Cultivating victory : the Women's Land Army and the Victory Garden movement / Cecilia Gowdy-Wygant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gowdy-Wygant, Cecilia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Victory gardens--Great Britain--History.

Victory gardens.

Victory gardens--United States--History.

Women's Land Army (Great Britain)--History.

Women's Land Army (Great Britain).

Women's Land Army (United States)--History.

Women's Land Army (United States).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"A compelling study of the sea change brought about in politics, society, and gender roles during World Wars I and II by campaigns to recruit Women's Land Armies in Great Britain and the United States to cultivate victory gardens. Cecilia Gowdy-Wygant compares and contrasts the outcomes of war in both nations as seen through women's ties to labor, agriculture, the home, and the environment. She sheds new light on the cultural legacies left by the Women's Land Armies and their major role in shaping national and personal identities"-- Provided by publisher.

"During the First and Second World Wars, food shortages reached critical levels in the Allied nations. The situation in England, which relied heavily on imports and faced German naval blockades, was particularly dire. Government campaigns were introduced in both Britain and the United States to recruit individuals to work on rural farms and to raise gardens in urban areas. These recruits were primarily women, who readily volunteered in what came to be known as Women's Land Armies. Stirred by national propaganda campaigns and a sense of adventure, these women, eager to help in any way possible, worked tirelessly to help their nations grow "victory gardens" to win the war against hunger and fascism. In vacant lots, parks, backyards, between row houses, in flowerboxes, and on farms, groups of primarily urban, middle-class women cultivated vegetables along with a sense of personal pride and achievement. In Cultivating Victory, Cecilia Gowdy-Wygant presents a compelling study of the sea change brought about in politics, society, and gender roles by these wartime campaigns. As she demonstrates, the seeds of this transformation were sown years before the First World War by women suffragists and international women's organizations. Gowdy-Wygant profiles the foundational organizations and significant individuals in Britain and America, such as Lady Gertrude Denman and Harriet Stanton Blatch, who directed the Women's Land Armies and fought to leverage the wartime efforts of women to eventually win voting rights and garner new positions in the workforce and politics. In her original transnational history, Gowdy-Wygant compares and contrasts the outcomes of war in both nations as seen through changing gender roles and women's ties to labor, agriculture, the home, and the environment. She sheds new light on the cultural legacies left by the Women's Land Armies and their major role in shaping national and personal identities. "-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Gardening in the New Century

Part 1. The First World War

Chapter 1. Ladies of Leisure and Women of Action

Chapter 2. The Land Girls

Chapter 3. Sowing the Seeds of Victory

Part II. The Second World War

Chapter 4. The Aftermath of War: Gender and Agriculture in the Interwar Years

Chapter 5. "A Call to Farms"

Chapter 6. Freedom from Want: The Role of the Victory Garden in the Second World War

Part III. Cultivation and Cultural Transcendence

Chapter 7. The Women's Land Army, Victory Gardens, and Cultural Transcendence

Epilogue: Garden as Metaphor

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822966654

0822966654

9780822978572

0822978571

OCLC:

859687116