Book Review – Munitions of the Mind

The Age of the Gas Mask: How British Civilians Faced the Terrors of Total War

The black and white photo shows nurses in uniform wearing gas masks. They are fitting large gas masks on the babies in their care in a crib

The Age of the Gas Mask: How British Civilians Faced the Terrors of Total War

Published February 3, 2026

Reviewed by Daniel Schuster

Susan R. Grayzel’s The Age of the Gas Mask offers a compelling material history of one of the twentieth century’s most unsettling objects. Tracing the civilian gas mask from the ‘weaponisation of the air’ in the First World War through to its ubiquitous presence during the Second, Grayzel demonstrates how the advent of chemical warfare fundamentally altered the relationship between civilians and the state. The book is at its strongest in showing how, during the interwar period, the expected horror of renewed use of chemical weapons permeated cultural life, with novels, political debates, and visual culture repeatedly returning to nightmarish scenes of women and children suffocating in poisoned air.

Red Cross Rose: An Aussie Civilian in France, 1916-1920

Published March 15, 2023

Reviewed by Emma Hanna

In recent years, the wartime service of civilians near the battlefields of the Great War has been highlighted by histories of the organisations with whom they worked. Historians such as Geoffrey Reznick and Michael Snape have worked to explain how and why voluntary-aid organisations such as the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) sought to care for servicemen’s well-being wherever they were fighting. The service of hundreds of men and women who worked along the lines of communication, in camps, ports, hospitals and by prisoner of war camps, should be more visible in the war’s histories. These workers fulfilled the roles which military authorities were unable or unwilling to do. They were proud to have shared similar dangers and deprivations to those bearing arms, although they were not permitted to wear any uniform or identifying insignia until late 1917.

Nordic Media Histories of Propaganda and Persuasion

Published January 11, 2023

Reviewed by Edward Corse

Nordic Media Histories of Propaganda and Persuasion, edited by Fredrik Norén, Emil Stjernholm and C. Claire Thomson, is a welcome addition to the historical literature on the topic of propaganda. The book, published by Palgrave Macmillan, is Open Access and well worth downloading here to explore issues around propaganda and persuasion in a Nordic setting. The book stems from a conference held in the summer of 2020 in hybrid format hosted by Lund University. I attended this fascinating conference virtually and I am excited to see the final result of the work the convenors and contributors have compiled over the past couple of years. Written in English, the 18 authors are largely based in the Nordic countries themselves, with two exceptions: Nicholas J. Cull (University of Southern California, USA), who has written one of the afterwords; and one of the editors, C. Claire Thomson (UCL, UK).

Tag: Book Review

The Age of the Gas Mask: How British Civilians Faced the Terrors of Total War

Red Cross Rose: An Aussie Civilian in France, 1916-1920

Nordic Media Histories of Propaganda and Persuasion