The experience of occupation in the Nord, 1914–18

The experience of occupation in the Nord, 1914–18
Author: James E. Connolly
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2018-05-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526117827

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) open access license. This book is available as an open access ebook under a CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Much of the French department of the Nord was occupied during the First World War. This book considers the ways in which occupied locals responded to and understood their situation, focusing on key behaviours adopted by locals and the beliefs surrounding such conduct. Key topics examined include forms of complicity, disunity, criminality, resistance, and the memory of the occupation. This local case study calls into question overly-patriotic readings of this experience, and suggests a new conceptual vocabulary to help understand certain civilian behaviours under military occupation. Drawing on extensive primary documentation, this book proposes that a dominant ‘occupied culture’ existed among locals: a moral-patriotic framework, born of both pre-war socio-cultural norms and daily interaction with the enemy, that guided conduct and was especially concerned with what was considered acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

The Experience of Occupation in the Nord, 1914-18

The Experience of Occupation in the Nord, 1914-18
Author: James E. Connolly
Publisher:
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2018
Genre:
ISBN: 9781526117816

This study considers the ways in which locals of the occupied Nord responded to and understood their situation across four years of German domination, focusing in particular on key behaviours adopted by locals, and the way in which such conduct was perceived. Behaviours examined include forms of complicity, misconduct, disunity, criminality, and resistance. This local case study calls into question overly-patriotic readings of this experience, and suggests a new conceptual vocabulary to help understand certain civilian behaviours under military occupation. Drawing on extensive primary documentation - from diaries and letters to posters and police reports - this book proposes that a dominant 'occupied culture' existed among locals. This was a moral-patriotic framework, born of both pre-war socio-cultural norms and daily interaction with the enemy, that guided conduct and was especially concerned with what was considered acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Those who breached the limits of this occupied culture faced criticism and sometimes punishment. This study attempts to disentangle perceptions and reality, but also argues that the clear beliefs and expectations of the occupied French comprise a fascinating subject of study in their own right. They provide an insight into national and local identity, and especially the way in which locals understood their role within the wider conflict. This book will be useful to undergraduates, post-graduates and academics interested in an understudied aspect of the history of modern France, the First World War, and military occupations.

Aerial Propaganda and the Wartime Occupation of France, 1914-18

Aerial Propaganda and the Wartime Occupation of France, 1914-18
Author: Bernard Wilkin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2016-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317184939

Aerial Propaganda and the Wartime Occupation of France, 1914-1918 explores the combined role played by the French and British Governments and Armies in creating and distributing millions of aerial newspapers and leaflets aimed at the French population trapped behind German lines. Drawing on extensive research and French, German and British primary sources, the book highlights a previously unknown aspect of psychological warfare that challenges the established interpretation that the occupied populations lived in a state of total isolation and that the Allied governments had no desire to provide them with morale support. Instead a very different picture emerges from this study, which demonstrates that aerial propaganda not only played a fundamental role in raising morale in the occupied territories but also fuelled resistance and clandestine publications. This book demonstrates that the existing historiographical portrayal of the occupied civilian as an uninformed victim must be replaced by a more nuanced interpretation.

France in an Era of Global War, 1914-1945

France in an Era of Global War, 1914-1945
Author: A. Carrol
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2014-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137443502

In France in an Era of Global War, scholars re-examine experiences of French politics, occupation, empire and entanglements with the Anglophone world between 1914 and 1945. In doing so, they question the long-standing myths and assumptions which continue to surround this period, and offer new avenues of enquiry.

Communities Under Fire

Communities Under Fire
Author: Alex Dowdall
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198856113

Between 1914 and 1918, the Western Front passed through some of Europe's most populated and industrialised regions, such as the towns of Nancy, Reims, Arras, and Lens. This is the story of how war shaped the civilian identities of people who suffered intense artillery bombardment, military occupation, and forced displacement.

Reading and the First World War

Reading and the First World War
Author: Shafquat Towheed
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2015-08-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137302712

Ranging from soldiers reading newspapers at the front to authors' responses to the war, this book sheds new light on the reading habits and preferences of men and women, combatants and civilians, during the First World War. This is the first study of the conflict from the perspective of readers.

Feeding Occupied France during World War I

Feeding Occupied France during World War I
Author: Clotilde Druelle
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2019-03-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 3030055639

This book examines the history of Herbert Hoover’s Commission for Relief in Belgium, which supplied humanitarian aid to the millions of civilians trapped behind German lines in Belgium and Northern France during World War I. Here, Clotilde Druelle focuses on the little-known work of the CRB in Northern France, crossing continents and excavating neglected archives to tell the story of daily life under Allied blockade in the region. She shows how the survival of 2.3 million French civilians came to depend upon the transnational mobilization of a new sort of diplomatic actor—the non-governmental organization. Lacking formal authority, the leaders of the CRB claimed moral authority, introducing the concepts of a “humanitarian food emergency” and “humanitarian corridors” and ushering in a new age of international relations and American hegemony.

Creative Women of the “Lost Generation”

Creative Women of the “Lost Generation”
Author: Kimberly Francis
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2023-08-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000924645

This book explores the creative women of the "Lost Generation" including painters, sculptors, film makers, writers, singers, composers, dancers, and impresarios who all pursued artistic careers in the years leading up to, during, and following World War I. These women’s stories, and the art they created, commissioned, mobilized as propaganda, and performed shed light on the shifting nature of gender norms during this period. With the combined knowledge and expertise from different contributors, chapters in this book consider how modernist practices continued their development in women’s hands during the war through networks forged by and for women artists in the absence of their male colleagues. These chapters also reflect on how, in many cases, the dissolution of these structures after the November 1918 armistice had detrimental consequences for their professional trajectories. This book challenges the place creative women currently hold in the historical record while also clarifying how these artists and impresarios contributed to wartime and post-war culture. This collection of essays will be of great value to scholars interested in social and gender history of the twentieth century, as well as historians of the arts through offering nuanced understanding of the essential work of female creative professionals, highlighting artistic women’s experiences of resistance, mourning, and reinvention in the shadow of the Great War.

Invasion 14

Invasion 14
Author: Maxence Van der Meersch
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2016-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0773599355

Based on personal experience, survivor testimony, and documentary research, Invasion 14 portrays the German occupation of northern France during World War I. Regarded by critics as Maxence Van der Meersch’s finest work, the novel is set in Lille, Roubaix, and nearby villages along the Belgian border, with the front lines just miles away and the shelling routinely audible. An antiwar novel that goes beyond the trenches, this book is not about combat but its consequences, providing remarkable insights on the plight of French civilians and German soldiers as each group struggles to survive. A gripping epic that weaves together a vast range of characters, Invasion 14 provides a sweeping account of life under German rule and explores collaboration, resistance, and the grey areas between these stark choices, foreshadowing dilemmas the entire French nation would later face during World War II. Though originally published to great renown in 1935 - and considerable regional controversy - Invasion 14 was neglected after World War II, when national discourse focused predominantly on heroes of anti-Nazi resistance movements. As more nuanced understandings of war and occupation have evolved, Van der Meersch’s masterful rendition of life along the Western Front has enjoyed a well-deserved renaissance. Presenting a new translation along with an introduction and explanatory notes, W. Brian Newsome captures the moving imagery of Van der Meersch’s narrative, situates Invasion 14 in the context of the author’s life experience, addresses issues of postwar remembrance, and positions the novel amid literary movements of the time.

Humanitarianism and the Greater War, 1914–24

Humanitarianism and the Greater War, 1914–24
Author: Elisabeth Piller
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2023-10-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526173239

This book provides fresh perspectives on a key period in the history of humanitarianism. Drawing on economic, cultural, social and diplomatic perspectives, it explores the scale and meaning of humanitarianism in the era of the Great War. Foregrounding the local and global dimensions of the humanitarian responses, it interrogates the entanglement of humanitarian and political interests and uncovers the motivations and agency of aid donors, relief workers and recipients. The chapters probe the limits of humanitarian engagement in a period of unprecedented violence and suffering and evaluate its long-term impact on humanitarian action.