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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
Habsburg Sons describes Jewish participation in the Habsburg Army,
1788-1918, concentrating on their role in World War I.
Approximately 300,000-350,000 Jews fought in the Austro-Hungarian
Armies on all fronts. Of these, 30,000-40,000 died of wounds or
illness, approximately 25,000 were officers. At least 17% were
taken prisoner in camps all over Russia and Central Asia. Many
soldiers were Orthodox Ostjuden, and soldiers came into regular
contact with Jewish civilians. Over 130 Feldrabbiner (chaplains)
served mainly on Eastern and Italian Fronts. Antisemitism was
present but generally not overt. The book uses personal diaries and
newspaper articles (most available in English for the first time)
to describe their experiences. The comparative experiences of Jews
in German, Russian, Italian Armies is also summarized.
The war of the French volunteers
This book does not concern the Battle of Verdun in 1916--widely
considered to be the largest battle in world history, rather it
positions the action geographically for the reader. Written during
wartime this account concerns the personal experiences of a young
officer of the French infantry from the earliest days of the Great
War through a period of comparative fluidity of movement before the
stalemate of trench warfare. The fighting concerns the actions
about the Meuse and the Marne in the first year of the war from a
French perspective and concludes as the 'armies go to earth' in the
early part of 1915. Genevoix takes the reader into the heart of his
enthusiastic young group of comrades and soldiers on campaign to
provide valuable insights into the opening phases of the great
conflict the French infantry knew. Available in soft cover and hard
cover with dust jacket.
The Remembered Dead explores the ways poets of the First World War
- and later poets writing in the memory of that war - address the
difficult question of how to remember, and commemorate, those
killed in conflict. It looks closely at the way poets struggled to
meaningfully represent dying, death, and the trauma of witness,
while responding to the pressing need for commemoration. The
authors pay close attention to specific poems while maintaining a
strong awareness of literary and philosophical contexts. The poems
are discussed in relation to modernism and myth, other forms of
commemoration (such as photographs and memorials), and theories of
cultural memory. There is fresh analysis of canonical poets which,
at the same time, challenges the confines of the canon by
integrating discussion of lesser-known figures, including
non-combatants and poets of later decades. The final chapter
reaches beyond the war's centenary in a discussion of one
remarkable commemoration of Wilfred Owen.
Habsburg Sons describes Jewish participation in the Habsburg Army,
1788-1918, concentrating on their role in World War I.
Approximately 300,000-350,000 Jews fought in the Austro-Hungarian
Armies on all fronts. Of these, 30,000-40,000 died of wounds or
illness, approximately 25,000 were officers. At least 17% were
taken prisoner in camps all over Russia and Central Asia. Many
soldiers were Orthodox Ostjuden, and soldiers came into regular
contact with Jewish civilians. Over 130 Feldrabbiner (chaplains)
served mainly on Eastern and Italian Fronts. Antisemitism was
present but generally not overt. The book uses personal diaries and
newspaper articles (most available in English for the first time)
to describe their experiences. The comparative experiences of Jews
in German, Russian, Italian Armies is also summarized.
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.
This is the compelling story of West Belfast's involvement fighting
on the Western Front throughout the First World War. This is the
story of men from either side of West Belfast's sectarian divide
during the Great War. This dramatic book tells the story of the
volunteers of the 36th and 16th divisions who fought on the Somme
and side-by-side at Messines. Grayson also brings in forgotten West
Belfast men from throughout the armed forces, from the retreat at
Mons to the defeat of Germany and life post-war. In so doing, he
tells a new story which challenges popular perceptions of the war
and explains why remembrance remains so controversial in Belfast
today.
Why, despite the appalling conditions in the trenches of the
Western Front, was the British army almost untouched by major
mutiny during the First World War? Drawing upon an extensive range
of sources, including much previously unpublished archival
material, G. D. Sheffield seeks to answer this question by
examining a crucial but previously neglected factor in the
maintenance of the British army's morale in the First World War:
the relationship between the regimental officer and the ordinary
soldier.
Booth offers a complex portrait of the relation between British Great War culture and modernist writings. She notes that unlike civilians, modernist writers and combatants shared a concern with the divide between language and experience, and draws connections between the sensibility of the modernist writer and the soldier, particularly regarding efforts to describe dying and the dead. Her analysis extends to memorials, posters, and architecture of the Great War, though her emphasis is on literary works by Robert Graves, E.M. Forster, Vera Brittain, and others.
I cannot stop while there are lives to be saved
Edith Cavell
Nurse Edith Cavell was a British Nurse and humanitarian who became
famous during the First World War for not only nursing and saving
the lives of battle casualties with no regard for the nationality
of the combatants, but also for her work in assisting some 200
Allied soldiers to escape incarceration by the victorious German
Army in Belgium during the early stages of the conflict. This
middle aged nurse was discovered by the Germans, who considered her
actions treasonable, abetting the escape of troops who might return
to the battle front. Cavell was subsequently tried by court
marshal, sentenced to be executed and shot by firing squad in
October 1915, aged 50 years. The event was widely reported by the
world press and the effect on the public at large was electric
providing a propaganda triumph for the Allied cause and an equal
disaster for the German cause-although they considered their
actions fair and reasonable by the rules of war. Cavell's influence
on nursing in Belgium has been an enduring one. This book contains
two accounts brought together by Leonaur for interest and good
value. The first, The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell by William Thomson
Hill, provides an overview of the Cavell story whilst the second,
With Edith Cavell in Belgium by Jacqueline Van Til, was written by
a young nurse who worked closely with Cavell and who had inside
knowledge and personal experience of the dramatic events as they
unfolded. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.
More than 400 photographs detail the American military experience
in World War I on the ground, in the air, and at sea, from
recruitment to the Armistice. This is the premier visual history of
the United States in the Great War to be published during these
centennial years. * Features not only the infamous Doughboys and
Devil Dogs, but also flying aces, doctors and nurses, seamen, and
the German enemy * Color photos of weapons and equipment, uniforms,
insignia, medals, and posters * Richly informative text and
captions by an expert on World War I and battlefield
interpretation.
The Great War set in motion all of the subsequent violence of the
twentieth century. The war took millions of lives, led to the fall
of four empires, established new nations, and negatively affected
others. During and after the war, individuals and communities
struggled to find expression for their wartime encounters and
communal as well as individual mourning. Throughout this time of
enormous upheaval, many artists redefined their role in society,
among them writers, performers, painters, and composers. Some
sought to renew or re-establish their place in the postwar climate,
while others longed for an irretrievable past, and still others
tried to break with the past entirely. This volume offers a
significant interdisciplinary contribution to the study of modern
war, exploring the ways that artists contributed to wartime culture
- both representing and shaping it - as well as the ways in which
wartime culture influenced artistic expressions. Artists' places
within and against reconstruction efforts illuminate the struggles
of the day. The essays included represent a transnational
perspective and seek to examine how artists dealt with the
experience of conflict and mourning and their role in
(re-)establishing creative practices in the changing climate of the
interwar years.
The Amazon History Book of the Year 2013 is a magisterial chronicle
of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted
from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war.
In 1914, Europe plunged into the 20th century's first terrible act
of self-immolation - what was then called The Great War. On the eve
of its centenary, Max Hastings seeks to explain both how the
conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women
during the first months of strife. He finds the evidence
overwhelming, that Austria and Germany must accept principal blame
for the outbreak. While what followed was a vast tragedy, he argues
passionately against the 'poets' view', that the war was not worth
winning. It was vital to the freedom of Europe, he says, that the
Kaiser's Germany should be defeated. His narrative of the early
battles will astonish those whose images of the war are simply of
mud, wire, trenches and steel helmets. Hastings describes how the
French Army marched into action amid virgin rural landscapes, in
uniforms of red and blue, led by mounted officers, with flags
flying and bands playing. The bloodiest day of the entire Western
war fell on 22 August 1914, when the French lost 27,000 dead. Four
days later, at Le Cateau the British fought an extraordinary action
against the oncoming Germans, one of the last of its kind in
history. In October, at terrible cost they held the allied line
against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres.The
author also describes the brutal struggles in Serbia, East Prussia
and Galicia, where by Christmas the Germans, Austrians, Russians
and Serbs had inflicted on each other three million casualties.
This book offers answers to the huge and fascinating question 'what
happened to Europe in 1914?', through Max Hastings's accustomed
blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts from a multitude of
statesmen and generals, peasants, housewives and private soldiers
of seven nations. His narrative pricks myths and offers some
striking and controversial judgements. For a host of readers
gripped by the author's last international best-seller 'All Hell
Let Loose', this will seem a worthy successor.
The Great War is still seen as a mostly European war. The Middle
Eastern theater is, at best, considered a sideshow written from the
western perspective. This book fills an important gap in the
literature by giving an insight through annotated translations from
five Ottoman memoirs, previously not available in English, of
actors who witnessed the last few years of Turkish presence in the
Arab lands. It provides the historical background to many of the
crises in the Middle East today, such as the Arab-Israeli
confrontation, the conflict-ridden emergence of Syria and Lebanon,
the struggle over the holy places of Islam in the Hejaz, and the
mutual prejudices of Arabs and Turks about each other.
America's Arab Nationalists focuses in on the relationship between
Arab nationalists and Americans in the struggle for independence in
an era when idealistic Americans could see the Arab nationalist
struggle as an expression of their own values. In the first three
decades of the twentieth century (from the 1908 Ottoman revolution
to the rise of Hitler), important and influential Americans,
including members of the small Arab-American community,
intellectually, politically and financially participated in the
construction of Arab nationalism. This book tells the story of a
diverse group of people whose contributions are largely unknown to
the American public. The role Americans played in the development
of Arab nationalism has been largely unexplored by historians,
making this an important and original contribution to scholarship.
This volume is of great interest to students and academics in the
field, though the narrative style is accessible to anoyone
interested in Arab nationalism, the conflict between Zionists and
Palestinians, and the United States' relationship with the Arab
world.
This is a major new history of the British army during the Great
War written by three leading military historians. Ian Beckett,
Timothy Bowman and Mark Connelly survey operations on the Western
Front and throughout the rest of the world as well as the army's
social history, pre-war and wartime planning and strategy, the
maintenance of discipline and morale and the lasting legacy of the
First World War on the army's development. They assess the
strengths and weaknesses of the army between 1914 and 1918,
engaging with key debates around the adequacy of British
generalship and whether or not there was a significant 'learning
curve' in terms of the development of operational art during the
course of the war. Their findings show how, despite limitations of
initiative and innovation amongst the high command, the British
army did succeed in developing the effective combined arms warfare
necessary for victory in 1918.
Over 185,000 British military servicemen were captured by the
Germans during the First World War and incarcerated as prisoners of
war (POWs). In this original investigation into their experiences
of captivity, Wilkinson uses official and private British source
material to explore how these servicemen were challenged by, and
responded to, their wartime fate. Examining the psychological
anguish associated with captivity, and physical trials, such as the
controlling camp spaces; harsh routines and regimes; the lack of
material necessities; and, for many, forced labour demands, he asks
if, how and with what effects British POWs were able to respond to
such challenges. The culmination of this research reveals a range
of coping strategies embracing resistance; leadership and
organisation; networks of support; and links with 'home worlds'.
British Prisoners of War in First World War Germany offers an
original insight into First World War captivity, the German POW
camps, and the mentalities and perceptions of the British
servicemen held within.
From the Treaty of Versailles to the 2018 centenary and beyond, the
history of the First World War has been continually written and
rewritten, studied and contested, producing a rich historiography
shaped by the social and cultural circumstances of its creation.
Writing the Great War provides a groundbreaking survey of this vast
body of work, assembling contributions on a variety of national and
regional historiographies from some of the most prominent scholars
in the field. By analyzing perceptions of the war in contexts
ranging from Nazi Germany to India's struggle for independence,
this is an illuminating collective study of the complex interplay
of memory and history.
2017 is the 100th anniversary of America's declaration of war
against Germany. Many historians take a diminutive stance regarding
America's involvement but it cannot be underestimated by any means.
It was the reason that brought Germany to it is knees and forced
them to accept an armistice that was a victory of sorts achieved
over the German forces and their allies. There is global renewed
interest in World War One. All the protagonists are long dead but
many of their relatives are still with us. This volume will draw
you into the whole experience from the home front to the hell of
the trenches. These are the voices of those who were never heard
but their suffering and their involvement was total and
uncompromising, and now finally they can breathe again. They are
not forgotten.
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