The Last Great War: British Society and the First World WarWhat was it that the British people believed they were fighting for in 1914–18? This compelling history of the British home front during the First World War offers an entirely new account of how British society understood and endured the war. Drawing on official archives, memoirs, diaries and letters, Adrian Gregory sheds new light on the public reaction to the war, examining the role of propaganda and rumour in fostering patriotism and hatred of the enemy. He shows the importance of the ethic of volunteerism and the rhetoric of sacrifice in debates over where the burdens of war should fall as well as the influence of religious ideas on wartime culture. As the war drew to a climax and tensions about the distribution of sacrifices threatened to tear society apart, he shows how victory and the processes of commemoration helped create a fiction of a society united in grief. |
Contents
Atrocities and propaganda 19141915 | |
From spectatorship to participation From volunteering | |
sacrifice | |
Other editions - View all
The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War Adrian Gregory No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
amongst antiGerman antiSemitism antiwar appeared Army atrocity stories August battalion Belgian Belgium bereaved Bottomley Britain British Cartmell casualties Christian Church cited civilians claimed commemoration conscientious objectors conscription crowd Daily Herald Daily Mail dead death diary England English enlistment example exemption Fernside fighting figures front German Government Horatio Bottomley idea Imperial War Museum industrial January John Bull July killed Labour Leeds letter living Lloyd George London loss Lusitania majority memorial middleclass military Ministry of Munitions moral munitions National Mission Neville Chamberlain newspaper October organised outbreak Oxford Passing Show patriotic peace political Ponsonby popular population postwar prewar profiteering propaganda recruiting response rhetoric riots Roll of Honour sacrifice Scotland Scottish September 1914 social socialist soldiers Somme strike suffered suggested Todmorden trade unions Tribunal victory voluntary volunteer wages Wales wartime week whilst widespread women workers workingclass World wrote