Our Journal: First World War Studies

Based on a dataset of unparalleled extent containing nearly 1500 books, this article for the first time offers an analysis of the War Books Boom that combines the qualitative and quantitative. The Boom did not simply rise and fall; an early peak in publication in 1928 was followed by a dip in 1929, as huge successes like R.C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End and Erich Maria Remarque’s Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) dominated the market and were successful in the subsequent two years in a variety of media. The major peak, far exceeding that of 1928, was in 1930, as both publication and commentary trends spiked. The Boom was understood in commentary as such at the time, and the surrounding discourse saw this moment as a battle for the enduring memory of the conflict between the brutal realism of works such as Remarque’s, his followers and imitators, and a more conservative focus on courage, fortitude and honour. We enrich the existing scholarly understanding of the cultural history of the War Books Boom, drawing on our dataset and the interwar journalism collected in the British Newspaper Archive, and situating these findings among existing scholarship. Taking as starting points Sherriff’s and Remarque’s texts, we identify key publication trends, drawing particular attention to the dominance by publication numbers of non-fiction texts, particularly in life-writing, history and regimental history. We conclude by suggesting further lines along which our method might be used to develop the scholarly understanding of this moment.

Key Words: First World War, War Books Room, memory, journalism, publishing history, Sherriff, Remarque

The First World War writings of Betty Freund and Frances Lyndall Schreiner are the only available primary accounts by volunteer nurses from the Union of South Africa who served in the European theatre of war. The reluctance of Union women to volunteer to the British war effort were informed by several historical factors in the decades before the war, yet Betty’s letters and Frances’ narratives reveal similar experiences to those of volunteer nurses of other nationalities. Both women wrote to inform, yet Betty also felt a need to reassure, while Frances aspired to publication and employed contemporary literary conventions. On the surface, their texts show nursing and care for young soldiers were their priority, yet a deeper analysis reveals issues of national identity and their reactions to the contemporary views of nurses.

Key Words: Military nursing, Voluntary Aid Detachment, Union of South Africa, First World War, Schreiner, Freund

Based on newly published witness accounts, the article gives an insight into the civilian experiences of the humanitarian crisis that took place in the Ober Ost in 1916–1917. Vilnius, a city of 140,000, became an epicentre of famine and an epidemic of typhus that resulted in the death of several thousand civilians between November 1916 and October 1917. The article explores causes and dynamics of the crisis, survival strategies of local population and the emergence of a vast network of local relief agencies among Poles, Jews, Lithuanians and Belarusians. The author argues that the humanitarian disaster in Vilnius was part of the broader home front crisis of Central Powers. The food shortages that hit Germany and Austria-Hungary from mid-1916 led to the tightening of the exploitative occupation policy in the Ober Ost. Increasing requisitions, including confiscations of full harvests, food rationing, restrictions on free trade and population movement produced the famine that German authorities were able to control only with great difficulties. The humanitarian crisis destroyed the political credibility of the occupation regime in the eyes of the city’s population which had to rely for help mostly from their own relief agencies. It was during this crisis that numerous relief societies that have emerged among Poles, Jews, Lithuanians and Belarusians grew and extended their influence among city’s residents. Eventually they also helped to set the stage for nationalist and revolutionary political agendas of the city’s ethnic groups. These relief structures became early vehicles for their political aspirations and provided an early organizational setup for their post-WWI political programmes.

Key Words: Germany, Ober Ost, Lithuania, famine, epidemic, nationalism, humanitarianism