The First World War
A Brief History with DocumentsSecond Edition ©2021
The new edition of Susan Grayzel’s The First World War introduces students to one of the world’s most ferocious and all-encompassing global conflicts through a diverse range of perspectives. This volume explores the unprecedented nature of modern “Total War,” and outlines the origins, exper...
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The new edition of Susan Grayzel’s The First World War introduces students to one of the world’s most ferocious and all-encompassing global conflicts through a diverse range of perspectives. This volume 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 revised introduction, now updated to include the newest scholarship brought about by the hundredth anniversary of the war’s end, 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. The rich collection of primary source documents, including government records and reports, novels, diary entries, poems, propaganda posters, correspondence letters, and detailed maps and images, allows for a thorough examination of the experiences of those who were impacted by the tumultuous global conflict. New documents in this edition highlight marginalized voices, such as those of colonial, Ottoman, and Turkish soldiers, black soldiers, women, and children, to bring their stories into the account of the war. Document headnotes and a chronology, plus updated questions for consideration and selected bibliography help students understand this fateful period. Available in print and e-book formats.
"This has the potential to be the document reader on the First World War."
—Jeffrey Auerbach, California State University, Northridge"This is an incredibly useful text. Rather than burdening students with too much detail about ‘the guns of August’ it gives the whole picture of the war, introducing students to the key issues and legacies of the war and giving them a clear understanding of how Europe arrived at the point where it was willing to risk such a war."
—Lynn Sharp, Whitman College
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
PART ONE
Introduction: The First World War and the Making of a Modern, Global Conflict
The Origins of the First World War
Living through the First World War
The War’s End and Aftermath
PART TWO
The Documents
1. The Origins of the First World War
1. The Treaty of Vienna (The Dual Alliance), 1879
2. The Hague Conventions, 1907
3. Bertha von Suttner, Lay Down Your Arms, 1889
4. H. G. Wells, The War in the Air, 1908
5. F.T. Marinetti, Manifesto of Futurism, 1909
6. Charles Mangin, The Black Force, 1910
2. Living through the First World War
Poetic Responses to the Outbreak of War
7. Rubert Brooke, Peace, 1915
8. Anna Akhmatova, July 1914, 1917
9. Georg Trakl, On the Eastern Front, 1914
Wartime Propaganda Posters
10. Italian War Bond Poster, Weapons for Death, Weapons for Life, 1918
11. German War Bond Poster, Help Us Triumph! 1917
12. Russian War Bond Poster, Freedom Loan, 1917
13. American Poster, The Colored Man is No Slacker, 1918
Voices from the Battlefronts
14. Julian Grenfell, Letter from a British Officer in the Trenches, November 18, 1914
15. Hugo Müller, Letter from a German Soldier on the Western Front, October 17, 1915
16. Christian Creswell Carver, Letter from a British Officer Describing the Battle of the Somme, Late July 1916
17. Karl Gorzel, Letter from a German Soldier on the Battle of the Somme, October 1, 1916
18. Sowar Sohan Singh, Letter from a Soldier in the British Indian Army, July 10, 1915
19. Behari Lal, Letter from a Soldier in the British Indian Army, November 28, 1917
20. Virgilio Bonamore, Diary Entry from an Italian Soldier, July and August 1915
21. Mehmen Arif Ölçen, Memoir of a Turkish Prisoner of War, 1917-1918
22. Lidiia Zakharova, Diary Entry from a Russian Nurse at the Battlefront, 1915
23. Henri Barbusse, Under Fire, 1916
24. Ihsan Turjman, Diary Entry from an Ottoman Soldier in Jerusalem, 1916
Noncombatant Voices from the War’s Other Fronts
25. Marie and Paul Pireaud, Correspondence between a French Civilian and Her Husband in the Battle Zone, May 27, 1915, and May 23, 1916
26. Leslie A. Davis, Report on Armenian Genocide, June 30, 1915
27. Viscount Bryce Report on Atrocities against Armenians, Narrative of an Armenian Lady, November 2, 1915
28. Lena Guilbert Ford, Keep the Home Fires Burning, 1915
29. Records of Food Shortages and Rationing in Wartime Vienna, 1916 and 1926
30. Berlin Police Reports, February 17 and October 17, 1915
31. Resolutions Adopted by the International Congress of Women at The Hague, May 1, 1915
32. Editha von Krell, Recollections of Four Months Working in a German Munitions Factory, 1917
33. French Children’s Book Cover, The Little Schoolboy of Reims, 1918
34. Ethel Bilbrough, Diary Entry Describing a Zeppelin Raid in England, October 13, 1915
35. Maria Degrutère, Diary Entries from a Civilian in Occupied France, March 1915-April 1916
36. V. I. Lenin, April Theses, April 7, 1917
Reflections on the Meaning and Effects of the War
37. Sigmund Freud, Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, 1915
38. Gustave Le Bon, The Psychology of the Great War, 1916
39. G. Elliot Smith and T. H. Pear, Shell Shock and Its Lessons, 1917
Poetic Responses after Years of War
40. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, I Sit and Sew, 1918
41. Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est, October 1917-March 1918
3. The Aftermath of the First World War
42. The Times of London, Casualties in the World War, 1914-1918
43. Chicago Daily Tribune, America First, Now and Hereafter, January 13, 1918
44. The Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919
45. Savannah Tribune, Racial Clashes, July 26, 1919
46. E. D. Morel, The Horror on the Rhine, 1920
47. The Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916
48. The Balfour Declaration, November 2, 1917
49. Westminster Gazette, Women and Wages: "Equal Pay for Equal Work," January 28, 1919
50. Käthe Kollwitz, "The Survivors" (Poster for Anti-War Day), 1924
51. Nar Diouf, A Senegalese Veteran’s Oral Testimony, 1919
52. Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel, 1920
53. Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, 1928
54. Helen Zenna Smith, Not So Quiet…, 1930
55. Muk Raj Anand, Across the Black Waters, 1939
Appendixes
A Chronology of the First World War: From Prelude to Peace (1879-1923)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
Authors
Susan R. Grayzel
Susan R. Grayzel (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is Professor of History at Utah State University. She is co-editor of Gender and the Great War and the author of At Home and Under Fire: Air Raids & Culture in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz and Women and the First World War. Her first book Women’s Identities at War: Gender, Motherhood, and Politics in Britain and France during the First World War won the British Council Prize from the North American Conference on British Studies.nce on British Studies.
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