British Culture and the First World War

Praise for the first edition: "Excellent student text - easy to understand summaries of main issues. Brilliant on arts and memory of the war. A great read too." - Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

This essential survey of British society and culture during World War I focuses on the lives of ordinary Britons: how they were affected by the war, how they attempted to understand the conflict, and how they have dealt with its legacies. This timely new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated in the light of the latest scholarship.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.