The Imperfect Child

2020 ◽  
pp. 113-146
Author(s):  
Andy Byford
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Development Analysis ◽  
Mental Testing ◽  
First World

This chapter examines the crucial role that the diagnostics and treatment of ‘imperfections’ in the child population played in the formation and growth of Russian child science. It emphasizes the plurality, indeterminacy, and intermixing of diagnostic regimes, which led to ambiguity and vagueness in the definition of infringements of the norm in child development. Analysis opens by considering the emergence of mental testing in Russia as a new means of measuring development and diagnosing deviations from the ‘normal’. It first looks at the fostering of mental testing as a purported ‘scientific’ substitute for school assessments and thus, potentially, a new way of framing educational norms. It then scrutinizes the use of mental testing on the boundaries between neuropsychiatric and psycho-educational diagnostics. The chapter then shifts from problems of diagnostics to those of therapeutics, by looking at the creation of special establishments for ‘defective’ children in the late tsarist period. While medical discourse dominated this domain, it ultimately generated hybrid forms of therapeutics, institutionalized as ‘curative pedagogy’, which stretched across medical, pedagogical, and correctional domains. The chapter concludes with an examination of pathologizations of children in the context of large-scale social upheavals, such as revolution and war. It examines two exemplary case studies in this context—the ‘epidemic’ of ‘child suicides’ in the wake of Russia’s 1905 revolution and the moral panic surrounding the effects of total war on the psychology of the Russian child during the First World War.

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.

scholarly journals The Austro-Hungarian occupation regime in Serbia and its break-down in 1918

Balcanica ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 107-133
Author(s):  
Dimitrije Djordjevic
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

This paper discusses the occupation of Serbia during the First World War by Austro-Hungarian forces. The first partial occupation was short-lived as the Serbian army repelled the aggressors after the Battle of Kolubara in late 1914, but the second one lasted from fall 1915 until the end of the Great War. The Austro-Hungarian occupation zone in Serbia covered the largest share of Serbia?s territory and it was organised in the shape of the Military Governorate on the pattern of Austro-Hungarian occupation of part of Poland. The invaders did not reach a clear decision as to what to do with Serbian territory in post-war period and that gave rise to considerable frictions between Austro-Hungarian and German interests in the Balkans, then between Austrian and Hungarian interests and, finally, between military and civilian authorities within Military Governorate. Throughout the occupation Serbia was exposed to ruthless economic exploitation and her population suffered much both from devastation and from large-scale repression (including deportations, internments and denationalisation) on the part of the occupation regime.

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.

Interwar Crises and Europe’s Unfinished Empires

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew G. Stanard
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
World War ◽  
Civilizing Mission ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

The period 1914–45 represents the height of European overseas empire even as seeds were sown hastening imperialism’s demise. Colonies were ‘unfinished empires’ in the process of becoming, although frequent resorts to violence in the colonies indicated the limits of Europe’s grasp. Although many emerged from the First World War dubious about European so-called civilization, the civilizing mission survived and flourished, suggesting Europe’s enduring self-confidence. Development became a dominant discourse while the Great Depression quickened colonial exploitation. Emigration and settlement on expropriated lands slowed relative to Europe’s rapid expansion in the 1800s, yet formal colonialism proceeded apace, with few exceptions. Development and exploitation led to forced or voluntary migration of colonial subjects on a large scale. Cold War ideological competition was ‘exported’ to much of the colonial world. Non-Europeans used networks to claim their rights and attack European colonial rule, and they and the colonies influenced Europe, which developed various ‘colonial cultures’.

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.

The British Cabinet and the Ministry of Defense

1949 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Henry Donaldson Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
World War ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
The First World War ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Cohesive Group ◽  
Important Trend ◽  
Armed Services ◽  
First World

The announcement in October, 1946, that in future a single Minister of Defense will sit in the British cabinet, and that the ministers of the three armed services will no longer be of cabinet rank, marks the culmination of a long and important trend in Britain's governmental organization. It is also of interest as the present British answer to advocates of a merger of the Navy, Army, and Air Force. To see the full meaning of this step, it is necessary to refer to two closely related problems of long standing: the question of the size of the cabinet and that of what is broadly known as imperial defense.From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the British cabinet, originally ten or eleven in number, increased to about fourteen or fifteen in the 1870's and 1880's. By the end of the century, however, increase of governmental services and multiplication of departments raised the normal size of cabinets to nineteen or twenty, and after the first World War to twenty or even twenty-two. Since the cabinet as such functions as a committee, it has been frequently pointed out that the present size is too large for prompt and decisive deliberation; and the experience of two great wars has shown without question that large-scale planning and the coördination of the innumerable interlocking aspects of a national war effort require a much smaller and more cohesive group. The existence around the premier of an inner circle of three or four ministers, among whom many of the most important decisions are made, is as old as cabinet government, but cannot be satisfactory for modern needs.

scholarly journals An Equal Burden

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Representations ◽  
World War ◽  
Army Medical ◽  
Total War ◽  
Medical Evacuation ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Female Nurses ◽  
Cultural Hierarchies ◽  
Military Discipline ◽  
First World

An Equal Burden forms the first scholarly study of the Army Medical Services in the First World War to focus on the roles and experiences of the men of the ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). These men, through their work as stretcher-bearers and orderlies, provided a range of labour, both physical and emotional, in aid of the sick and wounded. They were not professional medical caregivers, yet were called upon to provide medical care, however rudimentary; they served in uniform, under military discipline, yet were forbidden, as non-combatants, from carrying weapons. Their service as men in wartime was thus unique. Structured both chronologically and thematically, this study examines the work that RAMC rankers undertook and its importance to the running of the chain of medical evacuation. It additionally explores the gendered status of these men within the medical, military, and cultural hierarchies of a society engaged in total war, locating their service within the context of that of doctors, female nurses, and combatant servicemen. Through close readings of official documents, personal papers, and cultural representations, both verbal and visual, it argues that the ranks of the RAMC formed a space in which non-commissioned servicemen, through their many roles, defined and redefined medical caregiving as men’s work in wartime.

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