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Tag: First World War

British First World War Propaganda: From A to Z

British First World War Propaganda: From A to Z

Published April 15, 2026

Reviewed by Edward Corse

 

David Monger’s British First World War Propaganda: From A to Z is an interesting and innovative way of constructing an analysis of an important historical subject and demonstrates that propaganda in this period went beyond the ‘falsehood in war-time’ that sometimes shrouds study of the topic. He divides the book into 26 main chapters, one for each letter of the English alphabet, devoting each chapter to a short study guided by a word or phrase he has chosen. The benefit of such an approach is that it can draw in new readers to a topic with bite-sized summaries of a variety of different issues relating to the topic who might be attracted to this style of book compared with a lengthy academic monograph, such as Eberhard Demm’s Censorship and Propaganda in World War I: A Comprehensive History (2019). Other historians of propaganda have also navigated similar innovative approaches in recent years with David Welch completing his The Story of Propaganda in 50 images (2022) a few years ago – although Welch’s method with 50 images is naturally more flexible than an A–Z approach. Whilst Monger restricts himself to one word or phrase per chapter (with one exception), other approaches such as the Imperial War Museum’s The First World War A-Z: From Assassination to Zeppelin – Everything You Need to Know (2014), allows itself multiple entries for each letter. Monger’s book is in this sense, therefore, if not unique, certainly more restricting than other comparable titles.

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Overlooked but not Overwhelmed: Lower Middle Class Experiences and Legacies of the First World War

Overlooked but not Overwhelmed: Lower Middle Class Experiences and Legacies of the First World War

Published October 29, 2025

Written by Andrew Whittaker

Many of the narratives surrounding British First World War experiences and legacies of service in the armed forces are derived from one of two contrasting class-based perspectives—the social élite or the working classes. The former made up an extremely small proportion of the pre-war male population, the latter a large majority. The experiences and legacies of the lower middle class (who, according to the social stratifications of the time, were situated in between) have been largely overlooked. These were the white-collar salaried employees and the shopkeepers and other small businessmen who comprised a significant one in five or so of the pre-war male population. A longitudinal study from birth to death of the 1350 largely lower middle class men eligible for service in the war who had attended Colfe’s Grammar School, Lewisham, reveals some alternative narratives.

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The German Nurse Memoirs of the Great War

The German Nurse Memoirs of the Great War

Published December 20, 2024

Written by Jerry Palmer

The majority of the nurse memoirs of the Great War, of all the combatant nations, focus overwhelmingly on their daily work; through this accumulation of detail, they demonstrate their dedication to the well-being of the soldiers, while by the same token their personal lives recede into the background. However, although they play down just how difficult nursing was under these circumstances, perhaps especially for the thousands who were volunteers with no previous medical experience, it is not difficult to work out just how draining it must have been. This is one example of a basic feature of memoirs: because they are inherently selective, what they don’t say is often as instructive as their contents.

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Postcards from the Western Front: Pilgrims, Veterans, and Tourists after the Great War

Postcards from the Western Front: Pilgrims, Veterans, and Tourists after the Great War

Published January 22, 2024

Reviewed by Alison Fell

Mark Connelly’s wonderful new book would make a great companion for a tramp across the Western Front battlefields. It draws on an impressive range of primary sources: maps, letters, diaries, novels, press articles, battlefield guides and, of course, postcards, to evoke the landscapes of Northern France and Belgium that had been so devastated by the war. The landscape constitutes the point of connection between past and present, and makes you aware not only of the ghosts of soldiers who tramped the same battlefields, but of the thousands of ‘pilgrims’ – mourners, veterans and tourists – who followed in their footsteps.

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Australian War Graves Workers and World War One: Devoted Labour for the Lost, the Unknown but not Forgotten Dead

Australian War Graves Workers and World War One: Devoted Labour for the Lost, the Unknown but not Forgotten Dead

Published December 6, 2023

Reviewed by Christopher Kreuzer

Published in 2019 by Palgrave Macmillan, Australian War Graves Workers and World War One: Devoted Labour for the Lost, the Unknown but not Forgotten Dead, is a multi-author collaborative work between two university academics (Fred Cahir and Sara Weuffen) and three other authors (Matt Smith, Peter Bakker and Jo Caminiti). As such, it spans the academic and public history fields, with well-chosen archival photographs, biographical vignettes, and moving personal accounts giving an insight into the gruesome nature and psychological impact of this post-war work.

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Entrenched

Entrenched

Published September 18, 2023

Written by Andrew McCarthy

“‘You’re in a tight corner, Richard Hannay’, I said to myself. I was crouching behind the Chesterfield in the drawing room. Von Schwabing’s men kept up a steady fire. Bullets had shattered the French windows, and the curtains billowed in the breeze. I knew that Sandy and his men were on the other side of the garden wall. If I could cut across the lawn and reach the wall, I might have a chance. I buttoned my Aquascutum, and made sure that my pistol was secure on its lanyard. I stepped through the shattered windows, and took aim at a rifleman kneeling beside a tree. A pistol bullet bored through my hat. I fired. The rifleman slumped to the ground. This was going to be a first-class show.”

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

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.

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Im Westen etwas Neues: The Modernisation of All Quiet on the Western Front

Im Westen etwas Neues: The Modernisation of All Quiet on the Western Front

Published March 1, 2023

Written by Helena Power

One of the legacies of the Great War Centenary is that there is a plethora of ‘forgotten’ stories about the war that remain to be explored. It is therefore somewhat ironic that the latest film about the conflict is a new adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel, All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues). The original film adaptation was released in 1930, so this presents an interesting opportunity to look at the retelling of an adaptation almost a century later. By comparing and contrasting the 2022 remake with the 1930 film, we can observe how modern filmography trends have changed the ways we tell stories about the past. For brevity, I will avoid the 1979 film adaptation. For ease of reference, the 2022 film will be referred to by its German title of Im Westen nichts Neues (or Im Westen), and the 1930 film as All Quiet on the Western Front (or All Quiet).

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‘Today we have the Naming of Parts’: Words, Language and Military History

‘Today we have the Naming of Parts’: Words, Language and Military History

Published December 8, 2021

Written by Mark Connelly

In August 1942 the New Statesman and Nation published Henry Reed’s poem, ‘Naming of Parts,’ which has become one his most famous works. Its focus is a sergeant instructing the men in the handling of their rifle. The instructor luxuriates in the technical language of the weapon. We are told of the lower sling swivel, the piling swivel, the safety catch (and how quickly it can be released with a simple flick of the thumb), the bolt, the breach, the cocking-piece, the point of balance. The rifle is a welter of technical terms and understanding those technical terms means mastering a mystery, it means initiation into a distinct community; it means power.

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