The legacy of the Great War

This innovative study by one of the leading specialists in the field examines the social and economic role of the German army in the nation’s internal affairs during the First World War. This was the area in which the influence of the army was most direct and profound. Germany’s wartime economic mobilisation was both planned and directed by the army, and as a consequence of this largely unanticipated responsibility, the army was compelled to cope with the great social conflicts of Imperial Germany. In the process of confronting the groups representing army and labour, the army paved the way for the establishment of collective bargaining in Germany and also created the foundations for the postwar inflation. (Source: [Bloomsbury Publishing](

For the first time Antoine Proust's seminal articles have been translated into English and collected in this single volume. Beginning with his classic account of war memorials, through to his pioneering study of the Rue de la Goutte d'Or, and finally his work on French Catholic families in the 1930s and 1940s, this book takes the reader through republican representations of war and peace, urban spaces and social identity, and discourse and social conflict in republican France. Among this range of topics, Prost considers the notion of neighborhood and "quartier", the multiple uses of myth, the secularization of religious imagery, the centrality of primary schools in French political culture, and insults as staples of French political rhetoric. Included here are his famous essays "Verdun" and "War Memorials of the Great War," which have been hailed as indispensable additions to the study of European cultural history.

This book explores the ways in which the people themselves interpreted their world and their lives -- a perspective often neglected by historians but one becoming increasingly relevant in Germany today. Essential reading for all those interested in War Studies, German Studies, History and Women's Studies and an excellent text for course use."--pub. desc.