Title Communities under fire : urban life at the Western Front, 1914-1918 / Alex Dowdall

Edition First edtion Published Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020 ©2020

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Description 1 online resource (x, 257 pages) : illustrations, maps Contents Cover -- Communities under Fire: Urban Life at the Western Front,1914-1918 -- Copyright -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- The Militarization of Civilian Life at the Western Front -- Local and National Communities under Fire -- Chapter 1: From Towns into Battlefields: Urban Space at the Western Front -- Urban Warfare and the Formation of the Western Front, August-October 1914 -- Urban Spaces and the Stabilized Front -- Life on the Urban Battlefield -- The Civilian Population of the Western Front -- Urban Destruction and Civilian Death Chapter 2: Civilian Identities under Fire -- The Militarization of Civilian Life on the Allied side of the Lines -- La Petite Patrie en Danger: Local Identities under Fire on the Allied Side of the Lines -- Civilians under Fire in Occupied France -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3: Occupation Regimes and Civil-Military Encounters at the Western Front -- German Occupation Policies -- Allied 'Friendly' Occupations -- Civilians and Soldiers -- Military Indiscipline -- Platonic Relationships -- Sex at the Front -- Conclusion Chapter 4: The Social Impacts of Militarization: Work, Wages, and Welfare at the Front -- Work, Wages, and Welfare on the Allied Side -- The Meanings of Work under Fire -- Labour in German-Occupied France -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5: Feeding the Front-Line Towns -- Food Supplies on the Allied Side of the Lines -- Adaptation, Suffering, and Entitlement: The Moral Economy of the Western Front -- Food and Morality in Occupied France -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6: Communities in Exile: Refugees from the Front -- Sites of Displacement -- Communities in Exile -- Bombardment and Refugee Welfare Conclusion -- Epilogue: Towards Reconstruction, 1914-1920 -- Conclusion -- Sources and Bibliography -- Archival Collections -- United Kingdom -- Primary Printed Sources -- Published Works -- Secondary Sources -- Index Summary Between 1914 and 1918, the Western Front passed through some of Europe's most populated and industrialised regions. Large towns including Nancy, Reims, Arras, and Lens lay at the heart of the battlefield. Their civilian inhabitants endured artillery bombardment, military occupation, and material hardship. Many fled for the safety of the French interior, but others lived under fire for much of the war, ensuring the Western Front remained a joint civil-military space. Communities under Fire explores the wartime experiences of civilians on both sides of the Western Front, and uncovers how urban communities responded to the dramatic impact of industrialized war. It discusses how war shaped civilians' personal and collective identities, and explores how the experiences of military violence, occupation, and forced displacement structured the attitudes of civilians at the front towards the rest of the nation. Drawing on a vast array of archival sources, letters, diaries, and newspapers in English, French, and German, it reveals the history of the Western Front from the perspective of its civilian inhabitants. From Leningrad to Warsaw, Hamburg, and, more recently, Sarajevo and Donetsk, urban violence has remained a feature of warfare in Europe, turning cities into battlefields. On each occasion, civilian populations were at the heart of military operations, and forced to adapt to life in a warzone. This was also the case between 1914 and 1918, despite the myth that the First World War was predominantly a soldiers' war. The civilian inhabitants of the Western Front were among the first to suffer the full impact of modern, industrialized war in an urban setting. Communities under Fire explains the multiple ways by which these urban residents responded to, were changed by, succumbed to, or survived the enormous pressures of life in a warzone Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on June 17, 2020) Subject Civilians in war -- France -- History -- 20th century World War, 1914-1918 -- Social aspects -- France World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front. Civilians in war Military campaigns Social aspects France Western Front (World War (1914-1918)) Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780192598158 0192598155 9780192598141 0192598147 9780191889608 0191889601

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