A kingdom united : popular responses to the outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland / Catriona Pennell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pennell, Catriona.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1914-1918--Great Britain--Public opinion.

World War, 1914-1918.

World War, 1914-1918--Ireland--Public opinion.

Physical Description:

ix, 308 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Summary:

In this, the first fully documented study of British and Irish popular reactions to the outbreak of the First World War, Catriona Pennell explores UK public opinion at the time, successfully challenging post-war constructions of war enthusiasm' in the British case, and disengagement in the Irish.

Drawing from a vast array of contemporary diaries, letters, journals, and newspaper accounts from across the UK, A Kingdom United explores what people felt, and how they acted, in response to an unanticipated and unprecedented crisis. It is a history of both ordinary people and elite figures in extraordinary times. Pennell demonstrates that describing the reactions of over 40 million British and Irish people to the outbreak of war as either enthusiastic in the British case, or disengaged in the Irish, is over-simplified and inadequate. Emotional reactions to the war were ambiguous and complex, and changed over time. By the end of 1914 the populations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland had largely embraced the war, but the war had also embraced them and showed no signs of relinquishing its grip. The five months from August to December 1914 set the shape of much that was to follow. A Kingdom United describes and explains the twenty-week formative process in order to deepen our understanding of British and Irish entry into war. Book jacket.

Contents:

Outbreak of war, July to August

The national cause

The enemy

Encountering violence : imagined and real

A volunteer war

John Bull's other island

Settling into war.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-298) and index.

ISBN:

9780199590582

0199590583

OCLC:

757485699