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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
Intimate and richly detailed, The Beauty of Living begins with
Cummings's Cambridge, Massachusetts upbringing and his relationship
with his socially progressive but domestically domineering father.
It follows Cummings through his undergraduate experience at
Harvard, where he fell into a circle of aspiring writers including
John Dos Passos, who became a lifelong friend. Steeped in classical
paganism and literary decadence, Cummings and his friends rode the
explosion of Cubism, Futurism, Imagism and other "modern" movements
in the arts. As the United States prepared to enter the First World
War, Cummings volunteered as an ambulance driver, was shipped out
to Paris and met his first love, Marie Louise Lallemand, who was
working in Paris as a prostitute. Soon after reaching the front,
however, he was unjustly imprisoned in a brutal French detention
centre at La Ferte-Mace. Through this confrontation with arbitrary
and sadistic authority, he found the courage to listen to his own
voice. Probing an underexamined yet formative time in the poet's
life, this deeply researched account illuminates his ideas about
love, justice, humanity and brutality. J. Alison Rosenblitt weaves
together letters, journal entries and sketches with astute analyses
of poems that span Cummings' career, revealing the origins of one
of the twentieth century's most famous poets.
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.
An extraordinary tale, much-neglected by historians, of courage,
bravery and eventual tragedy which took place during the First
World War in the Middle East. It is the story of a small group of
people, of whom Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn were the core, who were
devoted to the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, and who
were convinced that it was in imminent danger of extinction from
the Turks.They resolved to help the British in Egypt by collecting
military intelligence. Unfortunately, as Peter Calvocoressi points
out, their understanding of the British position was quite
wrong...[their] miscalculations created the tragedy which this book
recounts...'
World War One was the landmark event of the first quarter of the
20th century. In "The Great War, 1914-1918, " Roy Douglas tells the
history of the period through an international collection of over
100 cartoons, many of them previously unknown. This pioneering
pan-European approach offers new perspectives of key themes, events
and figures, forcing a new reinterpretation of the familiar. Both
"establishment" and "subversive" cartoons demonstrate the real
concerns of all participants from the governments of the combative
powers, to the soldier to those at home.
This unique collection will inform in a fresh way the continued
historical debates surrounding the Great War and the implications
which reach to the present day.
On November 30, 1916, an apparently ordinary freighter left harbor
in Kiel, Germany, and would not touch land again for another
fifteen months. It was the beginning of an astounding 64,000-mile
voyage that was to take the ship around the world, leaving a trail
of destruction and devastation in her wake. For this was no
ordinary freighter--this was the "Wolf, "a disguised German
warship.
In this gripping account of an audacious and lethal World War I
expedition, Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen depict the "Wolf "'s
assignment: to terrorize distant ports of the British Empire by
laying minefields and sinking freighters, thus hastening Germany's
goal of starving her enemy into submission. Yet to maintain
secrecy, she could never pull into port or use her radio, and to
comply with the rules of sea warfare, her captain fastidiously
tried to avoid killing civilians aboard the merchant ships he
attacked, taking their crews and passengers prisoner before sinking
the vessels.
The "Wolf "thus became a huge floating prison, with more than 400
captives, including a number of women and children, from
twenty-five different nations. Sexual affairs were kindled between
the German crew and some female prisoners. A six-year-old American
girl, captured while sailing across the Pacific with her parents,
was adopted as a mascot by the Germans.
Forced to survive on food and fuel plundered from other ships,
facing death from scurvy, and hunted by the combined navies of five
Allied nations, the Germans and their prisoners came to share a
common bond. The will to survive transcended enmities of race,
class, and nationality.
It was to be one of the most daring clandestine naval missions of
modern times. Under the command of Captain Karl Nerger, who
conducted his deadly business with an admirable sense of chivalry,
the "Wolf "traversed three of the world's major oceans and
destroyed more than thirty Allied vessels.
We learn of the world through which the "Wolf "moved, with all its
social divisions and xenophobia, its bravery and stoicism, its
combination of old-world social mores and rapid technological
change. The story of this epic voyage is a vivid real-life
narrative and simultaneously a richly detailed picture of a world
being profoundly transformed by war.
This book addresses the many avenues that are still left unexplored
when it comes to our understanding of the First World War in the
Low Countries. With the ongoing the centenary of the Great War,
many events have been organized in the United Kingdom to
commemorate its military events, its socio-political consequences,
and its cultural legacy. Of these events, very few have paid
attention to the fates of Belgium or the Netherlands, even though
it was the invasion of Belgium in August 1914 that was the catalyst
for Great Britain declaring war. The occupation of Belgium had
long-term consequences for its people, but much of the military and
social history of the Western Front concentrates on northern
France, and the Netherlands is largely forgotten as a nation
affected by the First World War. By opening the field beyond the
military and beyond the front, this collection explores the
interdisciplinary and international nature of the Great War.
In the autumn of 1917, the British government established three
batallions of infantry for the reception of non-nationalized
Russian Jews. Known colloquially as the Jewish Legion, the
batallions served in Egypt and Palestine, before their eventual
disbandment in the late spring of 1921. By drawing on the
testimonies of over 600 veterans, this unique unit is analyzed from
within its political and social context, providing fresh insights
into Anglo-Jewish relations during the early twentieth
century.
The Great War is a collection of seven original essays and three
critical comments by senior scholars dealing with the greatest
conflict in modern history to its time - the 1914-18 World War. The
Great War is edited by the distinguished historian of the First
World War, R.J.Q.Adams.
A gripping chronicle of the personal and political rivalries from
the birth of Queen Victoria to the unification of Germany during
the decades leading up to WW1 from Pulitzer Prize winner Robert K.
Massie 2018 marks the centenary of the end of the First World War.
How did it all begin? With the biographer's rare genius for
expressing the essence of extraordinary lives, Massie brings to
life a crowd of glittering figures: the young, ambitious Winston
Churchill; the ruthless, sycophantic Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow;
Britain's greatest twentieth-century Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward
Grey; and Jacky Fisher, the eccentric admiral who revolutionised
the British Navy and brought forth the battleship, H.M.S.
Dreadnought. Their story, and the story of the era, filled with
misunderstanding and tensions, missed opportunities, and events
leading to unintended conclusions, unfolds like a Greek tragedy in
this powerful narrative. Intimately human and dramatic, Dreadnought
is history at its most riveting. 'History at its best, a fantastic
mix of anecdote, observation and intelligent thinking' Dan Snow,
Daily Express
Steeped in conspiracy, scandal and socialism - the disappearance of
radical icon Victor Grayson is a puzzle that's never been solved. A
firebrand and Labour politician who rose to prominence in the early
twentieth century, Grayson was idolised by hundreds of thousands of
Britons but despised by the establishment. After a tumultuous life,
he walked out of his London apartment in September 1920 and was
never seen again. After a century, new documents have come to
light. Fragments of an unpublished autobiography, letters to his
lovers (both men and women), leading political and literary figures
including H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw, and testimonies from
members of the Labour elite such as Clement Attlee have revealed
the real Victor Grayson. New research has uncovered the true events
leading up to his disappearance and suggests that he was actually
blackmailed by his former Party. In a time when homosexuality was
illegal, and socialism an international threat to capitalism,
Grayson was a clear target for those wanting to stamp out dissent.
This extraordinary biography reinstates to history a man who laid
the foundations for a whole generation of militant socialists in
Britain.
The Zionist Masquerade is a new history of the birth of the
Anglo-Zionist alliance during the Great War - a critical chapter in
the history of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict. James Renton
argues that the Balfour Declaration was the result of a wider
phenomenon of British propaganda policies during World War I that
were driven by mistaken conceptions of ethnicity, ethnic power and
nationalism. From this vantage point, Renton contends that while a
number of Zionist activists played a crucial role in the making of
the Balfour Declaration, the end result was not the great Zionist
victory that has been widely assumed. Although the Declaration came
to be the basis for the British Mandate for Palestine, which made a
Jewish State possible thirty years later, this was far from being
the original intention of the British Government. The primary
purpose of Britain's wartime support for Zionism was to secure
Jewish backing for the war effort. The unintended consequences of
this policy, however, were to be explosive and far-reaching.
This book assesses Lloyd George's attempt to shape the history of
1914-18 through his War Memoirs. His account of the British conduct
of the war focused on the generals' incompetence, their obsession
with the Western Front, and their refusal to consider alternatives
to the costly trench warfare in France and Belgium. Yet as War
Minister and Prime Minister Lloyd George presided over the bloody
offensives of 1916-17, and had earlier taken a leading role in
mobilising industrial resources to provide the weapons which made
them possible. Rewriting the First World War examines how Lloyd
George addressed this paradox.
"How the War Was Won" describes the major role played by the
British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in defeating the
German army. In particular, the book explains the methods used in
fighting the last year of the war, and raises questions as to
whether mechanical warfare could have been more widely used.
Using a wide range of unpublished material from archives in both
Britain and Canada, Travers explores the two themes of command and
technology as the style of warfare changed from late 1917 through
1918. He describes in detail the British army's defense against the
German 1918 spring offensives, analyzes command problems during
these offensives, and offers an overriding explanation for the
March 1918 retreat. He also fully investigates the role of the tank
from Cambrai to the end of the war, and concludes that, properly
used, the tank could have made a greater contribution to victory.
"How the War Was Won" explodes many myths and advances new and
controversial arguments. It will be essential reading for military
historians and strategists, and for those interested in the origins
of mechanical warfare.
War Girls reveals the fascinating story of the British women who
volunteered for service in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry during
the Great. Examining their experiences on the Western Front with
the Belgian, British and French Armies, this book shows how the
FANY worked as nurses and ambulance driver-mechanics, inspiring
stories of female heroism and solidarity. The FANY created skilled
gendered performances against the cultural myths of the time, and
in concert with their emerging legend. Coming from privileged
backgrounds, they drew upon and subverted traditional arrangements,
crafting new and unconventional identities for themselves. The
author shares the stories of the FANY - a fascinating, quirky and
audacious group of women - and illustrates the ways the Great War
subverted existing gender arrangements. It will make fascinating
reading for those working in the field of gender and war, as well
as those who wish to find out more about this remarkable group of
women. -- .
Originally published in 1994, This Working-Day World is lively
collection of essays presenting a social, political and cultural
view of British women's lives in the period 1914-45. The volume
describes women's activities in many different areas, ranging from
the weekly wash to the rescue of child refugees. Each essay, from
an international list of contributors, is based on new research
which will complement existing studies in a range of disciplines by
adding information on, among other topics, women's teacher training
colleges, and women in the BBC, in medical laboratories and in Art
schools. The book does not, however, idealise women: the militarism
and racism of the period infected women too, and this is revealed
in the account of women in the British Union of Fascists, and the
analysis of the Pankhursts' merging of patriotism and gender
issues. Through studies and personal accounts, This Working-Day
World reveals past issues that are still pertinent to debates in
today's society. As we read the chapter on the recently discovered
Diary of Doreen Bates which outlines possibly the first female
civil servant campaign for rights as a single mother, we hear
echoes of issues being discussed today. Indeed, as we approach the
end of the century it is a good moment to look back and re-evaluate
areas and degrees of progress - or the reverse - in society, and in
British women's lives in particular. With its unusual photographs,
this accessible and informative collection provides a rich resource
for students in twentieth century social and cultural history, and
women's studies courses, and an enlightening volume for general
readers.
During the first twelve months of World War I President Woodrow
Wilson had a sincere desire to maintain American neutrality. The
president, however, soon found this position unsustainable. As
Wilson sought to mediate an end to the European conflict he
realized that the war presented an irresistible opportunity to
strengthen the US economy though expanded trade with the Allies. As
this carefully argued study shows, the contradiction between
Wilson's idealistic and pragmatic aims ultimately drove him to
abandon neutrality in late 1915 - helping to pave the way for
America's entrance into the war.
This is a comprehensive new operational military history of the
Ottoman army during the First World War. Drawing from archives,
official military histories, personal war narratives and sizable
Turkish secondary literature, it tells the incredible story of the
Ottoman army's struggle from the mountains of the Caucasus to the
deserts of Arabia and the bloody shores of Gallipoli. The Ottoman
army, by opening new fronts, diverted and kept sizeable units of
British, Russian and French forces away from the main theatres and
even sent reinforcements to Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. Against
all odds the Ottoman army ultimately achieved some striking
successes, not only on the battlefield, but in their total
mobilization of the empire's meagre human and economic resources.
However, even by the terrible standards of the First World War,
these achievements came at a terrible price in casualties and,
ultimately, loss of territory. Thus, instead of improving the
integrity and security of the empire, the war effectively
dismantled it and created situations and problems hitherto
undreamed of by a besieged Ottoman leadership. In a unique account,
Uyar revises our understanding of the war in the Middle East.
An ace over the Western Front-in his own words
The Canadian author of this book, William Bishop, volunteered for
imperial service as a cavalryman as the Great War called its
colonial men to the colours. A brief encounter with aircraft-the
cavalry of the clouds-and a prolonged encounter with mud persuaded
him that his war should instead be fought in the skies with the
RFC. Bishop flew first as an observer and eventually, on winning
his double wings, as the pilot of a 'scout'-the famous early
fighter aircraft of the pioneering 'dogfight days' of aerial
combat. Most of us know that the lives of pilots over the Western
Front were perilously short, but Bishop had found his vocation and
he began destroying enemy aircraft with a ruthless efficiency. His
final total of 47 kills established him as a notable allied 'ace'
and earned him a succession of decorations including the Victoria
Cross. Remarkably, through a combination of skill and good luck, he
survived his combat experiences to be the author of this excellent
first-hand account, written while the war still raged, of the First
World War in the air from a pilots perspective. Readers can be
assured that this exciting book is everything one could hope for,
with vital descriptions of duels with the 'Red Baron' and his
Flying Circus together with many other riveting experiences.
Available in paperback and hardcover with dustjacket.
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