Bøker av Susan R. Grayzel

There are few moments in history when the division between the sexes seems as "e;natural"e; as during wartime: men go off to the "e;war front,"e; while women stay behind on the "e;home front."e; But the very notion of the home front was an invention of the First World War, when, for the first time, "e;home"e; and "e;domestic"e; became adjectives that modified the military term "e;front."e; Such an innovation acknowledged the significant and presumably new contributions of civilians, especially women, to the war effort. Yet, as Susan Grayzel argues, throughout the war, traditional notions of masculinity and femininity survived, primarily through the maintenance of--and indeed reemphasis on--soldiering and mothering as the core of gender and national identities. Drawing on sources that range from popular fiction and war memorials to newspapers and legislative debates, Grayzel analyzes the effects of World War I on ideas about civic participation, national service, morality, sexuality, and identity in wartime Britain and France. Despite the appearance of enormous challenges to gender roles due to the upheavals of war, the forces of stability prevailed, she says, demonstrating the Western European gender system's remarkable resilience.

Gender and the Great War provides a global, thematic approach to a century of scholarship on the war, masculinity and femininity, and it constitutes the most up-to-date survey of the topic by well-known scholars in the field.

A lively collection of essays on the cultures of nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain. Topics range from prostitution and slavery to the effect of war on fashion magazine reporting to inter-racial marriage in the postwar years. Particular areas of focus include the Second World War, its legacies and the reactions to postwar decolonization.

The First World War was the first modern, total war, requiring the mobilization of civilians and combatants. It was also the first to demand the active participation of men and women. In this introduction to the experiences and contributions of women during the war, Susan Grayzel explores their relationship to the war in every belligerent state.