Capital Cities at War
Capital Cities at War
$53.00
USDThis ambitious volume marks a huge step in our understanding of the social history of the Great War. Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert have gathered a group of scholars of London, Paris and Berlin, who collectively have drawn a coherent and original study of cities at war. The contributors explore notions of well-being in wartime cities - relating to the economy and the question of whether the state of the capitals contributed to victory or defeat. Expert contributors in fields stretching from history, demography, anthropology, economics, and sociology to the history of medicine, bring an interdisciplinary approach to the book, as well as representing the best of recent research in their own fields. Capital Cities at War, one of the few truly comparative works on the Great War, will transform studies of the conflict, and is likely to become a paradigm for research on other wars.
- Brings together a huge range of material in different fields to make a coherent study of wartime cities
- One of the few truly comparative works on the Great War
- Likely to become a model for future research on wars
Reviews & endorsements
"The title of this impressive volume alone announces something special, but it does not prepare the reader for what is to come--what must surely be the most powerful, distinguished and innovative work of recent social history to be published in the last twenty years." Reviews in History
"What Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert have attempted to do in assembling this remarkable collection of scholarly work is to suggest better methodologies for comparing urban experiences but also, and more ambitiously, for comparing the national war efforts of France, the United Kingdom and Germany....In terms of providing a detailed and well-researched comparison of the experiences of the three capital cities, the work is a stunning success....This is a weighty tome in every sense and it will certainly stimulate argument and excite some controversy about both its methods and its conclusions. It makes a very valuable contribution to existing debates, but also suggests new approaches and areas for study. We may await its companion volume with interest." Alan Sharp, H-France Review of Books
"A remarkable book and a major one, Capital Cities at War provides much to challenge received wisdom concerning the social history of World War I, and it provides the data necessary to advance inquiries in new directions." The Journal of Military History
"It is a distinctly metropolitan perspective on mobility and possibility and debasement in the war years that this splendid study brings into focus." Canadian Journal of History
"Jay Winter, perhaps the most prolific scholarly writer in English working today in the First World War, has, with Jean-Louis Robert and others, produced a dense, complex, and fascinating comparative portrait of three of Europe's capital cities as they each coped with the crisis of war." Gerald Herman, H-Net Reviews
"Winter, Robert, and their collaborators are to be congratulated for the intellectual rigor and the sharp focus of this volume. This is a model of what a collaborative historical enterprise should be." American Historical Review
"The overall impact of Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin 1914-1919 is impressive, and the companion volume is eagerly anticipated....It is a major contribution to the field of war and social development....The book is impressively written....Capital Cities at War...should be an indispensible source for urban, social and military historians for years to come." Urban History Review
"...an impressive book...the contributors throughtout offer readers precise, concrete data in order to underline the important `disctinction between `experience' and `imagined' communities'(5)." Robert J. Bezucha, International Labor & Working-Class History
Product details
August 1999Paperback
9780521668149
644 pages
235 × 154 × 33 mm
0.878kg
22 b/w illus. 6 maps 71 tables
Available
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Table of Contents
- Part I. Premises:
- 1. Paris, London, Berlin, 1914–1919: capital cities at war Jay Winter
- 2. Paris, London, Berlin on the eve of the war Jean-Louis Robert
- Part II. The Social Relations of Sacrifice:
- 3. Lost generations: the impact of military casualties on Paris, London and Berlin Adrian Gregory
- 4. The image of the profiteer Jean-Louis Robert
- Part III. The Social Relations of Labour:
- 5. The transition to war in 1914 Jon Lawrence
- 6. Labour market and industrial mobilization, 1915–1917 Thierry Bonzon
- 7. The transition to peace, 1918–1919 Joshua Cole
- Part IV. The Social Relations of Incomes:
- 8. Material pressures on the middle classes 1914–1918 Jon Lawrence
- 9. Wages and purchasing power Jonathan Manning
- 10. Transfer payments and social policy Thierry Bonzon
- Part V. The Social Relations of Consumption:
- 11. Feeding the cities Thierry Bonzon
- 12. Surviving the war: life expectation, illness, and mortality rates in Paris, London, and Berlin, 1914–1919: coal and the metropolis Armin Triebel
- 13. Housing Susanna Magri
- Part VI. Urban Demography in Wartime:
- 14. The 'other war' I: protecting public health Catherine Rollet
- 15. The 'other war' II: setbacks in public health Catherine Rollet
- 16. Surviving the war Jay Winter
- 17. Conclusion: towards a social history of capital cities at war Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert
- Statistical appendices
- Tables
- Bibliography.
