In historical writing on World War I, Czech-speaking soldiers serving in the Austro-Hungarian military are typically studied as Czechs, rarely as soldiers, and never as men. As a result, the question of these soldiers' imperial loyalties has dominated the historical literature to the exclusion of any debate on their identities and experiences. Men under Fire provides a groundbreaking analysis of this oft-overlooked cohort, drawing on a wealth of soldiers' private writings to explore experiences of exhaustion, sex, loyalty, authority, and combat itself. It combines methods from history, gender studies, and military science to reveal the extent to which the Great War challenged these men's senses of masculinity, and to which the resulting dynamics influenced their attitudes and loyalties.

Women 'kept the home fires burning' while their men went off to war. This is the usual image of the part played by women in the First World War, reinforced through countless posters, government exhortations and even popular songs. It is very far from the truth. As this remarkable book shows, originally published in 1987, the truth was that women showed themselves capable of undertaking many roles hitherto the sole prerogative of men, a position accepted during the emergency of war but quickly 'righted' once peace was restored: the women who had helped to win the war were displaced by the returning heroes from the Front. Diana Condell and Jean Liddiard selected more than 150 superb contemporary photographs, and these unique pictures, with extended captions and accompanying text, illustrate the many and varied roles played by women in the First World War. Many of the photographs had never been published before and they reveal dramatically the extent to which women took over the day-to-day running of society during the war. Fulfilling these roles helped to change women's perceptions of themselves and their place in the social fabric: the photographs are arranged thematically to reveal this and how society's own view of women was altered as a result. The book also tells the story of the war from the female viewpoint, assessing its effect on the women involved. It focuses in a neglected but vital part of the history of the emancipation of women and also raises questions about what sort of victory they had worked for. In quality and range this was a pioneering study. More than that, through the haunting quality of its images it creates a pathway into the mind and world of the past.

The Great War of 1914-1918 was fought on the battlefield, on the sea and in the air, and in the heart. Museums Victoria's exhibition World War I: Love and Sorrow exposed not just the nature of that war, but its depth and duration in personal and familial lives. Hailed by eminent scholar Jay Winter as "one of the best which the centenary of the Great War has occasioned", the exhibition delved into the war's continuing emotional claims on descendants and on those who encounter the war through museums today. Contributors to this volume, drawn largely from the exhibition's curators and advisory panel, grapple with the complexities of recovering and presenting difficult histories of the war. In eleven essays the book presents a new, more sensitive and nuanced narrative of the Great War, in which families and individuals take centre stage. Together they uncover private reckonings with the costs of that experience, not only in the years immediately after the war, but in the century since.

International contributors from the fields of political science, cultural studies, history, and literature grapple with both the local and global impact of World War I on marginal communities in China, Syria, Europe, Russia, and the Caribbean. Readers can uncover the neglected stories of this World War I as contributors draw particular attention to features of the war that are underrepresented such as Chinese contingent labor, East Prussian deportees, remittances from Syrian immigrants in the New World to struggling relatives in the Ottoman Empire, the war effort from Serbia to Martinique, and other war experiences. By redirecting focus away from the traditional areas of historical examination, such as battles on the Western Front and military strategy, this collection of chapters, international and interdisciplinary in nature, illustrates the war's omnipresence throughout the world, in particular its effect on less studied peoples and regions. The primary objective of this volume is to examine World War I through the lens of its forgotten participants, neglected stories, and underrepresented peoples.

The First World War's centenary generated a mass of commemorative activity worldwide. Officially and unofficially; individually, collectively and commercially; locally, nationally and internationally, efforts were made to respond to the legacies of this vast conflict. This book explores some of these responses from areas previously tied to the British Empire, including Australia, Britain, Canada, India and New Zealand. Showcasing insights from historians of commemoration and heritage professionals it provides revealing insider and outsider perspectives of the centenary. How far did commemoration become celebration, and how merited were such responses? To what extent did the centenary serve wider social and political functions? Was it a time for new knowledge and understanding of the events of a century ago, for recovery of lost or marginalised voices, or for confirming existing cliches? And what can be learned from the experience of this centenary that might inform the approach to future commemorative activities? The contributors to this book grapple with these questions, coming to different answers and demonstrating the connections and disconnections between those involved in building public knowledge of the 'war to end all wars'.

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.

A classic text that has been updated across the chapters, giving students a broad perspective on all the work done since the text was originally written, as well as the original perspective. A new introduction examines the topics and arguments that historians have raised since the original text was written, explaining what is new about them and their impact on the original text, giving students the tools to anaylse the context of the new material. Includes a new timeline, and fully updated further reading, providing extended context for students reading the text.

This book is based on original research into intimidation and violence directed at civilians by combatants during the revolutionary period in Ireland, considering this from the perspectives of the British, the Free State and the IRA. The book combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, and focusses on County Kerry, which saw high levels of violence. It demonstrates that violence and intimidation against civilians was more common than clashes between combatants and that the upsurge in violence in 1920 was a result of the deployment of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, particularly in the autumn and winter of that year. Despite the limited threat posed by the IRA, the British forces engaged in unprecedented and unprovoked violence against civilians. This study stresses the increasing brutality of the subsequent violence by both sides. The book shows how the British had similar methods and views as contemporary counter-revolutionary groups in Europe. IRA violence, however, was, in part, an attempt to impose homogeneity as, beneath the Irish republican narrative of popular approval, there lay a recognition that universal backing was never in fact present. The book is important reading for students and scholars of the Irish revolution, the social history of Ireland and inter-war European violence.

The Punjab region of India sent more than 600,000 combatants to assist the British war effort during World War I. Their families back home, thousands of miles from the major scenes of battle, were desperate for war news, and newspapers provided daily reports to keep the local population up-to-date with developments on the Western Front. This book presents the first English-language translations of hundreds of articles published during World War I in the newsapers of the Punjab region. They offer a lens into the anxieties and aspirations of Punjabis, a population that committed resources, food, labour as well as combatants to the British war effort. Amidst a steadily growing field of studies on World War I that examine the effects of the war on colonial populations, War News in India makes a unique and timely contribution.

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.

In a unique collection of international and interdisciplinary research, this book focuses on commemorative events around the world on the same day: 11 November 2018, the centenary of Armistice Day, the end of the First World War. It argues that we need to move beyond discourse, narrative and how historical events are represented to fully understand what commemoration does, socially, politically and culturally. Adopting an experiential reframing treats sensory, affective and emotional feelings as fundamental to how we collectively understand shared histories, and through them, shared identities. The volume features 15 case studies from ten countries, covering a variety of settings and national contexts specific to the First World War. Together the chapters demonstrate that a new conceptualisation of commemoration is needed: one that attends to how it feels.

When and why did the Royal Navy come to view the expansion of German maritime power as a threat to British maritime security? Contrary to current thinking, Matthew S. Seligmann argues that Germany emerged as a major threat at the outset of the twentieth century, not because of its growing battle fleet, but because the British Admiralty (rightly) believed that Germany's naval planners intended to arm their country's fast merchant vessels in wartime and send them out to attack British trade in the manner of the privateers of old. This threat to British seaborne commerce was so serious that the leadership of the Royal Navy spent twelve years trying to work out how best to counter it. Ever more elaborate measures were devised to this end. These included building 'fighting liners' to run down the German ones; devising a specialized warship, the battle cruiser, as a weapon of trade defence; attempting to change international law to prohibit the conversion of merchant vessels into warships on the high seas; establishing a global intelligence network to monitor German shipping movements; and, finally, the arming of British merchant vessels in self-defence. The manner in which German schemes for commerce warfare drove British naval policy for over a decade before 1914 has not been recognized before. The Royal Navy and the German Threat illustrates a new and important aspect of British naval history.

At the outbreak of World War I, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of Germany's East African Colony, planned to divert British troops from Europe to East Africa. Knowing he could not defeat them in pitched battle, he led a small force-never more than 15,000 men-familiar with bush-fighting and the harsh environment, on raids into British territory. A gifted tactician, von Lettow-Vorbeck attacked only when odds were in his favor, then fought defensive withdrawals into the Colony, maintaining short lines of supply while drawing the enemy deeper into hostile territory. The British and their allies committed 160,000 troops in East Africa. He led them in a game of "catch me if you can," punishing them for every mistake. Promoted to major-general by the Kaiser in 1917, von Lettow-Vorbeck led the only undefeated German force to surrender to the Allies, well after the end of hostilities in Europe. This history follows what began as a campaign of conquest and devolved into a hunt for a single general and his small, loyal command.

"It is impossible to reproduce the state of mind of the men who waged war in 1917 and 1918," Edward Coffman wrote in "The War to End All Wars." In "Doughboys on the Great War" the voices of thousands of servicemen say otherwise. The majority of soldiers from the American Expeditionary Forces returned from Europe in 1919. Where many were simply asked for basic data, veterans from four states--Utah, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Virginia--were given questionnaires soliciting additional information and "remarks." Drawing on these questionnaires, completed while memories were still fresh, this book presents a chorus of soldiers' voices speaking directly of the expectations, motivations, and experiences as infantrymen on the Western Front in World War I.

What was it like to kill or maim German soldiers? To see friends killed or maimed by the enemy? To return home after experiencing such violence? Again and again, soldiers wrestle with questions like these, putting into words what only they can tell. They also reflect on why they volunteered, why they fought, what their training was, and how ill-prepared they were for what they found overseas. They describe how they interacted with the civilian populations in England and France, how they saw the rewards and frustrations of occupation duty when they desperately wanted to go home, and--perhaps most significantly--what it all added up to in the end. Together their responses create a vivid and nuanced group portrait of the soldiers who fought with the American Expeditionary Forces on the battlefields of Aisne-Marne, Argonne Forest, Belleau Wood, Chateau-Thierry, the Marne, Metz, Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel, Sedan, and Verdun during the First World War.

The picture that emerges is often at odds with the popular notion of the disillusioned doughboy. Though hardened and harrowed by combat, the veteran heard here is for the most part proud of his service, service undertaken for duty, honor, and country. In short, a hundred years later, the doughboy once more speaks in his own true voice.

World War I, given all the rousing "Over-There" songs and in-the-trenches films it inspired, was, at its outset, surprisingly unpopular with the American public. As opposition increased, Woodrow Wilson's presidential administration became intent on stifling antiwar dissent. In his absorbing new book, Eric Chester reveals that out of this turmoil came a heated public discussion on the theory of civil liberties-the basic freedoms that are, theoretically, untouchable by any of the three branches of the U.S. government. The famous "clear and present danger" argument of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the "balance of conflicting interest" theory of law professor Zechariah Chafee, for example, evolved to provide a rationale for courts to act as a limited restraint on autocratic actions of the government. But Chester goes further, to examine an alternative theory: civil liberties exist as absolute rights, rather than being dependent on the specific circumstances of each case. Over the years, the debate about the right to dissent has intensified and become more necessary. This fascinating book explains why, a century after the First World War-and in the era of Trump-we need to know about this.

This set of essays introduces readers to new historical research on the creation of the new order in East-Central Europe in the period immediately following 1918. The book offers insights into the political, diplomatic, military, economic and cultural conditions out of which the New Europe was born. Experts from various countries take into account three perspectives. They give equal attention to both the Western and Eastern fronts; they recognise that on 11 November 1918, the War ended only on the Western front and violence continued in multiple forms over the next five years; and they show how state-building after 1918 in Central and Eastern Europe was marked by a mixture of innovation and instability. Thus, the volume focuses on three kinds of narratives: those related to conflicts and violence, those related to the recasting of civil life in new structures and institutions, and those related to remembrance and representations of these years in the public sphere. Taking a step towards writing a fully European history of the Great War and its aftermath, the volume offers an original approach to this decisive period in 20th-century European history.

This book is a collection of essays on neglected aspects of the Great War. It begins by asking what exactly was so "Great" about it, before turning to individual studies of various aspects of the war. These fall broadly into two categories. Firstly personal, micro-narratives that deal directly with the experience of war, often derived from contemporary interest in diaries and oral histories. Presenting both a close-up view of the viscerality, and the tedium and powerlessness of personal situations, these same narratives also address the effects of the war on hitherto under-regarded groups such as children and animals. Secondly, the authors look at the impact of the course of the war on theatres, often left out in reflections on the main European combatants and therefore not part of the regular iconography of the trenches in places such as Denmark, Canada, India, the Levant, Greece and East Africa.

Living on the Western Front provides a highly original history of the settler experience in Befland ([B]ritish [E]xpeditionary [F]orce land) during the First World War. Using an unusual representational form that involves the stitching together of over a hundred extracts from primary sources, which can then in turn be read either chronologically or thematically, Chris Ward brilliantly depicts a sense of settlers' lives in Great War Belgium, Northern France and Germany. Simultaneously an annal and an anthology of stories, this book tells us about landscapes, sounds, smells, food, journeys, memory and morale in the way that the Befland settlers actually lived and experienced them. The book also challenges popular conceptions of what history writing can or should be. It drags us away from the reassuringly commanding authorial voice of the conventional historical narrative towards an approach that brings a degree of uncertainty and encourages us to experiment with History and its relationship with the past in an exciting and rewarding way.

The book is a sociocultural microhistory of migrants. From the 1880s to the 1930s, it traces the lives of the occupants of a housing complex located just north of the French capital, in the heart of the Plaine-Saint-Denis. Starting in the 1870s, that industrial suburb became a magnet for working-class migrants of diverse origins, from within France and abroad. The author examines how the inhabitants of that particular place identified themselves and others. The study looks at the role played, in the construction of social difference, by interpersonal contacts, institutional interactions and migration. The objective of the book is to carry out an original experiment: applying microhistorical methods to the history of modern migrations. Beyond its own material history, the tenement is an observation point: it was deliberately selected for its high degree of demographic diversity, which contrasts with the typical objects of the traditional, ethnicity-based scholarship on migration. The micro lens allows for the reconstruction of the itineraries, interactions, and representations of the tenement's occupants, in both their singularity and their structural context. Through its many individual stories, the book restores a degree of complexity that is often overlooked by historical accounts at broader levels.

This book examines British responses to genocide and atrocity in the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of World War I. The authors analyze British humanitarianism and humanitarian intervention through the advice and policies of the Foreign Office and British government in London and the actions of Foreign Officers in the field. British understandings of humanitarianism at the time revolved around three key elements: good government, atrocity, and the refugee crises; this ideology of humanitarianism, however, was challenged by disputed policies of post-war politics and goals regarding the Near East. This resulted in limited intervention methods available to those on the ground but did not necessarily result in the forfeiture of the belief in humanitarianism amongst the local British officials charged with upholding it. This study shows that the tension between altruism and political gain weakened British power in the region, influencing the continuation of violence and repression long after the date most perceive as the cessation of WWI. The book is primarily aimed at scholars and researchers within the field; it is a research monograph and will be of greatest interest to scholars of genocide, British history, and refugee studies, as well as for activists and practitioners.

Why did World War I happen? Several of the oft-cited causes are reviewed and discussed in this analysis. The argument of the alliance systems is inadequate, lacking relevance or compelling force. The argument of an accident or "slide" is also inadequate, given the clear and unambiguous evidence of intentions. The arguments of mass demands focusing on nationalism, militarism, and social Darwinism are also arguably insufficient. They lack indications of frequency, intensity, and process or influence on the various decisions.

During the First World War, the Jewish population of Central Europe was politically, socially, and experientially diverse, to an extent that resists containment within a simple historical narrative. While antisemitism and Jewish disillusionment have dominated many previous studies of the topic, this collection aims to recapture the multifariousness of Central European Jewish life in the experiences of soldiers and civilians alike during the First World War. Here, scholars from multiple disciplines explore rare sources and employ innovative methods to illuminate four interconnected themes: minorities and the meaning of military service, Jewish-Gentile relations, cultural legacies of the war, and memory politics.

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.