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Although the First World War was ultimately decided in the west, historians have emphasized the importance of the often 'forgotten' Eastern Front in understanding its complex evolution. This article examines the perception of contemporary foreign exchange traders concerning the relative importance of the Eastern Front over time. Using a newly compiled dataset on prisoners of war and on soldiers killed and wounded, we show that traders were concerned with casualties on both fronts, recognizing the significance of the two‐front war in the early war years. From the autumn of 1916 onwards, traders seemed to believe the key to winning the war lay in the west only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carlo Salsa’s book ‘Trenches: A foot-soldier’s tales’ (Trincee. Confidenze di un fante, 1924) was one of many published in Italy after the end of the First World War. It describes the facts of the war as they were lived by officers and soldiers on the Italian front line. The article tries to compare the book with the contemporary war literature in Italy and in Europe, without forgetting the use of the international historiography on the matter. Thus, it is analysed the way an Italian author described to his readers the brutal carnage of the war in years when Fascism was the rising star in Italian policy and the censorship was becoming the more and more a thornily factor for every writer of those days. From this analysis it is possible to note the quality of the volume both from the literary point of view, and its historical value as a reliable testimony of the facts, stepping up our knowledge of what the war literature was for the Italian public opinion after the 1918. As it is possible to note, the book puts under test our notions of the role played by this kind of literature in shaping the Italian political life at the end of the 1910s and at the start of 1920s, when Italy was becoming a country lead by the Fascist regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will argue that the current historiography considers the 'public school experience' of the First World War too narrowly, and will emphasise that boys from a wide range of establishments experienced the war in a similar fashion to those at elite public schools. It will do this through a case study of the alumni of the Perse Grammar School, Cambridge. By approaching the experience of Perseans in a thematic fashion it will shed new light on how the alumni of schools just below and developing towards full public-school status were affected by the war, an area hitherto not fully explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on Italian soldiers died in captivity in the First War world. Topics discussed include some evidences concerning the number of Italian prisoners and how many of them have lost their lives during the War; multiple sources used to verify the correctness of the estimates given today by specialists of the World War I; the historiography on the subject and the implications of these new evidences.

Although built memorials of the Great War have been the subject of academic research, rolls of honour and service have been accorded much less attention; nevertheless they are potentially of great interest and value for historians. This article examines rolls covering geographical areas of Scotland, showing that they often contain much more than lists of those who fought and those who died. As written documents, they are not so dependent as monuments are on symbolism to convey meaning and their overt language is more susceptible to analysis. Besides their obvious value for the study of family history and the history of particular localities in the war and soon after, they can be scrutinised as an example of how local history can add nuanced understanding of an international event and challenge generalisations based on limited evidence mainly from large urban areas. They are also illustrative of the thoughts and aspirations of the compilers, providing insights about perceptions not only of the Great War and perhaps war in general, but also of class, gender roles, religion, children and education. The rolls can contribute to debates about continuity and change, about modernism and tradition, as well as the interplay between local and national identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An historiographical essay considers books on topics of World War I, including "Class Society at War," by Jürgen Kocka, "With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918," by David Stevenson, and "Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914-1918," edited by Roger Chickering and Stig Förster. Topics include the German theory of Sonderweg indicating that Germany was unique among the European countries, the causes of World War I, and the influence of World War I on the Nazis and World War II.

The article presents an overview of German-language historiography from 1970 to 2015 on Italian and German military and naval operations in the first half of the 20th century. Articles and books are considered by historians including Gerhard Schreiber, Gabriele Hammermann, and Carlo Gentile on topics including the German occupation of Italy, Italian prisoners of war taken by Germans, and German military strategy for the Mediterranean region in World War II.

The African campaigns of First World War should be thought of as more than ‘sideshows.’ Rather, historians should research local, ordinary African experiences of the war in order to better understand African perspectives on the war, and also to generate narratives that can be integrated into more inclusive histories of the global war. This essay suggests several different vantage points which could prove generative for a new historiography of the war in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to: introduce the topic of the relationship between universities and the First World War historiographically; put university expertise and knowledge at the centre of studies of the First World War; and explain how an examination of university expertise and war reveals a continuity of intellectual and scientific activity from war to peace.Design/methodology/approach Placing the papers in the special issue of HER on universities and war in the context of a broader historiography of the First World War and its aftermath.Findings The interconnections between university expertise and the First World War is a neglected field, yet its examination enriches the current historiography and prompts us to see the war not simply in terms of guns and battles but also how the battlefield extended university expertise with long-lasting implications into the 1920s and 1930s.Originality/value The paper explores how universities and their expertise – e.g. medical, artistic, philosophical – were mobilised in the First World War and the following peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WORLD WAR I LED TO THE FIRST STEPS TAKEN BY THE AUTHORITIES. ONE OF THEM WAS THE INTRODUCTION OF CENSORSHIP. WE CAN TALK ABOUT CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS, TELEGRAPH ETC., BUT NOW WE'LL TALK ABOUT CENSORSHIP OF THE CORRESPONDENCE IN TRANSYLVANIA. ALTHOUGH WE'LL BE FOCUSING ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSIONS FOR CENSORSHIP, WE'LL ALSO TALK ABOUT CORRESPONDENCE AND ANALYSES HOW IT HAS AFFECTED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THOSE WHO WERE AT HOME AND THOSE WHO WERE ON THE FRONT. EVEN IF A NECESSARY MEASURE IN WAR TIME, HOW WAS IMPOSED HAD LEFT AN IMPRINT ON THOSE WHO CORRESPONDED, INFLUENCING THE MENTALITY OF THE POPULATION. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the German writer Ernest Jünger's philosophy on the meaning of the First World War, or World War I, through referencing several of his literary works, including the 1922 essay "Fighting As an Inner Experience (Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis)," the book "Storm of Steel (In Stahlgewittern)" and the essay "The Worker (Der Arbeiter)." Jünger's historical interpretation of World War I as an apocalyptic turning point in history is discussed.

Copyright of Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The author responds to the article "Fiction and memoir of Britain's Great War: disillusioned or disparate?," by Rodney Gerald Beecham, which is presented within this issue. It explores the history and historiography of World War I in literature. the War and collective memory, and the War's influence on British society.

A roundtable of historians specializing in studies of World War I, including Christopher Capozzola, Andrew Huebner, and Julia Irwin, is presented. Topics include the centennial celebrations of World War I, the war and memory, the causes for the entrance of the United States into the War in 1917, and under-explored history of Americans in the War.

In 1915, Britain negotiated a deal to persuade the Arabs to join the Allies in the fight against the Ottomans. The Hussein-McMahon correspondence between the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, and Sharif Hussein of Mecca was the vehicle for that negotiation. In exchange for opposing the Ottomans, Sharif Hussein demanded an Arab independent area that stretched from the Mediterranean to modern day Iraq and from the Indian Ocean to Syria. The British accepted. Elie Kedourie's argument that McMahon was influenced by the Ottoman army deserter, Muhammad al-Faruqi, has thus far provided historians with the primary detailed reasoning for the British acceptance of Hussein's demands. This article will suggest that insufficient emphasis has been given to the failure of the Allied campaign at Gallipoli, which was a significant reason behind the British desire to negotiate a deal with the Arabs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following essay reviews some of the most important books that were published at the centenary of the First World War. Among them are monumental books as well as smaller publications. The essay discusses trends and new developments in recent historiography on the Great War. Transnational history has certainly become more prominent. But large monographs on singles countries have not lost their value. Violence in war has developed into an important topic. The impact of the First World War on non-European countries receives more attention. And the international debate on the causes and origins of this war continues with renewed vigour. These new publications demonstrate the high level of research that has been reached in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the centenary of the First World War as an opportunity to re-examine a major element of the existing literature on the war-the strategic implications of supposed British decline-as well as analogies to the contemporary United States based upon that interpretation of history. It argues that the standard declinist interpretation of British strategy rests to a surprising degree upon the work of the naval historian Arthur Marder, and that Marder's archival research and conceptual framework were weaker than is generally realized. It suggests that more recent work appearing since Marder is stronger and renders the declinist strategic interpretation difficult to maintain. It concludes by considering the implications of this new work for analogies between the United States today and First World War-era Britain, and for the use of history in contemporary policy debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article re-examines the thesis proposed by Norman Stone in his book The Eastern Front regarding the pre-war origins of Russia’s defeats in 1914 and 1915. The article concludes that, contrary to Stone’s thesis, the pre-war split between Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and General V.A. Sukhomlinov had little impact on Russian military operations in the First World War. The Russian army was not as rigidly divided into factions as Stone suggests, nor were the factions divided on class grounds. The grand duke and his associates were not determined supporters of the fortresses in Poland, and the decision to defend Poland in summer 1915 was not related to pre-war debates about the fortresses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The 100th Anniversary of the Second Battle of Ypres was marked with Royal Attendance of a remembrance ceremony and, perhaps more importantly to most Canadians, a "shout-out" to the battle given by Don Cherry on Coach's Corner. The ways in which this battle has been remembered and written about have shifted significantly in the last 100 years, and this paper attempts to chart some of the ways in which it has been understood by scholars and soldiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the historiography of Great Britain's involvement in World War I, or the Great War, including in regard to historians' perspective on the 1915 British campaign in the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. The article also discusses the comparative historiography regarding Great Britain's involvement in World War I and in World War II.

An interview with Yuri Belatov, Dean of the School of International Relations at the Moscow Institute of International Relations in Russia, is presented. He describes the composition of the Russian multinational state on the eve of World War I. When asked about the historiography of World War I, he states that it was an imperialist war and differentiates the Russian Empire from European-style colonial empires. Russian policy towards Jews is also discussed.

This essay analyses the “history wars” of the interwar years through the lens of the Carnegie-sponsored Economic and Social History of the World War, both as an antidote to “pre-emptive” historiography and as a crucial intervention that reinforced the salience of comparable social and economic data in international political debates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How did the First World War affect the writing of history? Did historians begin to conceptualize history, in particular modern world history, differently after 1918? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a German historian recently remarked, for Germany Adolf Hitler was the “off-spring,” the outstanding legacy, of World War I, and no one doubts that. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

World War I was an epoch making event and its legacies have exerted dramatic impact on the unfolding of history as well as the study of history itself. The article introduces a commemorative volume focused on those varied legacies and their places in history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

“What’s in a name?” asks Shakespeare’s Juliet. The play’s answer is, just about everything, as Juliet and her lover Romeo learn to their sorrow and finally at the cost of their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the development of a French-language historiography of World War I in Québec and Canada since the 2000s. The author retraces the development of an English-language historiography of the Great War in Canada starting in 1914, mentions the book "A Military History of Canada" (1985) by Desmond Morton, and notes the development of the social and economic history during the 1970s and 1980s. Québécois historians such as Jean-Pierre Gagnon becoming more interested in the involvement of French-Canadian soldiers during the First World War during the 1990s and the publication of diaries and letters from French-Canadian World War I soldiers such as the book "Journal de guerre (1915-1918). Thomas-Louis Tremblay" (2006) by Marcelle Cinq-Mars are also mentioned.

An essay is presented on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I and the effects of World War I on various events of the 20th century, with details on various publications on World War I. Topics include the trend of a comparative approach in studying soldiers in World War I historiography, details on graduate programs which focus on the military, diplomatic, economic, and social histories of the war, and mention of books such as "The Making of the First World War" by F. W. Beckett.

In the one hundred years that have passed since July 1914 the origins of the First World War have been continuously contested. This article reviews the debate and takes stock of the recent literature. Its first part outlines how the various explanations for the occurrence of the war came about and sketches the main contentions of these interpretations. The second part of the article considers the historical writing that provides the contextual foundations for the work on the origins of the war itself. The arms races, alliances and foreign policies of the powers involved are outlined and their relevance for the assumptions about the origins of the war is assessed. The article reviews the more prominent recent work on the July crisis in this context and evaluates the contrasting new interpretations. The essay concludes with suggestions as to what is required in further scholarship dealing with the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Historia y Politica: Ideas, Procesos y Movimientos Sociales is the property of Departamento De Historia del Pensamiento y de los Moviemientos Sociales y Politicos (Madrid) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia y Politica: Ideas, Procesos y Movimientos Sociales is the property of Departamento De Historia del Pensamiento y de los Moviemientos Sociales y Politicos (Madrid) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses the articles in this issue, including one on Spanish involvement in World War I, one on the Cold War, and one on historiography of World War I.

Copyright of Ayer: Revista de Historia Contemporánea is the property of Asociacion de Historia Contemporanea and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An essay is presented which looks at the humanitarian actions and ideas which emerged during World War I. Details on the development of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the 19th century and its activities during World War I are presented. According to the author, humanitarian work became professionalized and bureaucratic over the course of the war. Other topics include the war's historiography, government aid to humanitarian efforts, and the League of Nations.

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The article presents a report from an October 28-30, 2013 conference in Hanover, Germany on the history of World War I. Topics of presentations delivered included Eurocentrism in the historiography of the war, the role of capitalism in the war, and the effect of World War I on Latin American countries.

The article discusses the attitudes of rank-and-file members of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) in Berlin, Germany, toward the party leadership's decision to vote in favor of military appropriations to finance the First World War in the German Reichstag on August 4, 1914. The author seeks to use evidence about antiwar activism within the SPD to clarify differences in the historiography of World War I, particularly as expressed by historians Susanne Miller and Wolfgang Kruse. Issues addressed include the activities of left-wing party leaders such as Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, and Franz Mehring, antiwar propaganda at party meetings, and attitudes to nationalism.

The article presents a report on a conference on the history of the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany and France during the First World War, held in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, from October 23-24, 2013. Topics of discussion included the historiography of World War I, battlefield tourism, and the experience of veterans from formerly German-occupied Alsace, France, and Lorraine, France, in postwar French society.

The article examines the coverage of the First World War in the mass media in Japan, as well as efforts by the Japanese military and education ministry to study the war. The author suggests that this perspective is a useful contribution to the historiography of World War I even though Japan's direct military engagement in the war remained comparatively marginal. Topics discussed included reporting on the war in Europe by Japanese foreign correspondents and intellectuals, government studies on economic planning and social engineering, and the discussion of the war in school textbooks.

The article discusses World War I and its effect on sub-Saharan Africa. The author highlights that although the European colonial powers brought the war from Europe to Africa, its overall character on the latter continent remained markedly different. Topics addressed include the relatively light armaments and colonial military forces present, the representation of the war in historiography and in such films as "Noirs et blanc en couleur," directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, and reactions to the war by Africans, especially in rural areas, for example in South Africa.

Copyright of IBEROAMERICANA. América Latina - España - Portugal is the property of Vervuert Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Unification of Transylvania with Romania after the First World War created a new situation in Tîrgu Mureş city, as well as in all major Transylvanian cities, where the majority of the population was composed of ethnics who weren't Romanian, such as - Hungarians, Germans, Armenians -, and which has applied throughout the time a constant policy of blocking the Romanians, preventing them from entering these cities with the purpose of preserving the old ethnic character of these. As a consequence, one of the priorities of the Romanian administration from Tîrgu Mureş between the two world wars was to correct this situation, respectively to modify the ethnic structure of the city, on one hand to create a solid base for the Romanian administration and on the other hand to harmonize the ethnic structure of the city with the one of the surrounding territory and to allow the manifestation of the Romanian element on the measure of its natural capacities. This policy was applied especially during the National-Liberal administration, between 1923-1927 and 1933-1937, through several types of measures firstly, in chronological order, through modifying the aspect of the city by removing the monuments representing personalities from the history of Hungary, infamous for Romanian population and Transylvania and their replacement with representative monuments for the history of Romania. In the central area of the city there were built specific Romanian buildings. The Romanian ethnic element was promoted in the public administration - in the Prefecture, City Hall, institutions and public services - in public schools, in cultural institutions. In all these it was mandatory to learn and to use the official language of the Romanian state. The promotion of the Romanian element generated discomfort to the minority inhabitants - who represented the majority in the city - only in the case in which they refused learning and using Romanian language and the cooperation with Romanian authorities, those who adapted having no problem from this point of view. As a matter of fact, if in the public institutions the Romanian element constituted the majority, in the private economic, judicial, political and cultural structures and institutions the minority element - Hungarian and Jewish mainly - had control between the world wars and even decades in the post-war age, within the frame of so-called Hungarian Autonomous Region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a year when the historians brought into question the issue of World War, I tried in this study to bring attention to a subject ignored by the Romanian historiography. The rumors that can supply the most human reactions, especially when the media were radically different from those we have became a subject of meditation within the Western historiography already for several decades. This research is rather local, for which we used only the archival documents to reveal how rumors fueled fear and dramatic situations during WWI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes of World War I remain a topic of enormous intellectual interest. Yet, despite the immensity of the literature, historiographical and IR debates remain mired within unhelpful methodological dichotomies revolving around whether a ‘primacy of foreign policy’ versus ‘primacy of domestic politics’ or systemic versus unit-level approach best account for the war’s origins. Given that this historiography is the most prolific body of literature for any war within the modern age, it reveals a much deeper problem with the social sciences: how to coherently integrate ‘external’ and ‘internal’ relations into a synthesized theory of inter-state conflict and war. Drawing on and contributing to the theory of uneven and combined development, this article challenges standard interpretations of the war by distinctively uniting geopolitical and sociological modes of explanation into a single framework. In doing so, the article highlights how the necessarily variegated character of interactive socio-historical development explains the inter-state rivalries leading to war. Contextualizing the sources of conflict within the broad developmental tendencies of the Long 19th Century (1789–1914) and their particular articulation during the immediate pre-war juncture, the article seeks to provide significant contributions to recent debates in IR and historical sociology, as well as those concerning the relationship between history and IR theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This historiographical review explores the impact of new interdisciplinary, comparative, and cultural approaches to studying the First World War upon the historiography, as the centenary of the conflict approaches in 2014. It assesses to what extent these approaches have led to new consensus regarding five key established historiographical questions: why did war break out; why did the Allies win; were the generals to blame for the high casualty rates; how did men endure trench warfare; and to what extent did civilian society accept and endorse the war effort? It also examines how these historiographical approaches have led to the emergence of new themes – in particular, military occupation, radicalization, race, and the wartime body – in the war's historiography. Ultimately, it concludes that how the war is understood has undergone radical revision since the 1990s as a result of these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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An introduction is presented in which the author discusses several themes related to this issue of the journal, including the historiography of World War I, the effect of that war on social discourse in Europe and in Spain in particular, and the involvement of Spanish intellectuals in World War I.