Author: Hew StrachanPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316515494
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 707
Book Description
The fullest account yet of the British home front in the First World War and how war changed Britain forever.
The British Home Front and the First World War
Author: Hew StrachanPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316515494
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 707
Book Description
The fullest account yet of the British home front in the First World War and how war changed Britain forever.
The British Home Front 1939–45
Author: Martin BrayleyPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782001239
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Book Description
The population of Britain was mobilized to support the war effort on a scale unseen in any other Western democracy – or in Nazi Germany. They endured long working shifts, shortages of food and all other goods, and complete government control of their daily lives. Most men and women were conscripted or volunteered for additional tasks outside their formal working hours. Under the air raids that destroyed the centres of many towns and made about 2 million homeless, more than 60,000 civilians were killed and 86,000 seriously injured. This fascinating illustrated summary of wartime life, and the organizations that served on the Home front, is a striking record of endurance and sacrifice.
Britain and World War One
Author: Alan G. V. SimmondsPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136629971
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
The First World War appears as a fault line in Britain’s twentieth-century history. Between August 1914 and November 1918 the titanic struggle against Imperial Germany and her allies consumed more people, more money and more resources than any other conflict that Britain had hitherto experienced. For the first time, it opened up a Home Front that stretched into all parts of the British polity, society and culture, touching the lives of every citizen regardless of age, gender and class: vegetables were even grown in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Britain and World War One throws attention on these civilians who fought the war on the Home Front. Harnessing recent scholarship, and drawing on original documents, oral testimony and historical texts, this book casts a fresh look over different aspects of British society during the four long years of war. It revisits the early war enthusiasm and the making of Kitchener’s new armies; the emotive debates over conscription; the relationships between politics, government and popular opinion; women working in wartime industries; the popular experience of war and the question of social change. This book also explores areas of wartime Britain overlooked by recent histories, including the impact of the war on rural society; the mobilization of industry and the importance of technology; responses to air raids and food and housing shortages; and the challenges to traditional social and sexual mores and wartime culture. Britain and World War One is essential reading for all students and interested lay readers of the First World War.
All Quiet on the Home Front
Author: Richard van EmdenPublisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473891965
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
A “fascinating” look at hardship, heroism, and civilian life in England during the Great War (World War One Illustrated). The truth about the sacrifice and suffering among British civilians during World War I is rarely discussed. In this book, people who were there speak about experiences and events that have remained buried for decades. Their testimony shows the same candor and courage we have become accustomed to hearing from military veterans of this war. Those interviewed include a survivor of a Zeppelin raid in 1915; a Welsh munitions worker recruited as a girl; and a woman rescued from a bombed school after five days. There are also accounts of rural famine, bereavement, and the effects on families back home—and even the story of a woman who planned to kill her family to save them further suffering.
Civvies
Author: Laura UgoliniPublisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526110741
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440
Book Description
The history of the First World War continues to attract enormous interest. However, most attention remains concentrated on combatants, creating a misleading picture of wartime Britain: one might be forgiven for assuming that by 1918, the country had become virtually denuded of civilian men and particularly of middle-class men who – or so it seems – volunteered en masse in the early months of war. In fact, the majority of middle-class (and other) men did not enlist, but we still know little about their wartime experiences. Civvies thus takes a different approach to the history of the war and focuses on those middle-class English men who did not join up, not because of moral objections to war, but for other (much more common) reasons, notably age, family responsibilities or physical unfitness. In particular, Civvies questions whether, if serviceman were the apex of manliness, were middle-class civilian men inevitably condemned to second-class, ‘unmanly’ status?
Holding the Home Front
Author: Caroline ScottPublisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1473886325
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
An “insightful and extensive” history of the women who took over agricultural duties in England during World War I (Sussex Living Magazine). One could be forgiven for supposing that the story of the Women’s Land Army starts in 1939 during World War II. But it’s a much older and more complicated history . . . British agricultural policy during the First World War was held up as a success story; domestic food production was higher at the end of the war than at the start, the average calorific value of the British diet barely changed, and bread never had to be rationed. As the press reported starvation and food riots overseas, the 1918 harvest was held up as “one of the great achievements of the War.” In 1917, at the darkest hour, when Britain’s food security looked most precarious, it was said that, “if it were not for the women agriculture would be absolutely at a standstill on many farms.” Using previously unpublished accounts and photographs, this book is an attempt to understand how the return of women to the fields and farmyards impacted agriculture—and, in turn, an examination of how that experience affected them. “Caroline’s wonderful book sets the record straight with beautiful illustrations and witting testimony from people who were there and saw how hard these wonderful women worked to keep Britain going during their darkest hours. Superb.” —Books Monthly “This is a well-researched history of the British Women’s Land Army in WW1 and how it paved the way for the success of the WLA in the Second World War.” —World War One Illustrated
The Last Great War
Author: Adrian GregoryPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521450373
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
A groundbreaking new history of the British home front during the First World War.
The Home Front in World War Two
Author: Susie HodgePublisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 178346979X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303
Book Description
This book brings an era to life with vivid stories and information from those who were there. During World War Two, 90% of the British population remained civilians. The War affected daily life more than any other war had done before. The majority of British people faced this will fortitude, courage and determination and this is their story, the telling of events and situations that forced their ingenuity and survival instincts to rise. Make do and mend came to mean so much more than reworking old clothes and this book describes the enterprise that went on and has long been forgotten. From the coasts and the countryside, this is how those at home faced and fought the war passively, particularly women whose job it was to keep the home fires burning. These ordinary people were crucial to the war effort; without their courage and inventiveness, the outcome could have been very different. Packed with interviews, photographs and other firsthand information, this book will appeal to all those who were there, but even more for those with little or no experience of World War Two, who will gain insights into the humor, strength and creativity that emerged in the face of hardship and tragedy. The book explores how people lived in Britain during times of fear, hardship and uncertainty; how they functioned and supported those away fighting and how they dealt with the enormous challenges and adversities
Back in Blighty
Author: Gerard DeGrootPublisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448161207
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496
Book Description
World War One had a devastating, cataclysmic impact on the world and the British people. As its reverberations were so long-lasting and significant, it is easy to assume that the social consequences were as profound. In this highly readable and moving survey of life back at home during the First World War, Gerard DeGroot challenges this assumption, finding pre-war social structures were surprisingly resilient. Despite economic and technological changes, the British peoplemanaged to cling onto their usual ways of life as much as possible in this new world. Back in Blighty has been fully revised to take into account new scholarship and historical perspectives, and is full of fascinating glimpses into everyday life during the war. The lives of ordinary people are illuminated and given historical significance in this powerful portrait of the British people and their culture.
First World War Britain
Author: Peter DoylePublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782001212
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156
Book Description
The First World War profoundly changed British society. The armed forces' need for mass recruitment saw the workforce severely depleted, with women stepping up to shoulder the burden; but nobody could ignore the social upheaval or the strains put upon daily life. With poverty a major issue at the outbreak of war, the extra wages put more food on the table for many families, in spite of rationing and shortages, and away from the front the nation prospered. The war intervened in all aspects of home life, and attacks from the sea and the air meant that civilians were caught up in 'total war'. Peter Doyle explores how British citizens met these challenges, looking at such aspects of daily life as clothing restrictions and popular arts, alongside broader issues like food shortages and industrial unrest.