Tammy M. Proctor

Susan R. Grayzel

Gender and citizenship / Kimberly Jensen -- Gender and resistance / Erika Kuhlman -- Gender and work / Deborah Thom -- Gender and race / Richard S. Fogarty -- Gender and sexuality / Ana Carden-Coyne and Laura Doan -- Gender and age / Tammy M. Proctor -- Gender and occupation / Jovana Kneevic -- Gender and everyday life / Karen Hunt -- Gender and warfare / Susan R. Grayzel -- Gender and violence / Michelle Moyd -- Gender and mourning / Joy Damousi -- Gender and memory / Karen Petrone -- The scholarship of the First World War / Susan R. Grayzel and Tammy M. Proctor

Gender and the Great War

Cicely Hamilton

Theodore Savage

Ferocious and all encompassing, the First World War touched countless lives in Europe and far beyond. In this volume, Susan R. Grayzel explores the unprecedented nature of modern “Total War,” and outlines the origins, experiences, and legacies of the war through — and beyond — Europe and the West. The introduction offers important insights into the cultural, political, and psychological landscape from which the war emerged, as well as a thoughtful examination of the conduct of the war and its aftermath. A wide array of documents, ranging from nationalist propaganda and diplomatic agreements to poetry and intimate letters and journals, reveal the far-reaching causes and consequences of this total war, and offer unique perspectives from voices sometimes overlooked in the study of the war — including colonial soldiers, contemporary psychologists, artists, protestors, and women at the home front and the front lines. Incisive document headnotes, maps, a chronology, questions to consider, and a bibliography enrich students’ understanding of this fateful period.

A Brief History with Documents

The First World War

The First World War introduced the widespread use of lethal chemical weapons. In its aftermath, the British government, like that of many states, had to prepare civilians to confront such weapons in a future war. Over the course of the interwar period, it developed individual anti-gas protection as a cornerstone of civil defence. Susan R. Grayzel traces the fascinating history of one object – the civilian gas mask – through the years 1915–1945 and, in so doing, reveals the reach of modern, total war and the limits of the state trying to safeguard civilian life in an extensive empire. Drawing on records from Britain's Colonial, Foreign, War and Home Offices and other archives alongside newspapers, journals, personal accounts and cultural sources, she connects the histories of the First and Second World Wars, combatants and civilians, men and women, metropole and colony, illuminating how new technologies of warfare shaped culture, politics, and society.

How British Civilians Faced the Terrors of Total War

The Age of the Gas Mask

Although the Blitz has come to symbolize the experience of civilians under attack, Germany first launched air raids on Britain at the end of 1914 and continued them during the First World War. With the advent of air warfare, civilians far removed from traditional battle zones became a direct target of war rather than a group shielded from its impact. This is a study of how British civilians experienced and came to terms with aerial warfare during the First and Second World Wars. Memories of the World War I bombings shaped British responses to the various real and imagined war threats of the 1920s and 1930s, including the bombing of civilians during the Spanish Civil War and, ultimately, the Blitz itself. The processes by which different constituent bodies of the British nation responded to the arrival of air power reveal the particular role that gender played in defining civilian participation in modern war.

Air Raids and Culture in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz

At Home and under Fire

There are few moments in history when the division between the sexes seems as "natural" as during wartime: men go off to the "war front," while women stay behind on the "home front." But the very notion of the home front was an invention of the First Worl

Susan R. Grayzel

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