Legacies of the First World War: Building for Total War 1914–18

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-170
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Stell
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

Germany 1914–1918. Total War as a Catalyst of Change

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ziemann
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
European History ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

It is a commonplace to see the First World War as a major caesura in German and European history. This article records the war years from 1914–1918 in Germany. Not least, such an interpretation can rely on the perceptions of influential contemporary observers. In Germany, as in other belligerent countries, many artists, intellectuals, and academics experienced the outbreak of the war as a cathartic moment. While it is straightforward to see the mobilization for war and violence as a major caesura for any of the belligerent countries, it is much more complicated to account for causalities and for German peculiarities. Difficult methodological questions arise, which have not always been properly addressed. While Germany was facing a ‘world of enemies’, as a popular slogan suggested, the semantics of the political shifted to an articulation of emotions, excitements, and promises, contributing to a dramatized narrative centered around the notions of sacrifice and fate. The effect of World War I concludes the article.

The Economics of Total War and Reconstruction, 1914–1922

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Blum ◽  
Jari Eloranta
Keyword(s):  
Economic Activity ◽  
First World War ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Black Markets ◽  
World War ◽  
War Economy ◽  
Total War ◽  
Labour Shortage ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

This chapter features a discussion of the economy and mobilization for the First World War. The authors analyse the implications and cost of total war, concluding with an examination of its contradictory legacies. In studying the war’s impact on Germany in particular, the chapter provides an in-depth look at the consequences of war on Europe’s strongest pre-war economy, without the complications of separating out the issues of a developing country, which can mimic those faced in wartime. The economic challenges that warring parties faced during the war included mobilization, warfare, labour shortage, impaired domestic economic activity, restricted international trade, a systematic redistribution of resources towards the war economy, food rationing, the predictable emergence of black markets, and a drop in living standards. The authors also discuss strategies to meet the significant financial demands associated with the war, and its tumultuous economic and political aftermath.

STRATEGIC BOMBING AND RESTRAINT IN ‘TOTAL WAR’, 1915–1918

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 413-431
Author(s):  
ANDREW BARROS
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
Strategic Bombing ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Modern War ◽  
First World

ABSTRACTRecent studies of ‘total war’ depict a process of inexorable expansion leading to an often nebulous linkage of everything to war. This article takes the study of ‘total war’ in the opposite direction by studying a specific example of strategic restraint. It examines how the French bombing strategy that was developed over the course of the First World War went to considerable lengths to maintain a distinction between the civilian and the military. The article studies France's restraint by highlighting the strategic, geographical, institutional, and economic factors upon which it was built. It then goes on to examine the political pressures for an expansion of bombing which proved incapable of overturning this policy. Finally, it contrasts French restraint with that of its key ally, Great Britain. There, bombing developed into a strategic weapon designed to destroy the ‘home front’. This study of restraint underscores the importance of limits, and the attendant choices government has to make, in understanding the course and intensity of a country's mobilization for modern war.

VII. The Liberal Party Divided 1916–1918

1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward David
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
First World War ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
British Politics ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
World War ◽  
Liberal Party ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

A great deal of published historical work has been devoted to establishing the causes and chronology of the demise of the Liberal party in British politics. The downfall of the Liberals has been ascribed to the inevitable outflanking development of the Labour party; to the mutilation of Liberal principles involved in waging the first ‘total’ war; to the personal rifts and feuds between the rival followers of Asquith and Lloyd George—and to various combinations of these factors. Yet there has been no detailed analysis of the division within the Parliamentary Liberal party during the First World War. Although at the end of 1916 obviously certain Liberals supported Asquith and others Lloyd George, no attempt has been made to examine the way in which the rifts in the party were reflected in political action in the House of Commons during the time of the second coalition government, nor to determine accurately the lines of division in the party. An answer to the question of ‘How did the Liberal party divide during the First World War?’ has proved elusive, although some historians of the period have been more successful than others.

Strachan and the Great War: A Lifelong Quest

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-604
Author(s):  
Holger H. Herwig
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
Great War ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The University ◽  
Trench Warfare ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

Sir Hew Strachan of the University of St Andrews is the doyen of World War I studies. He approached his work from a serious multinational, multilingual, and comparative perspective. He was never afraid to challenge well-established interpretations and to add fresh analyses of concepts ranging from total war to trench warfare. He was always keen to include diplomacy, politics, imperialism, industrialization, and the sinews of war in his writings. From ‘origins’ to ‘consequences’, Strachan led his readers through the challenging shoals of Great War studies. One can hardly wait for the second instalment of his opus, The First World War: No Quarter.

Not All Quiet on the Ottoman Fronts: Neglected Perspectives on a Global War, 1914-1918

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

The First World War was the first great catastrophe of the twentieth century, and the Ottoman Empire was part of it. The Ottoman theatre in the Great War witnessed both the demolition and re-making of the modern Middle East. This volume focuses on specific topics which touch upon concrete individual lives and discusses them within economic, demographic, gender, and artistic frameworks. The reader will encounter diverse individuals ranging from ordinary soldiers, peasants, women, orphans to artists who had to struggle for survival within the brutal conditions of a total war. The volume is composed of three parts: 1. wartime mobilization policies and their social and economic aspects; 2. demographic changes, minorities and gender in the war; 3. memory, representation and the end of the war.

Yorkshire Liberalism during the First World War

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
George L. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
First World War ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
World War ◽  
Liberal Party ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
First World

For some time now, the narrative of the Liberal party's demise during the First World War has been fairly firmly defined. The war imposed strains on liberal ideology by forcing Liberals to compromise long-cherished policies such as free trade, a free market and a volunteer army. Concurrently, a growing division among Liberals emerged over how to conduct the war. H. H. Asquith and his supporters were increasingly reluctant to accept further compromises of voluntarism and the market mechanism for allocating resources; David Lloyd George and his supporters demanded massive government intervention in every aspect of the economy to mobilize the nation for total war. The replacement of Asquith by Lloyd George as prime minister in December 1916 marked the triumph of the latter approach. Traditional liberalism as a practical ideology of government was now discredited. The Liberal party was left with no unity or purpose. The leaders disliked and distrusted each other; there was no agreement on policy or the future direction of the party. Thus, it was in no position by the end of the war to compete with the resurgent Conservative and Labour parties for the allegiance of the British voter.

‘Macabre and Hilarious’: The Emotional Life of the Civilian Gas Mask in France during and after the First World War

Total War ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 40-58
Author(s):  
Susan R. Grayzel
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Emotional Life ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gas Mask ◽  
Civil Defence ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
First World

The anticipation and fear of what chemical weapons might do to a civilian population haunted the interwar imaginary in the aftermath of the introduction and widespread use of poison gas on the battlefields of the First World War. In no place, perhaps, was this more apparent than France, one of the few nations whose civilian and combatant populations bore direct witness to this innovative weaponry. One object—the gas mask—emerged to mitigate the physical effects of gas warfare. It would come to play a crucial role in the calculated management of the destabilising emotions of anxiety and fear that accompanied the deployment of chemical arms, but its emotional life extended beyond its intended aims. This chapter combines the material and emotional history of total war by using a single object to uncover more fully the dislocation and devastation wrought by modern, industrial war. It does so by analysing key aspects of the life of the civilian gas mask from its first appearance in France during the First World War to its symbolic power in interwar civil defence and war resistance.

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