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The Great War has stimulated excellent works not only of biography (and autobiography), economic and social history, diplomatic and military history, but--most recently--much of the most innovative scholarship in Alltagsgeschichte and the new cultural history.
It also provides an under-recognized field for exploring issues of colonialism and imperialism, as Asian and African troops fought in European theaters, European troops fought in Arabian and African theaters, and as both the Entente and the Central Powers sought from the outset to enlist their opponents' colonies in an anti-colonial struggle.
Because of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the Great War was of little interest to Soviet historians and its memory "repressed" in Russian society (cf. Dan Orlowsky, "The Great War and Russian Memory"). At least partly for that reason, scholarship on the Great War, especially since 1945, has been overwhelming devoted to the Western Front. (An example of this historical bias can be seen in George Mosse's otherwise admirable book, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (Oxford, 1991, ISBN: 0195071395), which--in spite of its broad title, is in fact almost entirely about the experience of British, German, and (a poor third) French societies. Yet the war on the Eastern, Mediterranean, and Caucasian fronts were arguably far more significant in terms of their impact on the lives of civilians and on the fates of nations than events in the West. Much of these stories, however, remain to be told. Although our own expertise is largely in Central European history, we welcome participants from any national perspective.
The most difficult part of any research seminar is defining a topic that is do-able in a single semester. To prove that it CAN be done, participants might well enjoy reading one or both of the following (by previous semianr participants): Chad Bryant, "O Captain, My Captain: Obedience and Changing Power Relations in a Habsburg Army Regiment," later presented at an academic conference in Mississippi, and an interesting example of what to do when your sources leave you with questions and not answers; and James P. Daughton, "Sketches of the Poilu's World: Trench Cartoons from the Great War," in World War I and the Cultures of Modernity, eds. Douglas Mackaman and Michael Mays, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000): 35-67. I'll try to have a copy when I arrive in the fall, but those interested in advance should contact Chad or JP here at Berkeley. The email addresses are available from the Graduate Secretary.
The sooner one begins, the better. To get an idea of the range of possible topics, we suggest that potential participants look through the articles in Frans Coetzee and Marilyn Shevin-Coetzee, eds., Authority, Identity, and the Social History of the Great War (Berghahn Books, Providence, R.I., 1995), as well as their collection of sources: Frans Coetzee and Marilyn Shevin Coetzee, World War I and European Society. A Sourcebook (1995). Although here too the Western bias reigns, it takes little imagination to realize that many of the same questions could be asked about the other theaters of the war.
Potential participants are also advised to familiarize themselves with the basic context by reading before the semester begins at least one good book about the war in the country of their choice. Those in German history could not find a better introduction to the variety of issues raised by the war than Roger Chickering's excellent survey, Imperial Germany and the Great War (Cambridge, Paperback, New Approaches to European History series, 1998. ISBN 0 521 56754 1998), In fact, this book--a model of its kind--is recommended for anyone.
For the other countries, there is unfortunately no single book that combines Chickering's breadth with comparable economy. But here are some that we like and/or that have suggested by colleagues.
THE BALTIC:
Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture,
National Identity and German Occupation in World War I (Studies
in the Social and Cultural History of Modern) (Cambridge UP, 2000).
ISBN: 0521661579
NEW ON GERMANY:
Belinda J. Davis, Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday
Life in World War I Berlin (Univ. of North Carolina Pr, 2000),
384 pages. ISBN: 0807848379
RUSSIA:
W. Bruce Lincoln, Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians
in War and Revolution 1914-1918 (Oxford, 1986) ASIN: 0195089545).
Melodramatic.
Peter Gatrell, A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia During World War I (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies, IU Press, 1999)-(It won the Vucinich Prize)
Hubertus F. Jahn, Political Culture in Russia during World War I (Cornell U. Press, 1995).
Smirnov et al., Rossiia i Pervaia Mirovaia Voina (a
collection of articles, mainly by Russians, Americans, and Brits,
focused on the "war and society" theme. It has a very
short summary/introduction in English by William Rosenberg.
It has been the subject of a very informative and thoughtful review
essay by Erich Lohr, in the latest issue of Kritika: Explorations
in Russian and Eurasian History, pp. 196-203.
Mark von Hagen, "The Great War and the Mobilization of Ethnicity," in B.R. Rubin and Jack Snyder, eds., Post-Soviet Political Order: Conflict and State Building (Routledge, 1998), pp. 34-57 (basically an English version of his article in the Smirnov collection)
Scott Seregny, "Peasants, Nation, and Local Government in Wartime Russia," both in Slavic Review, vol. 59, no. 2 (summer 2000): 336-42.
Josh Sanborn (who also appears in the Smirnov book), "The Mobilization of 1914 and the Question of the Russian Nation," Slavic Review, vol. 59, no. 2 (summer 2000): 267-89,
FRANCE:
Jean Jacques Becker, The Great War and the French People
(1985; translation of Les Français et la grande guerre
(1980).
Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau, Men at war, 1914-1918: national sentiment and trench journalism in France during the First World War (Providence : Berg, 1992).
Though only the beginning is about WWI, you might look at our own Tyler Stovall's, Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light (Houghton Mifflin, 1996).
Robert J. Young, ed., Under siege : portraits of civilian
life in France
during World War I (New York: Berghahn Books, 2000).
THE HAPSBURG MONARCHY:
Mark Cornwall, The Undermining of Austria-Hungary: The Battle
for Hearts and Minds (New York: Palgrave, 2000)
The Habsburg Empire in World War I: essays on the intellectual, military, political, and economic aspects of the Habsbury war effort (Boulder [Colo.]: East European Quarterly; New York: distributed by Columbia University Press, 1977).
Z. A. B. Zeman (Zbynek A. B.), The break-up of the Habsburg Empire, 1914-1918; a study in national and social revolution (London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1961).
Arthur James May, The passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press [1966])
Jan Kren, Die Konfliktgemeinschaft, last chapter.
BRITAIN:
Arthur Marwick, The Deluge. British Society and the First World
War (Norton, 1970). ASIN: 0393005232
Jay Winter, The Experience of World War One (London, 1989).
Trevor Wilson, The Myriad Faces of War: Britain and the Great War, 1914-1918 (Cambridge, 1986).
COLONIAL TROOPS:
David E. Omissi, Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers'
Letters, 1914-1918 (1999) ISBN: 0312220618.
MILITARY HISTORY AT ITS FINEST:
John Keegan, "The Somme, 1 July 1916," from his The
Face of Battle (1976).
MISCELLANEOUS (BUT WELL RECEIVED):
Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning (1995).
(England and France)
Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (England; intellectual--esp. literary--history). (Oxford Univ. Pr, 2000 [1975]); ISBN: 0195133323.
ANTHOLOGIES:
Margaret R. Higonnet, Lines of Fire: Women Writers of World
War I (Penguin, 1999) (Document collection; covers ALL of
Europe).
Aviel Roschwald and Richard Stites, eds., European Culture in the Great War: The Arts, Entertainment, and Propaganda, 1914-1918 (Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare (Cambridge UP, 1999, ISBN: 0521570158), 400 pp.
Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, eds., Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, 1914-1919 (Paperback, Cambridge UP, 1999; Paper ISBN: 052166814), described by a knowledgeable colleague as "a tough read, but it has a lot of interesting stuff in it...." 622 pp.
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