From 1917 British soldiers who were unfit or too old for front-line service were to serve unarmed and within the range of German guns for weeks or even months at a time undertaking labouring tasks. Both at the time and since they have arguably not been given the recognition they deserve for this difficult and dangerous work. From non-existence in 1914, by November 1918 Military Labour had developed into an organised and efficient 350,000-strong Labour Corps, supported by Dominion and foreign labour of more than a million men. Following the war, the grim and solemn tasks of clearing battlefields and constructing cemeteries, which continued until 1921, were also the responsibility of the Corps. Here, John Starling and Ivor Lee bring together extensive research from both primary and secondary sources to reveal how the vital, yet largely unreported, role played by these brave soldiers was crucial to achieving victory in 1918.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic about the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and how it shaped the nation while steering it through the Great Depression and the outset of World War II. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of story lines—Eleanor and Franklin’s marriage and remarkable partnership, Eleanor’s life as First Lady, and FDR’s White House and its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin effectively melds these details and stories into an unforgettable and intimate portrait of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and of the time during which a new, modern America was born.

First published in 1938. This study of the labour crisis in the USA consists of interviews with leaders and members of labour unions, unorganised workers, businessmen, and those in positions of public responsibility. The author explores the foundations of the crisis, and examines the possible issues that he predicted the US labour force were going to encounter. This title will be of interest to scholars and students of political and labour history.

The British Empire played a crucial part in the First World War, supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and labourers as well as a range of essential resources, from foodstuffs to minerals, mules, and munitions. In turn, many imperial territories were deeply affected by wartime phenomena, such as inflation, food shortages, combat, and the presence of large numbers of foreign troops. This collection offers a comprehensive selection of essays illuminating the extent of the Empire’s war contribution and experience, and the richness of scholarly research on the subject. Whether supporting British military operations, aiding the British imperial economy, or experiencing significant wartime effects on the home fronts of the Empire, the war had a profound impact on the colonies and their people. The chapters in this volume were originally published in Australian Historical Studies, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, First World War Studies or The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

The military toll of World War I is widely known: millions of Britons were mobilised, many thousands killed or wounded, and the landscape of British society changed forever. But how was the conflict experienced by the people of Surrey on the home front? Surrey Heritage's project Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers has, over the four-year centenary commemoration, explored the wartime stories of Surrey's people and places. The project's discoveries are here captured through text, case studies and images. This book chronicles the mobilisation of Surrey men, the training of foreign troops in the county, objection to military service, defence against invasion, voluntary work and fundraising, the experiences of women and children, shortages, industrial supply to the armed forces and the commemoration of Surrey's dead. Drawing heavily on the rich archives of Surrey Heritage, it is an engaging exploration of a county in the shadow of the first globalised war between industrialised nations.

The diaries of front-line soldiers of the Great War are relatively commonplace; contemporary drawings and paintings, other than those by the official war artists, are less so. What is extraordinary, even unique, about The Fateful Battle Line is that it combines a journal of infantry service on the Western Front with sketches and finished work made at the time, often illustrating places, people and incident from the text. Henry Ogle was a trained artist, and one who, in his writing, fused the vividness of the painter's eye for detail with a writer's precision and awareness. Commissioned from the ranks, twice wounded, his gallantry rewarded with the Military Cross, he endured four years of war; if the experience seared him, it never took from him his humanity. Front-line, support and reserve trenches; raids, patrols and work details; outposts and piquets; hospitals and base areas; French and Belgian towns and villages; leave back home in England ; the tragic landscape of Flanders; weapons, artillery, transport, draft and riding animals; above all his fellow soldiers - Henry Ogle faithfully, and often wittily, recorded the day-to-day minutiae, as well as the sudden shattering moments, of vast industrial armies locked in the last of the great siege wars. In doing so, and in his accompanying text, he demonstrated that the enduring legacy of the Great War lay in the spirit of the men who fought it. Skillfully edited and annotated by the late Michael Glover, The Fateful Battle Line is perhaps the most remarkable and enduring original work to have come out of the First World War in the last fifty years.