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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
The motorised wheels of war begin to turn
In 1914 as the B. E. F was quickly hurried to the battle lines-by
whatever means possible-British troops were amused to see familiar
commercial vehicles trundle past, resplendent with their colourful
advertisements for household products. The French civilian
population was equally amused, bemused and occasionally confused by
this incongruous sight. The Great War, with powered flying
machines, submarines, motor transport and tanks, was the first
major mechanised war. The invention of the internal combustion
engine metamorphosed the waging of war. Motor transport could
efficiently move both men and materials, the dispatch rider was no
longer the glittering aide-de-camp but a drab, goggled corporal on
a motorcycle, and weapons of destruction could be carried behind
the steel plating of motorised armoured cars and tanks. This
subject fascinates those interested in the history of modern
warfare and to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First
World War in 1914, the Leonaur Editors have compiled this special
three-in-one book about the Great War from the perspective of 'the
motor.' The first title here is an excellent overview of the
subject, accompanied by useful illustrations and diagrams, which
covers each aspect of the motor at war. Next is a manufactures
catalogue with detailed views and elevations of the very commercial
vehicles that carried British troops to the front in 1914. The
final piece is an extract about motor transport and armoured
vehicles in the first decades of the 20th century. This is a useful
reference guide for all military vehicle enthusiasts.
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.
Glasgow men on the Western Front
As every student of the Great War is aware, the escalating scale of
the conflict on the Western Front required the formation of new
battalions-a new citizen army formed to be equal to the size of the
challenge. This is the unit history of one of them, The Seventeenth
Highland Light Infantry (Glasgow Chamber of Commerce) Battalion. As
its name suggests it was but one of many additional battalions
raised in Scotland which would bear the name of an old regiment of
the British Army in this case the 71st Foot, the HLI. Many of these
battalions, particularly those raised in large urban centres, took
on the character of their place and community of origin. This
battalion's sister unit, the Sixteenth, for example was styled,
'The Glasgow Boy's Brigade' Battalion. The Glasgow men were
dispatched to France and into the trenches with all its hardships,
grinding routine and frequent raiding. The battalion served through
the Battle of the Somme and went on the see action around Hulluch,
Beaumont-Hamel and the Ypres Salient among others. This invaluable
book also contains honours and award rolls making it invaluable for
genealogists. Available in softcover and hard over with dust
jacket.
The war was fought by the world's leading Christian nations, who
presented the conflict as a holy war. A steady stream of patriotic
and militaristic rhetoric was served to an unprecedented audience,
using language that spoke of holy war and crusade, of apocalypse
and Armageddon. But this rhetoric was not mere state propaganda.
Philip Jenkins reveals how the widespread belief in angels,
apparitions, and the supernatural, was a driving force throughout
the war and shaped all three of the Abrahamic religions -
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam - paving the way for modern views
of religion and violence. The disappointed hopes and moral
compromises that followed the war also shaped the political climate
of the rest of the century, giving rise to such phenomena as
Nazism, totalitarianism, and communism. Connecting remarkable
incidents and characters - from Karl Barth to Carl Jung, the
Christmas Truce to the Armenian Genocide - Jenkins creates a
powerful and persuasive narrative that brings together global
politics, history, and spiritual crisis. We cannot understand our
present religious, political, and cultural climate without
understanding the dramatic changes initiated by the First World
War. The war created the world's religious map as we know it today.
In The Last Great Safari: East Africa in World War I, military
historian Corey W. Reigel explores a fascinating and misunderstood
theater of operations in the history of the First World War.
Unprepared for the Great War, colonial units combined modern
industrial weapons and equipment with traditional African methods
to produce a hybrid force. Throughout The Last Great Safari, Reigel
challenges myth after myth. Were really one million Allied soldiers
pulled up from Europe to toil in the tropical sun only to fall
victim to local diseases? Did the Germans truly become masters of
guerrilla warfare and humiliate the British Empire in what appeared
a David versus Goliath conflict? Reigel brings together traditional
military studies and African history to explore the myths, fables,
and stereotypes that have long characterized examinations of this
topic, from questions as to how German East Africa contributed to
the fate of the war to claims respecting significant diversion of
resources. Racism played a significant role in then prevalent
definitions of what constituted military success and in how
Africans and Indians were recruited, holding more sway in the minds
of white armies as a success factor than differences in weapons.
Reigel points out how modern methods of medicine and transportation
ultimately failed, only to be replaced by a hybrid of industrial
Europe and traditional African solutions for dealing with an
especially difficult climate. In the end, when necessity came to
outweigh then current ideas of professionalism did German forces
outfight their opponents. The Last Great Safari: East Africa in
World War I will interest students of military history, African
studies, and World War I, as this tale of colonial warfare within a
war of attrition shaped part of Africa's colonial future.
This study examines the role of British newspapers during the July
Crisis of 1914. The author argues that decision-makers in Berlin
and London framed their policies on a reading of the British press,
which expressed deep skepticism about involvement in a general
European war after the Sarajevo murders. British newspapers and
journalists encouraged German hopes for British neutrality, as well
as the indecisive nature of Sir Edward Grey's foreign policy in
1914, helping spark the Great War.
Chaplain G.A. Studdert Kennedy has been described as the most
popular British chaplain of the First World War. Widely known as
"Woodbine Willie" for the cigarettes he distributed to the troops,
his wartime poetry and prose communicated the challenges, hardships
and hopes of the soldiers he served. As a chaplain, he was subject
to the same hardships as his soldiers. This book analyses his
experiences through the contemporary understanding of
psychological, moral and spiritual impact of war on its survivors
and suggests that the chaplain suffered from Combat Stress, Moral
Injury, and Spiritual Injury. Through the analysis of his wartime
and postwar publications, the author illustrates the continuing
impact of war on the life of a veteran of the Great War.
This book juxtaposes national anthems of thirteen countries from
central Europe, with the aim of initiating a dialogue among the
peoples of East-Central Europe. We tend to perceive a national
anthem as a particular mirror, involuntarily reflecting an image of
nation and homeland; but how does it represent the community for
whom it sounds? To answer this question, the book deploys a
comparative approach - anthems are presented in the light of those
of neighbouring countries, with the conviction that one of the key
features of true Europeanness is good relations between neighbours.
The development trajectory of the modern nation is the context in
which the book examines the history of such national symbols,
alongside the symbolic content of poetry, images of the homeland
and nation depicted in the anthems, as well as the sometimes longer
processes which led to the adoption and legal codification of
current state symbols. The Anthems of East-Central Europe will be a
great resource for researchers, journalists, college and university
students, politicians trying to impact emigrees from this region
and emigrees themselves.
Over the seas and far away-the world at war
In the late summer of 1914, the eyes of the world were fixed upon
Europe as seemingly unstoppable German armies simultaneously
marched eastwards and westwards subduing nations and forcing their
armies to retreat. This was the beginning of an industrial war
without precedent which would send shockwaves across the globe.
This book, specially compiled by Leonaur's editors from John
Buchan's excellent writings on the First World War, concentrates on
the world beyond mainland Europe in the early months of the war.
Readers will discover the naval battles of Heligoland Bight,
Coronel, the Falkland Islands and Dogger Bank as the Imperial
German Navy tested its mettle against the might of the Royal Navy.
Here are accounts of German naval raiders such as the 'Emden' and
the naval bombardments of British seaside towns. German and British
colonial and regular troops clashed in East and West Africa and
actions were fought on the coast of China and upon remote Pacific
Islands. Disaffected Boers rose in rebellion in South Africa and
Germany's ally, the Ottoman Turkish Empire joined the fray making
advances in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and towards the strategically
vital Suez Canal in Egypt. In 1914 this was a conflict far removed
from the familiar mud, wire and trenches that have become
emblematic of the First World War. This is a highly recommended
overview of the world at war created especially to mark the
centenary of the outbreak of hostilities; it includes many
illustrations, photographs and maps.
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.
In incorporating Black African soldiers on the European
battleground in their war against the Germans in WWI, France needed
to change the image of the African from that of savage to a loyal
and courageous soldier, a non-threat to French citizenry. What
emerged was the Grand Enfant, a child-like figure with a winning
grin who nonetheless could be ruthless in pursuit of the Hun.
Meanwhile, German propaganda persisted in portraying the African as
a cannibal, being unjustly deployed by France against the civilized
European. Postcards of the era were an important means of
disseminating these images and demonstrate how the African
soldier's image was manipulated to serve the changing needs of the
European belligerents. The book contains over 150 stunning images
from this propaganda war and places them in historical context. It
is a pioneering study in English of a long-neglected aspect of the
First World War.
The execution of British matron Edith Cavell by occupying German
forces was portrayed by the allies as one of the key atrocities of
the Great War. This book recovers and interprets the worldwide
reaction to Cavell's death, exploring its contextual relationship
within imperial and international history, as well women's history
and gender history.
Historical research into the Armenian Genocide has grown
tremendously in recent years, but much of it has focused on
large-scale questions related to Ottoman policy or the scope of the
killing. Consequently, surprisingly little is known about the
actual experiences of the genocide's victims. Daily Life in the
Abyss illuminates this aspect through the intertwined stories of
two Armenian families who endured forced relocation and deprivation
in and around modern-day Syria. Through analysis of diaries and
other source material, it reconstructs the rhythms of daily life
within an often bleak and hostile environment, in the face of a
gradually disintegrating social fabric.
A unique and vivid first hand account of a young soldier, one of
the millions who fought in World War I. Walter Williams volunteered
at age fifteen and after completing his initial training in
Shrewsbury, passed through the notorious training camp at Etaples
before being plunged into the horrors of trench warfare. He fought
in some of the major battles of the war including Passchendaele,
the Somme and Vimy Ridge - and was badly wounded during the final
attack on the Hindenburg line in September 1918, when he was hit by
machine-gun fire from an enemy plane. After spending some months in
a French hospital in Dieppe, he was repatriated to England where he
made a full recovery. Walter's story was captured on an ancient
reel-to-reel tape recorder during long conversations with his two
nephews, Michael and Derek, who went on to research and verify the
events he described before producing this remarkable story. Walter
died in 1998, by which time he was one of the last veterans of
World War I.
This book highlights the important, yet often forgotten, roles that
Jamaican women played in the World Wars. Predicated on the notion
that warfare has historically been an agent of change, Dalea Bean
contends that traces of this truism were in Jamaica and illustrates
that women have historically been part of the war project, both as
soldiers and civilians. This ground-breaking work fills a gap in
the historiography of Jamaican women by positioning the World Wars
as watershed periods for their changing roles and status in the
colony. By unearthing critical themes such as women's war work as
civilians, recruitment of men for service in the British West India
Regiment, the local suffrage movement in post-Great War Jamaica,
and Jamaican women's involvement as soldiers in the British Army
during the Second World War, this book presents the most extensive
and holistic account of Jamaican women's involvement in the wars.
An eye-opening interpretation of the infamous Gallipoli campaign
that sets it in the context of global trade. In early 1915, the
British government ordered the Royal Navy to force a passage of the
Dardanelles Straits-the most heavily defended waterway in the
world. After the Navy failed to breach Turkish defenses, British
and allied ground forces stormed the Gallipoli peninsula but were
unable to move off the beaches. Over the course of the year, the
Allied landed hundreds of thousands of reinforcements but all to no
avail. The Gallipoli campaign has gone down as one of the great
disasters in the history of warfare. Previous works have focused on
the battles and sought to explain the reasons for the British
failure, typically focusing on First Lord of the Admiralty Winston
Churchill. In this bold new account, Nicholas Lambert offers the
first fully researched explanation of why Prime Minister Henry
Asquith and all of his senior advisers-the War Lords-ordered the
attacks in the first place, in defiance of most professional
military opinion. Peeling back the manipulation of the historical
record by those involved with the campaign's inception, Lambert
shows that the original goals were political-economic rather than
military: not to relieve pressure on the Western Front but to
respond to the fall-out from the massive disruption of the
international grain trade caused by the war. By the beginning of
1915, the price of wheat was rising so fast that Britain, the
greatest importer of wheat in the world, feared bread riots.
Meanwhile Russia, the greatest exporter of wheat in the world and
Britain's ally in the east, faced financial collapse. Lambert
demonstrates that the War Lords authorized the attacks at the
Dardanelles to open the straits to the flow of Russian wheat,
seeking to lower the price of grain on the global market and
simultaneously to eliminate the need for huge British loans to
support Russia's war effort. Carefully reconstructing the
perspectives of the individual War Lords, this book offers an
eye-opening case study of strategic policy making under pressure in
a globalized world economy.
How did German intelligence agents in the First World War use dead
fish to pass on vital information to their operatives? What did an
advertisement for a dog in The Times have to do with the movement
of British troops into Egypt? And why did British personnel become
suspicious about the trousers hanging on a Belgian woman's washing
line? During the First World War, spymasters and their networks of
secret agents developed many ingenious - and occasionally hilarious
- methods of communication. Puffs of smoke from a chimney, stacks
of bread in a bakery window, even knitted woollen jumpers were all
used to convey secret messages decipherable only by well-trained
eyes. Melanie King retells the astonishing story of these and many
other tricks of the espionage trade, now long forgotten, through
the memoirs of eight spies. Among them are British intelligence
officers working undercover in France and Germany, including a
former officer from the Metropolitan Police who once hunted Jack
the Ripper. There is also the German Secret Service officer,
codenamed Agricola, who spied on the Eastern Front, an American
newspaperman and an Austrian agent who disguised himself as
everything from a Jewish pedlar to a Russian officer. Drawing on
the words of many of the spies themselves, Secrets in a Dead Fish
is a fascinating compendium of clever and original ruses that casts
new light into the murky world of espionage during the First World
War.
During the twilight years of the Ottoman Empire, the ethnic
tensions between the minority populations within the empire led to
the administration carrying out a systematic destruction of the
Armenian people. This not only brought two thousand years of
Armenian civilisation within Anatolia to an end but was accompanied
by the mass murder of Syriac and Greek Orthodox Christians.
Containing a selection of papers presented at "The Genocide of the
Christian Populations of the Ottoman Empire and its Aftermath
(1908-1923)" international conference, hosted by the Chair for
Pontic Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, this
book draws on unpublished archival material and an innovative
historiographical approach to analyze events and their legacy in
comparative perspective. In order to understand the historical
context of the Ottoman Genocide, it is important to study, apart
from the Armenian case, the fate of the Greek and Assyrian peoples,
providing a more comprehensive understanding of the complexity of
the situation. This volume is primarily a research contribution but
should also be valued as a supplementary text that would provide
secondary reading for undergraduates and postgraduate students.
Afterlives documents the lives and historical pursuits of the
generations who grew up in Australia, Britain and Germany after the
First World War. Although they were not direct witnesses to the
conflict, they experienced its effects from their earliest years.
Based on ninety oral history interviews and observation during the
First World War Centenary, this pioneering study reveals the
contribution of descendants to the contemporary memory of the First
World War, and the intimate personal legacies of the conflict that
animate their history-making. -- .
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 first scientific biography of Milan Rastislav Stefanik
(1880-1919) that is focused on analysing the process of how he
became the Slovak national hero. Although he is relatively unknown
internationally, his contemporaries compared him "to Choderlos de
Laclos for the use of military tactics in love affairs, to Lawrence
of Arabia for vision, to Bonaparte for ambition ... and to one of
apostles for conviction". He played the key role in founding an
independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 through his relentless worldwide
travels during the First World War in order to create the
Czechoslovak Army: he visited Serbia and Romania on the eve of
invasion by the Central Powers, Russia before the February
revolution, the United States after it declared war on Germany,
Italy dealing with the consequences of defeat in the Caporetto
battle, and again when Russia plunged into Civil War. Several
historical methods are used to analyse the aforementioned central
research question of this biography such as social capital to
explain his rise in French society, the charismatic leader to
understand how he convinced and won over a relatively large number
of people; more traditional political, military, and diplomatic
history to show his contribution to the founding of Czechoslovakia,
and memory studies to analyse his extraordinary popularity in
Slovakia. By mapping his intriguing life, the book will be of
interest to scholars in a broad range of areas including history of
Central Europe, especially Czechoslovakia, international relations,
social history, French society at the beginning of the 20th century
and biographical research.
During the last two centuries, ethnolinguistic nationalism has been
the norm of nation building and state building in Central Europe.
The number of recognized Slavic languages (in line with the
normative political formula of language = nation = state) gradually
tallied with the number of the Slavic nation-states, especially
after the breakups of Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia. But in the current age of borderless cyberspace,
regional and minority Slavic languages are freely standardized and
used, even when state authorities disapprove. As a result, since
the turn of the 19th century, the number of Slavic languages has
varied widely, from a single Slavic language to as many as 40.
Through the story of Slavic languages, this timely book illustrates
that decisions on what counts as a language are neither permanent
nor stable, arguing that the politics of language is the politics
in Central Europe. The monograph will prove to be an essential
resource for scholars of linguistics and politics in Central
Europe.
This is a detailed study of some 150 unpublished and
never-before-seen images of soldiers of the American Expeditionary
Force (AEF) and the Army of Occupation taken in France and Germany
during and after World War I. As opposed to the stateside
training-camp photos and formal portraits taken on return to the
USA, this is an in-depth look at what the AEF looked like as they
were actively engaged in the business of making the world safe for
democracy. These images cover every rank and grade of soldier in
the AEF from General Pershing to fresh-faced privates, and every
occupational specialty from infantryman to cook. Details of
uniforms and equipment, locations, times, and places have been
painstakingly researched for each image.
Australia, Wilkommen (1990) documents the rich and varying
contribution made by Germans in Australia. Originally welcomed as
hardy pioneers, German settlers were responsible for discovering
and opening up vast tracts of land. German scientists and
entrepreneurs played a large role in the Australian economy. But as
the German empire expanded into the Pacific, and Britain and
Australia were drawn into two world wars, perceptions of Germany
and its people changed and immigrants were caught in the crossfire
between the old and new worlds. This book examines these issues
surrounding German immigration into Australia, and the shifting
perceptions of both the immigrants and the nation itself.
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