuvring of vessels. Available in softcover and hardcover with
dustjacket.
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