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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
First World War-based ex-servicemen's organisations found
themselves facing an existential crisis with the onset of the
Second World War. This book examines how two such groups, the
British and American Legions, adapted cognitively to the emergence
of yet another world war and its veterans in the years 1938 through
1946. With collective identities and socio-political programmes
based in First World War memory, both Legions renegotiated existing
narratives of that war and the lessons they derived from those
narratives as they responded to the unfolding Second World War in
real time. Using the previous war as a "learning experience" for
the new one privileged certain understandings of that conflict over
others, inflecting its meaning for each Legion moving forward.
Breaking the Second World War down into its constituent events to
trace the evolution of First World War memory through everyday
invocations, this unprecedented comparison of the British and
American Legions illuminates the ways in which differing
international, national, and organisational contexts intersected to
shape this process as well as the common factors affecting it in
both groups. The book will appeal most to researchers of the
ex-service movement, First World War memory, and the cultural
history of the Second World War.
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.
This book project traces the thought of several Roman Catholic
Modernists (and one especially virulent anti-Modernist) as they
confronted the intellectual challenges posed by the Great war from
war from 1895 to 1907.
This work is a comparative study of the three "great" American wars
of the twentieth century: World War I, World War II and Vietnam.
The book explores several aspects of American popular culture, like
fashion, film and the societal mores of each era. While a number of
books have covered fashion during individual wars, this is the
first study to compare several major conflicts, drawing some
conclusions regarding the lasting influences of wardrobe over an
entire century. This book provides short background information for
each war, briefly covering earlier conflicts that shaped the
hostilities of the twentieth century. Although the emphasis is on
women's clothing, participation and service, men are not ignored.
Their fashions not only speak to the times, but the enormity of
their sacrifices.
The story of Allied victory in the Holy Land, far from the carnage
of the Western Front but a crucial, morale-boosting success under
the aggressive and forward-thinking General Allenby. Three battles
for the control of the key fortress-city of Gaza took place in 1917
between the `British' force [with units from across the Empire,
most notably the ANZACs] and the Turks. The Allies were repulsed
twice but on theirthird attempt, under the newly-appointed General
Allenby, a veteran of the Western Front where he was a vocal critic
of Haig's command, finally penetrated Turkish lines, captured
southern Palestine and, as instructed by Lloyd George, took
Jerusalem in time for Christmas, ending 400 years of Ottoman
occupation. This third battle, similar in many ways to the
contemporaneous fighting in France, is at the heart of this
account, with consideration of intelligence, espionage,
air-warfare, and diplomatic and political elements, not to mention
the logistical and medical aspects of the campaign, particularly
water. The generally overlooked Turkish defence, in the face of
vastly superior numbers, is also assessed. Far from laying out and
executing a pre-ordained plan, Allenby, who is probably still best
remembered as T. E. Lawrence's commanding officer in Arabia, was
flexible and adaptable, responding to developmentsas they occurred.
JOHN D. GRAINGER is the author of numerous books on military
history, ranging from the Roman period to the twentieth century.
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.
Ruthless Warfare (1998) demonstrates how close the First World War
came to Australia. It has been argued that Australia was
manipulated against its interests into action in WW1 by London -
this unpublished collection of documents from the military division
of the German Archives shows that this was not the case. The German
Navy expected a major confrontation with the British Empire, both
in the North Sea and further afield. German cruisers were expected
to make a significant contribution in the Indian Ocean and the
Western Pacific, pinning down British naval forces and thus
undermining the British fleet's supremacy in the Atlantic. The
damage and disruption to imperial trade would have had serious
consequences for Australia, and these German plans also meant that
a significant military intelligence system was active in the
Antipodes.
Essays examining the rift between British and German intellectual
and cultural traditions before 1914 and its effect on events. This
volume of essays examines the perceived rift between the British
and German intellectual and cultural traditions before 1914 and how
the resultant war of words both reflects and helped determine
historical, political, and, ultimately, military events. This vexed
symbiosis is traced first through a survey of popular fiction, from
alarmist British and German "invasion novels" to the visions of
Erskine Childers and Saki and even P.G. Wodehouse; contrastingly,
the "mixed-marriage novels" of von Arnim, Spottiswoode, and Wylie
are considered. Further topics include D. H. Lawrence's ambivalent
relationship with Germany, Carl Sternheim's coded anti-militarism,
H. G. Wells's and Kurd Lasswitz's visions of their countries under
Martian invasion, Nietzsche as the embodiment of Prussian
warmongering, and the rise in Germany of anglophobic,
anti-Spencerian evolutionism. Case histories of the positions of
German andEnglish academics in regard to the conflict round out the
volume. Contributors: Iain Boyd White, Helena Ragg-kirkby, Rhys
Williams, Ingo Cornils, Nicholas Martin, Gregory Moore, Stefan
Manz, Andreas Huther, Holger Klein Fred Bridgham is Senior Lecturer
in the Department of German at the University of Leeds.
Historians have long argued that the Great War eradicated German
culture from American soil. Degrees of Allegiance examines the
experiences of German-Americans living in Missouri during the First
World War, evaluating the personal relationships at the local level
that shaped their lives and the way that they were affected by
national war effort guidelines. Spared from widespread hate crimes,
German-Americans in Missouri did not have the same bleak
experiences as other German-Americans in the Midwest or across
America. But they were still subject to regular charges of
disloyalty, sometimes because of conflicts within the
German-American community itself.
"Degrees of Allegiance" updates traditional thinking about the
German-American experience during the Great War, taking into
account not just the war years but also the history of German
settlement and the war's impact on German-American culture.
From the moment the German army moved quietly into Luxemburg on 2
August 1914, to the Armistice on 11 November 1918, the fighting on
the Western Front in France and Flanders never stopped. There were
quiet periods, just as there were the most intense, savage,
huge-scale battles. The war on the Western Front can be thought of
as being in three phases: first, a war of movement as Germany
attacked France and the Allies sought to halt it; second, the
lengthy and terribly costly siege warfare as the entrenched lines
proved impossible to crack (late 1914 to mid-1918); and finally a
return to mobile warfare as the Allies applied lessons and
technologies forged in the previous years. As with previous wars,
British Commanders-in-Chief of a theatre of war or campaign were
obliged to report their activities and achievements to the War
Office in the form of a despatch and those written from the Western
Front provide a fascinating, detailed and compelling overview of
this part of the First World War. This volume concludes with Field
Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's fascinating despatch, originally
published in 1919, on the execution of the fighting on the Western
Front.
This book challenges current thinking about the outbreak of World
War I and the course of German foreign policy since Bismarck's
chancellorship. In 1914, Germany's opening offensives against
France were to be accompanied by a simultaneous offensive by her
ally, Austria-Hungary, against Russia. The Austrian offensive was
intended to hold the Russians until Germany defeated the French-six
weeks, no more. Then, the German army would turn east to support
the Austrians. The Austrian offensive was a catastrophic failure.
After only days of fighting Russia, Germany was obliged to send
troops to support Austria lest she capitulate while most of the
German army was still in France. The Austrian army's severe
deficiencies were a constant drain on the German effort throughout
the war. After the war, German memoirists and historians claimed
that the German leadership had been unaware of these deficiencies
before the war broke out. These claims have been accepted by
historians down to today. The book presents recently re-discovered
documentary evidence that the German general staff and Germany's
political leadership had known of the Austrian army's weaknesses
for decades before the war. The book also reveals a new perspective
of Bismarck's diplomacy beginning shortly after he engineered the
Dual Alliance between the two countries in 1879. It demonstrates
that as early as 1882 Bismarck became aware that the Austrian army
was far weaker than assumed when he concluded the alliance. It was
primarily his concern about Austria's weakness that spurred
Bismarck's energetic diplomacy, seeking alliances and
understandings with other countries in the region, and which became
the main consideration that guided his foreign policy from then on.
For if Austria suffered a defeat, Germany would find itself alone
between two dangerous powers: France and Russia. The consequences
of his policies resulted in peace down to his departure in 1890.
His successors, for a variety of reasons addressed in the book,
were not as careful, ignored Austria's weaknesses despite the
warnings of the military attaches, and permitted Austria to become
involved in a war. The result was tragically foreseeable.
In this provocative study, Hazel Hutchison takes a fresh look at
the roles of American writers in helping to shape national opinion
and policy during the First World War. From the war's opening
salvos in Europe, American writers recognized the impact the war
would have on their society and sought out new strategies to
express their horror, support, or resignation. By focusing on the
writings of Henry James, Edith Wharton, Grace Fallow Norton, Mary
Borden, Ellen La Motte, E. E. Cummings, and John Dos Passos,
Hutchison examines what it means to be a writer in wartime,
particularly in the midst of a conflict characterized by censorship
and propaganda. Drawing on original letters and manuscripts, some
never before seen by researchers, this book explores how the
essays, poetry, and novels of these seven literary figures
influenced America's public view of events, from August 1914
through the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, and ultimately set the
literary agenda for later, more celebrated texts about the war.
In Jewish Integration in the German Army in the First World War
David J. Fine offers a surprising portrayal of Jewish officers in
the German army as integrated and comfortably identified as both
Jews and Germans. Fine explores how both Judaism and Christianity
were experienced by Jewish soldiers at the front, making an
important contribution to the study of the experience of religion
in war. Fine shows how the encounter of German Jewish soldiers with
the old world of the shtetl on the eastern front tested both their
German and Jewish identities. Finally, utilizing published and
unpublished sources including letters, diaries, memoirs, military
service records, press accounts, photographs, drawings and tomb
stone inscriptions, the author argues that antisemitism was not a
primary factor in the war experience of Jewish soldiers.
World War I was obviously one of the most important events of the
20th century. It was also a crucial period in Leon Trotsky's
political biography. This work is an examination of Trotsky's
writings of 1914-1917 and the context in which they were produced.
Its findings challenge Trotsky's autobiography and the standard
account by Isaac Deutscher. Trotsky's war time journalism is shown
to be of continuing relevance to contemporary issues ranging from
European unity to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
After the collapse of the Romanov dynasty in February 1917, Russia
was subject to an eight month experiment in democracy. Sarah
Badcock studies its failure through an exploration of the
experiences and motivations of ordinary men and women, urban and
rural, military and civilian. Using previously neglected documents
from regional archives, this text offers a history of the
revolution as experienced in the two Volga provinces of Nizhegorod
and Kazan. Badcock exposes the confusions and contradictions
between political elites and ordinary people and emphasises the
role of the latter as political actors. By looking beyond
Petersburg and Moscow, she shows how local concerns, conditions and
interests were foremost in shaping how the revolution was received
and understood. She also reveals the ways in which the small group
of intellectuals who dominated the high political scene of 1917 had
their political alternatives circumscribed by the desires and
demands of ordinary people.
In October 1911, Winston S. Churchill was an accomplished young
Liberal politician who, as the newly appointed First Lord of the
Admiralty, still wore his ambition and emotion on his sleeve.
Robert L. Borden was the new Canadian Prime Minister, less
emotional and much older than Churchill. They became companions in
an attempt to provide naval security for the British Empire as a
naval crisis loomed with Germany. Their scheme for Canada to
provide three Dreadnought battleships for the Royal Navy as part of
an Imperial squadron was hotly debated by the Canadian Parliament
and rejected by the Senate. It was one of the most divisive debates
in Canadian parliamentary history. Churchill invested considerable
time and effort in trying to deliver the scheme and even believed
he might need to resign when it failed. The decision had great
implications for the future, leading to the crises in shipbuilding
foreshadowing the outbreak of WW1.
During World War I, American merchant ships were given oddly
colored paint jobs to distort their profiles at sea. Dubbed
"Razzle-Dazzle," these camouflage patterns were believed
responsible for dramatic decreases in Allied shipping losses. This
book examines the real (and more compelling) factors that made a
difference in the survivability of merchant shipping: the various
measures taken principally by the U.S. Navy, including the use of
convoys and destroyer escorts, along with some innovative naval
technologies. At the same time, advances in America's shipbuilding
industry and the development of the nation's first major on-the-job
training program enabled mass production of merchant ships at a
record pace.
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.
Food is critical to military performance, but it is also central to
social interaction and fundamental to our sense of identity. The
soldiers of the Great War did not shed their eating preferences
with their civilian clothes, and the army rations, heavily reliant
on bully beef and hardtack biscuit, were frequently found wanting.
Nutritional science of the day had only a limited understanding of
the role of vitamins and minerals, and the men were often presented
with a diet that, shortages and logistics permitting, was high in
calories but low in flavour and variety. Just as now, soldiers on
active service were linked with home through the lovingly packed
food parcels they received; a taste of home in the trenches. This
book uses the personal accounts of the men themselves to explore a
subject that was central not only to their physical health, but
also to their emotional survival. -- .
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.
In deference to the principle that total war requires total
history, Roger Chickering traces the all-embracing impact of the
First World War on life in the German city of Freiburg. His book
shows how the war took over every facet of life in the city, from
industrial production to the supply of basic material resources,
above all food and fuel. It documents the breakdown of distinctions
between the home front and the fighting front, as the city fell
victim to strategic bombing. It analyzes the war as a sensory
experience, which could be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted
as it exhausted the city, drained it of residents, and eroded civic
bonds among those who remained. Roger Chickering offers the most
comprehensive history ever written of a German city at war. The
book will appeal to urban and military historians, as well as to
social and cultural historians.
In World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence,
military historian James L. Gilbert provides an authoritative
overview of the birth of modern Army intelligence. Following the
natural division of the intelligence war, which was fought on both
the home front and overseas, Gilbert traces the development and use
of intelligence and counterintelligence through the eyes of their
principal architects: General Dennis E. Nolan and Colonel Ralph Van
Deman. Gilbert explores how on the home front, US Army
counterintelligence faced both internal and external threats that
began with the Army's growing concerns over the loyalty of resident
aliens who were being drafted into the ranks and soon evolved into
the rooting out of enemy saboteurs and spies intent on doing great
harm to America's war effort. To achieve their goals,
counterintelligence personnel relied upon major strides in the
areas of code breaking and detection of secret inks. Overseas, the
intelligence effort proved far more extensive in terms of resources
and missions, even reaching into nearby neutral countries.
Intelligence within the American Expeditionary Forces was heavily
indebted to its Allied counterparts who not only provided an
organizational blueprint but also veteran instructors and equipment
needed to train newly arriving intelligence specialists. Rapid
advances by American intelligence were also made possible by the
appointment of competent leaders and the recruitment of highly
motivated and skilled personnel; likewise, the Army's decision to
assign the bulk of its linguists to support intelligence proved
critical. World War I would witness the linkage between
intelligence and emerging technologies-from the use of cameras in
aircraft to the intercept of enemy radio transmissions. Equally
significant was the introduction of new intelligence
disciplines-from exploitation of captured equipment to the
translation of enemy documents. These and other functions that
emerged from World War I would continue to the present to provide
military intelligence with the essential tools necessary to support
the Army and the nation. World War I and the Origins of U.S.
Military Intelligence is ideal not only for students and scholars
of military history and World War I, but will also appeal to any
reader interested in how modern intelligence operations first
evolved.
The casualty rates of the First World War were unprecedented:
approximately 10 million combatants were wounded from Britain,
France and Germany alone. In consequence, military-medical services
expanded and the war ensured that medical professionals became
firmly embedded within the armed services. In a situation of total
war civilians on the home front came into more contact than before
with medical professionals, and even pacifists played a significant
medical role. Medicine in First World War Europe re-visits the
casualty clearing stations and the hospitals of the First World
War, and tells the stories of those who were most directly
involved: doctors, nurses, wounded men and their families. Fiona
Reid explains how military medicine interacts with the concerns,
the cultures and the behaviours of the civilian world, treating the
history of wartime military medicine as an integral part of the
wider social and cultural history of the First World War.
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