The First World War A Brief History with Documents

Explore the unprecedented nature of modern Total War as First World War outlines the origins, experiences, and legacies of World War I throughout and beyond Europe and the West.

Susan R. Grayzel (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is Professor of History at the University of Mississippi. She is co-editor of Gender, Labour, War and Empire and the author of Women and the First World War. Her 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.

Foreword
Preface
List of Maps and Illustrations PART ONE. INTRODUCTION: THE FIRST WORLD WAR: 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, 1899
     4. H. G. Wells, The War in the Air, 1908
     5. F. T. Marinetti, The 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. Rupert Brooke, Peace, 1915
     8. Anna Akhmatova, July 1914, 1917
Wartime Propaganda Posters
     9. British Recruitment Poster, Women of Britain Say—Go!, 1915
     10. German War Bonds Poster, Help Us Win!, 1917
     11. Russian War Bonds Poster, Freedom Loan, 1917
     12. French War Bond Poster, Subscribe to the National War Loan, 1917
Voices from the Battle Fronts
     13. Julian Grenfell, Letter from a British Officer in the Trenches, November 18, 1914
     14. Hugo Müller, Letter from a German Soldier on the Western Front, October 17, 1915
     15. Christian Cresswell Carver, Letter from a British Officer describing the Battle of the Somme, late July 1916
     16. Karl Gorzel, Letter from a German Soldier on the Battle of Somme, October 1916
     17. Sowar Sohan Singh, Letter from a Soldier in the British Indian Army, July 10, 1915
     18. Behari Lal, Letter from a Soldier in the British Indian Army, November 28, 1917
     19. Mehmen Arif Ölçen, Recollections of a Turkish Prisoner of War, 1917-1918
     20. Lidiia Zakharova, Diary Entry from a Russian Nurse on the Front Lines, 1915
     21. Henri Barbusse, Under Fire, 1916
     22. Gino Charles Speranza, Diary Entry from an American on the Italian Front, 1917.
Noncombatant Voices from the War’s Other Fronts
     23. Marie and Paul Piraud, Correspondence between a French Civilian and her Husband on the Front Lines, 1915 and 1916
     24. Leslie Davis, U. S. Consul, Report on Armenian Genocide, June 30, 1915
     25. Viscount Bryce Report on Atrocities Against Armenians, Narrative of an Armenian Lady, November 1915
     26. Lena Guilbert Ford, “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” 1915
     27. Berlin Police Reports, 1915
     28. Resolutions Adopted by the International Women’s Peace Congress at the Hague, May 1915
     29. Maria Dobler Benemann, “Visé (After a Letter from the Field),” 1915
     30. Editha von Krell, Recollections of Four Months Working in a German Munitions Factory, 1917.
     31. Philippe Verneuil, “Le Départ”, 1917
     32. Ranier Maria Rilke, Letter to Joachim von Winterfeldt-Menkin, on the death of his soldier friend, September 1918
     33. Ethel Bilbrough, Diary Entry Describing a Zeppelin Raid in England, October 1915
     34. Maria Degrutére, Diary Entries from a Civilian in Occupied France, 1915-1916
     35. V. I. Lenin, April Theses, 1917
Reflections on the Meaning and Effects of the War
      36. Sigmund Freud, Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, 1915
     37. Gustave Le Bon, The Psychology of the Great War, 1916
     38. G. Elliot Smith and T. H. Pear, Shell Shock and its Lessons, 1917
Poetic Responses after Years of War
     39. Edith Sitwell, “The Dancers,” 1918 [[year of publication, written about 1916]]
     40. Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” 1917-1918
3. The Aftermath of the First World War
     41. The Times of London, Casualties in the World War, 1914–1918.
     42. Chicago Tribune Editorial, “America First, Now and Hereafter,” 1918
     43. The Treaty of Versailles, 1919
     44. E. D. Morel, “The Horror on the Rhine,” 1920
     45. The Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916
     46. The Balfour Declaration, 1917
     47. The Westminster Gazette, “Women and Wages,” 1919
     48. Nar Diouf, A Senagalese Veteran’s Oral Testimony
     49. Otto Dix, Flander’s Field, 1934-1936
     50. Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel, 1920
     51. Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, 1928
     52. Helen Zenna Smith, Not So Quiet…, 1930. Appendixes
     Chronology of the First World War (1879-1920)
     Questions for Consideration
     Selected Bibliography
Index