In a fully comparative, European context, this book offers a unique examination of the effects of the First World War on family life. The contributory essays, written by sixteen scholars in the field, focus primarily on the social, economic and ideological repercussions of the war. After a detailed study of living standards in wartime Europe, attention then turns to the ways in which the war affected women's work and how it affected the state's attitude to the family and encouraged the pro-natalist movements. The final section also considers broader speculations about the impact of war on family forms and alternative social affiliations. In general, the book highlights the fundamental dialectic between the effects of the First World War in disturbing family life and in releasing social and political forces, which helped to restore family life in its more traditional forms.
List of plates; Introduction Richard Wall and Jay Winter; Part I. Comparative Perspectives: 1. Some paradoxes of the First World War Jay Winter; 2. English and German families and the First World War 1914-18 Richard Wall; Part II. Conditions of Life and Standards of Living: 3. Behind the lines: working class family life in wartime Vienna Reinhard Sieder; 4. Standards of living and standards of health in wartime Belgium Peter Scholliers and Frank Daelemans; 5. Variations in patterns of consumption in Germany in the period of the First World War Armin Triebel; 6. Nutrition and living standards in wartime Britain Peter Dewey; 7. The impact of the First World War on British workers Alastair Reid; 8. The impact of the First World War on French workers Patrick Fridenson; Part III. Women and Work: 9. Women and work in France during the First World War Jean-Louis Robert; 10. Women's work in industry and family: Germany, 1914-18 Ute Daniel; 11. Women and work in wartime Britain Deborah Thom; Part IV. Social Policy and Family Ideology: 12. Pronatalism and the popular ideology of the child in wartime France: the evidence of the picture postcard Marie-Monique Huss; 13. Eugenics and pronatalism in wartime Britain Richard Soloway; 14. 'Pregnancy is the woman's active service': pronatalism in Germany during the First World War Cornelie Usborne; 15. The medical profession, social hygiene and the birth rate in Germany, 1914-18 Paul Weindling; 16. Männerbund versus the family: middle-class youth movements and the family in Germany in the period of the First World War Jürgen Reulecke; Bibliography; Index.
