The Wipers Times was the Private Eye of the Ypres Salient during World War One. Edited, while under bombardment, by a battalion commander in the Sherwood Foresters, written by soldiers actually in the trenches and distributed by ration-wagon and ammunition-mule. the paper bears vivid witness to the shocking realities of trench warfare. Yet for all the occasional horror of its content, The Wipers Times was a gentle, humor-filled and satirical paper which, once its codes are cracked and its riddles solved, tells an interested reader much about the characters and personalities of the men in the British Army of the First World War.Interpretation of regular features such as the bogus music-hall advertisements that feature in every issue, columns like Answers to our Many Correspondents and Things We Want to Know and careful study of some of the remarkable poetry published in the paper, explain to readers what it was like to be there. The Mud, the Gas, the Shells; the Fear, the Courage, the Humour and the Bitterness; much is revealed about these and many other things in this remarkable book that unravels the eighty-year-old Riddles of Wipers.

The First World War has left its imprint on British society and the popular imagination to an extent almost unparalleled in modern history. Its legacy of mass death, mechanized slaughter, propaganda, and disillusionment swept away long-standing romanticized images of warfare, and continues to haunt the modern consciousness. Focusing on the lives of ordinary Britons, George Robb's engaging new study seeks to comprehend what it meant for an entire society to undergo the tremendous shocks and demands of total war; how it attempted to make sense of the conflict, explain it to others, and deal with the war's legacies. British Culture and the First World War - examines the war's impact on ideologies of race, class and gender, the government's efforts to manage news and to promote patriotism, the role of the arts and sciences, and the commemoration of the war in the decades since - Synthesizes much of the best and most recent scholarship on the social and cultural history of the war. - Reclaims a great deal of neglected or forgotten popular cultural sources such as films, cartoons, juvenile literature and pulp fiction. Compact but comprehensive, this accessible and refreshing text is essential reading for anyone interested in British society and culture during the turbulent years of the First World War.

A unique visual perspective of life in the trenches on the Western Front from the forgotten soldier-artist and Somme veteran Private Fergus Mackain who served in France 1916 to 1917.

We have often heard about the brutal world of the trenches, the willingness of brave young soldiers and the apparent indifference of the generals, but reevaluations of the Great War in previous decades have shown us much more complexity, and in many cases some surprising reconstructions of very standard narratives of the war. The traditional isolation of the battle front from the home front, which historians have tended to observe, has given us an incomplete understanding of both fronts. In this study of Word War I, Hunt Tooley crosses the boundaries of national histories to examine the various connections between the 400-mile-long Western Front and the home fronts of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and the United States. Tooley draws on recent research and the wealth of primary souce material available to provide a broad synthesis of a complex event, and to create a more holistic view of the war - as men stayed in touch with those at home, as governments responded to events on the battlefield, and as writers, poets and artists brought the cultural impulses of Europe to the deadly world of the Western Front. In his clearly-written, wide-ranging study, Tooley argues that the seeds of much of the 20th century may have been planted well before the First World War, but - as many social critics, politicians, soldiers, women's movement leaders, and others predicted - the cultivation of these seeds in war would have a powerful and formative effect on the social, political and cultural processes which shaped the 20th century.

In this valuable resource, over 1,000 annotated sources from Great Britain, France, and Germany offer a historiographical reference for study of the British army at the beginning and in the first battles of World War I. Unique to this bibliography is the comprehensive coverage of sources, resulting in a more complete picture of the circumstances of activities of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Sources include coverage of the BEF's military role, as well as background information about domestic military considerations and Allied and enemy efforts. This volume will support researchers and students in their efforts to find out what the Expeditionary Force's contributions were in World War I, and for expanding their knowledge of the Great War and British military history. In this valuable resource, over 1,000 annotated sources from Great Britain, France, and Germany offer a historiographical reference for study of the British army at the beginning and in the first battles of World War I. Unique to this bibliography is the comprehensive coverage of sources, and it results in a more complete picture of the circumstances of activities of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Sources include coverage of the BEF's military role, as well as background information about domestic military considerations and Allied and enemy efforts. This volume will support researchers and students in their efforts to find out what the Expeditionary Force's contributions were in World War I, and for expanding their knowledge of the Great War and British military history. The volume includes four chapters of historiographical essays discussings the interpretations and controversies that surround the performance and leadership of the BEF in 1914-1915. The essays direct readers to the major sources that support various ideas and indicate gaps in the historiography of the subject. Following the historiographical essays is an annotated bibliography of more than 1,000 sources that are relevant to the study of the BEF.

To War With God is the moving account of Anglican chaplain Edward Montmorency 'Monty' Guilford's service in the First World War. Written by his grandson, it draws on first-hand material, including Monty's diaries, photographs and letters, tracing his journey from his first days on the Somme through the mud and terror of Cambrai to Belgium and the Army of Occupation. Along the way, Monty won the MC but lost his faith. The book also looks at the war lives of four men who had a powerful influence on Monty: his beloved brother-in-law Jack Bigger, who went missing after only days at the Front; his friend 'Pullthrough', a poet and author of scintillating letters; Private Joseph Bateman, executed for desertion, who spent his last night with Monty; and Dick Sheppard, the pacifist preacher who helped Monty back to health after the war. To War With God shows a man's faith in God being tested by an onslaught of horror. But it also shows the joy, the confusion and the humour of life as a clergyman in the war to end all wars.

Through the first comprehensive investigation and analysis of the English language trench periodicals of the First World War, The Soldiers' Press presents a cultural interpretation of the means and methods through which consent was negotiated between the trenches and the home front.