Empires, Soldiers, and Citizens A World War I Sourcebook

Marilyn Shevin-Coetzee and Frans Coetzee are independent scholars; they have previously taught at Yale and George Washington Universities.

Marilyn is the author of The German Army League: Popular Nationalism in Wilhelmine Germany (1990) and Frans the author of For Party or Country: Nationalism and the Dilemmas of Popular Conservatism in Edwardian England (1990).  Together, they have co-edited Authority, Identity and the Social History of the Great War (1995); World War I and European Society: A Sourcebook (1995); World War I: A History in Documents, Second Edition (2011); and The World in Flames: A World War II Sourcebook (2011).

Chronology xv

Preface xix

I The Mood of 1914 1

War Comes to France 6

1. A Nation Suddenly United 7

2. We Shall Be without Fear 12

3. On the Way to the Front 14

Russia: For the Tsar and Motherland 15

4. The View from St. Petersburg 15

5. Russia’s Popular Mood 18

Germany: For the Kaiser and Fatherland 18

6. A Just War against England 19

7. The Socialist Alternative 21

8. German Socialists Support the War 22

9. Thoughts on Mobilization 23

Britain and the Empire Mobilize 23

10. Popular Hysteria 24

11. Recruiting for War 26

12. A British Student in Arms 29

13. A Canadian Clergyman at War 31

14. The View from the Cameroons 33

II War on the Western Front 37

Adapting to Trench Warfare 40

1. Life Different as Possible 41

2. The Attack 45

3. War is Like a Big Picnic 49

4. All the World Over a Boy is a Boy, a Mother a Mother 51

5. War Diary of the Seaforth Highlanders 53

6. A Working Party 55

7. A Canadian in the Trenches 56

8. Report on the Afternoon’s Actions 58

9. Indian Units in France 59

Commitment, Duty or Disillusion: German Students Assess the War 61

10. The Readiness to Make a Sacrifice 62

11. My Life is no Longer My Own 64

12. I Look upon Death and Call upon Life 65

13. Here One becomes another Man 66

14. Copse 125 67

Humor and Morale 69

15. War 70

16. Ten German Pioneers 71

17. Rats 72

III War to the East and South 73

The Eastern Front 77

1. Tannenberg 78

2. Bad Things are Good Things under Adverse Circumstances 79

3. Not a Beaten Army 83

4. The Russian Turmoil 84

5. War in the East 85

6. Serbia’s War 86

7. The Army behind Barbed Wire 88

8. Among Prisoners of War 90

War in the Mediterranean 93

9. The Italian Front 93

10. Gallipoli 97

11. The ANZAC Experience 99

12. The Turkish Defense 101

13. Palestine Campaigns 104

Africa and Asia 113

14. The Use of Native Troops 113

15. A Doctor in Damaraland 116

16. Petition to King George V 117

17. The Fall of Tsingtao 119

18. Japan’s Twenty-One Demands 121

IV Combat in the Machine Age 125

Technology and the Battlefield 128

1. The Dominance of the Machine Gun 128

2. Gas Warfare 130

3. Gas at the Front 132

4. Tanks at Ypres 133

5. Shell Shock 136

6. Picture of Desolation 137

The Naval War 139

7. Battle at Sea 140

8. Rusting at Anchor 142

9. Jutland 143

10. Adventures of the U-202 145

The Aerial War 148

11. Zeppelin 148

12. Air Raids 150

13. The Importance of the Airplane 152

14. A Superior Pilot 154

15. In the Clouds above Baghdad 156

V Mobilizing the Home Front 159

The State 163

1. The War and British Liberties 164

2. The State as the Supreme God 165

3. Germany’s Government at War 166

4. Censorship 168

5. War, Prostitution, and Venereal Disease in Germany 172

6. The Russian State 175

7. Russian Education 176

The Economy 178

8. Economic Exhaustion in Southeastern Europe 179

9. Germany’s Food Supply 182

10. A Bremen Family’s Suffering 185

11. No Meat in Berlin 186

12. Workers’ Diets 188

13. Practicing Strict Economy 192

Women 194

14. Women at Work 195

15. A New Role for Women? 196

16. Women at Munition Making 204

17. Women’s National Service in Germany 205

18. Keep Your Eyes Open 206

19. We will Need the Woman as Spouse and Mother 208

20. Something Disturbing about Female Labour 209

21. A Woman in the Service of the Tsar 209

22. Bitter Wounds 215

VI Whose Nation? 217

Duty, Sacrifice and Morality 222

1. The New Patriotism 223

2. War Profits 224

3. You are More Prone to Hatred 227

4. A Scandalous Trial 228

Religion 230

5. The Sacred Union in France 232

6. A British Clergyman at the Front 233

7. The Religion of the Inarticulate 235

8. Spiritual Consciousness 237

9. A German Rabbi in the Field 239

10. Russian Jews Demand End to Discrimination 240

Race and Ethnicity 243

11. Ethnic Minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire 244

12. The Fate of Turkey’s Armenians 249

13. War and the “Colour Bar” 252

14. German Subversion in London 258

War of Ideas 262

15. Britain’s Destiny and Duty 263

16. Manifesto of German University Professors 265

17. Alleged German Outrages 266

18. Explaining German Atrocities 271

19. Propaganda 273

VII Dissent, Mutiny and Revolution 277

The Cost of Conscience 284

1. Is War Incompatible with Right? 285

2. Britain’s Parliament Debates Conscientious Objection 287

3. Pacifism—A Political Crime? 289

Authority Challenged 291

4. Working-Class Resistance in Britain 293

5. Strikes in Britain 296

6. The French Mutinies 299

7. A Socialist Appeal to Workers 301

8. A Warning from the SPD 304

9. Mutiny and Revolution in the German Fleet 307

10. The Case for India 313

11. Rebellion in Ireland 314

Revolution in Russia 315

12. Lenin’s View of the War 316

13. Stupidity or Treason? 318

14. Upheaval in Petrograd and in the Army 320

15. Revolution at the Front 321

VIII Legacies 327

1. War Cemeteries 333

2. The Dead 339

3. Canadian War Memorials 340

4. Local War Museums 341

5. Spiritualism 344

6. The Sacred Work 345

7. Training the Disabled 348

8. The Lost Generation 350

9. French Veterans’ Appeal 352

10. An African Veteran Reflects 353

11. Africa Petitions Britain’s King 354

Source References 357

Suggestions for Further Reading 365

Index 377

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