Jeremy Paxman's magnificent history of the First World War tells the entire story of the war in one gripping narrative from the point of view of the British people. *** We may think we know about it, but what was life really like for the British people during the First World War? The well-known images - the pointing finger of Lord Kitchener; a Tommy buried in the mud of the Western Front; the memorial poppies of Remembrance Day - all reinforce the idea that it was a pointless waste of life. So why did the British fight it so willingly and how did the country endure it for so long? Using a wealth of first-hand source material, Jeremy Paxman brings vividly to life the day-to-day experience of the British over the entire course of the war, from politicians, newspapermen, campaigners and Generals, to Tommies, factory workers, nurses, wives and children. It shows how both British life and identity were utterly transformed - not always for the worst - by the enormous upheaval of the war. Rich with personalities, surprises and ironies, this lively narrative history paints a picture of courage and confusion, doubts and dilemmas, and is written with Jeremy Paxman's characteristic flair for storytelling, wry humour and pithy observation. *** "A fine introduction to the part Britain played in the first of the worst two wars in history. The writing is lively and the detail often surprising and memorable" Guardian "He writes so well and sympathetically, and chooses his detail so deftly, that if there is one new history of the war that you might actually enjoy from the very large centennial selection this is very likely it" The Times

Expertly written and beautifully presented, this book of outstanding photographs, documents and art work captures the spirit of the British people as they faced and successfully came through the prolonged challenge of the First World War. ??Using previously unpublished material from the Liddle Collection in the University Library at Leeds and supporting this with photographs from private and public collections from many parts of the British Isles, Britons Experience the Great War brings the experience of soldiers, sailors and airmen graphically close. It is, however, not just the fighting fronts which are so well represented: from the industrial, agricultural, domestic, educational and war resistance scenes, the response to war of workers, wives, sweethearts, students, children, rebels and resisters is made clear. Fund raising, rationing, humour, anxiety and grief are documented in this book in a way which provides touching testimony of the spirit of the times.??With almost four hundred illustrations, the book spans the British Isles and the most remote fighting fronts.

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 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. Even vegetables were 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. The 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, as well as exploring responses to air raids, food and housing shortages; the challenges to traditional social and sexual mores and wartime culture. Britain and World War One is an essential book for all students and interested lay readers of the First World War.

This book considers the diversity of the experiences and legacies of the First World War, looking at the actions of those who fought, those who remained at home and those who returned from the arena of war. It examines Edwardian ideals of gender and how these shaped social expectations of the roles to be played by men and women with regards to the national cause. It looks at men’s experiences of combat and killing on the Western Front, exploring the ways in which masculine gender ideals and male social relationships moulded their experience of battle. It shows how the women of the controversial White Feather campaign exploited traditional ideas of heroism and male duty in war to embarrass men into volunteering for military service. The book also examines children’s toys and recreation, underlining how play helped to promote patriotic values in children and thus prepared boys and girls for the respective roles they might be called upon to make in war. A strong sense of British identity and a faith in the superiority of British values, customs and institutions underpinned the collective war effort. The book looks at how, even in captivity at the Ruhleben internment camp, the British gave expression to this identity. The book emphasises the extent to which this was a conflict in which Britain sought to defend and even extend its imperial dominion. It also discusses how different political and cultural agendas have shaped the way in which Britain has remembered the War. As such, the book reflects the diversity of popular experience in the War, both at home and in the empire. Britain’s entry into the War in 1914 helped to ensure that it became a truly global conflict. The contributors here draw attention to the significant social, cultural and political legacies for Britain and her empire of a conflict which, one hundred years later, continues to be the subject of considerable controversy.

The popular idea of the First World War is a story of disillusionment and pointless loss. This vision, however, dates from well after the Armistice. In this 2004 book Janet Watson separates out wartime from retrospective accounts and contrasts war as lived experience - for soldiers, women and non-combatants - with war as memory, comparing men's and women's responses and tracing the re-creation of the war experience in later writings. Using a wealth of published and unpublished wartime and retrospective texts, Watson contends that participants tended to construct their experience - lived and remembered - as either work or service. In fact, far from having a united front, many active participants were in fact 'fighting different wars', and this process only continued in the decades following peace. Fighting Different Wars is an interesting, richly textured and multi-layered book which will be compelling reading for all those interested in the First World War.

A groundbreaking new history of the British home front during the First World War.

This book is an innovative comparative history of how German and British soldiers endured the horror of the First World War. Unlike existing literature, which emphasises the strength of societies or military institutions, this study argues that at the heart of armies' robustness lay natural human resilience. Drawing widely on contemporary letters and diaries of British and German soldiers, psychiatric reports and official documentation, and interpreting these sources with modern psychological research, this unique account provides fresh insights into the soldiers' fears, motivations and coping mechanisms. It explains why the British outlasted their opponents by examining and comparing the motives for fighting, the effectiveness with which armies and societies supported men and the combatants' morale throughout the conflict on both sides. Finally it challenges the consensus on the war's end, arguing that not a 'covert strike' but rather an 'ordered surrender' led by junior officers brought about Germany's defeat in 1918.