The Great War and the British People Second Edition

by Winter, J. M.

• ISBN13: 9781403906953
• ISBN10: 1403906955
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-17
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The Great War and the British People is a classic study of the impact of war on the men who fought and on the communities they defended. It provides the authoritative account of the 'Lost Generation', in terms of mobilization, casualties, and memory, and contrasts that history with another history, one of massive improvements in the well-being of the home population. A war of unprecedented carnage was also a war which improved the heath of the British people. Between 1914 and 1918, warfare and welfare thus came together in entirely surprising ways.

Author Biography

J.M. Winter is Professor of History, Columbia University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
Acknowledgments	xiv
INTRODUCTION	1	(24)
1 STRATEGIC DEMOGRAPHY: POPULATION, POVERTY, AND MILITARY POWER IN PRE-1914 BRITAIN	6	(19)
I The French Connection	7	(1)
II The British Connection	8	(11)
(A) Degeneration: Hereditary or Environmental?	10	(5)
(B) Deterioration and the Alien	15	(1)
(C) Deterioration and the Underclass	16	(3)
III Conclusion
(A) Strategic Demography before 1914	19	(1)
(B) The Great War and Strategic Demography in Britain	20	(5)
PART I THE DEMOGRAPHIC COSTS OF THE GREAT WAR
2 MANPOWER AND MILITARY SERVICE, 1914-1918	25	(40)
I The Voluntary System	26	(3)
II From 'Pals' Battalions to Conscript Armies, 1914-16	29	(10)
(A) 'Pals' and Others	30	(3)
(B) Occupation and Enlistment	33	(5)
(C) The End of the Voluntary System	38	(1)
III Military versus Industrial Manpower, 1916-18	39	(9)
IV Medical Fitness and Military Service	48	(17)
(A) The Medical Examination of Recruits, 1914-17	50	(5)
(B) Medical Judgments and Medical Misjudgments	55	(10)
3 THE LOST GENERATION	65	(38)
I War Losses among British Forces in the 1914-18 War	66	(10)
II The Age Structure of War, Losses	76	(7)
III Casualties and Rank	83	(9)
IV The Slaughter of Social Elites	92	(11)
PART II THE PARADOX OF THE GREAT WAR
4 CIVILIAN HEALTH IN WARTIME BRITAIN	103	(51)
I Mortality Decline among Civilians in Wartime Britain: Working-class Men, 1914-17	101	(7)
II Occupational Mortality Rates among Men in England and Wales, 1900-23	108	(3)
III Mortality Decline among Civilians in Wartime Britain: The Female Population of England and Wales, 1912-21	111	(30)
(A) Causes of Death and Mortality Decline	117	(7)
(B) The Peculiarities of the English	124	(8)
(C) Maternal Mortality in Wartime	132	(3)
(D) War Conditions and Mortality Decline	135	(5)
(E) Conclusion	140	(1)
IV The Decline of Infant Mortality in Wartime Britain	141	(13)
(A) The Course of Infant Mortality Decline in Britain, 1900-30	143	(4)
(B) The Decline of Infant Mortality in Working-class Communities during the War	147	(6)
(C) Conclusion	153	(1)
5 MEDICAL CARE IN WARTIME	154	(34)
I Medical Recruitment and the Problem of Civilian Medical Care	155	(12)
II Manpower Planning for the Medical Profession, 1917-18	167	(6)
III The Defence of Medical Independence	173	(5)
(A) The Public Health Service	173	(4)
(B) Contract Practice	177	(1)
IV Medical Provision and Public Health	178	(10)
6 HEALTH ADMINISTRATION IN WARTIME	188	(25)
I To Save the Nation's Children	189	(15)
(A) Pro-natalism and Public Health in Wartime	189	(4)
(B) Infant Welfare, Social Policy and Local Politics	193	(11)
II To Protect the Nation's Workers	204	(9)
(A) Factory Welfare	205	(3)
(B) National Insurance	208	(2)
(C) Industrial Canteens	210	(3)
7 STANDARDS OF LIVING AND STANDARDS OF HEALTH	213	(36)
I Food Prices and Food Consumption in Wartime	215	(14)
II Other Retail Prices and Working-class Expenditure	229	(1)
III Wages, Earnings and the Increased Cost of Living in Wartime	230	(7)
IV Wartime Austerity and the Escape from Poverty	237	(3)
V Welfare Provision and Family Income in Wartime,	240	(4)
VI Housing in Wartime 242 VII Conclusion	244	(5)
PART III THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT WAR
8 THE DEMOGRAPHIC AFTERMATH OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR	249	(30)
I Vital Statistics in the Period of the First World War	250	(5)
(A) Marriage Rates	250	(3)
(B) Birth Rates	253	(1)
(C) Death Rates and Natural Increase	254	(1)
(D) Migration	255	(1)
II Discontinuities	255	(15)
(A) The War and Marriage Patterns	255	(11)
1 War Losses and the Age Structure of Marriage	256	(5)
2 War and the Popularity of Marriage	261	(2)
3 War and the Divorce Rate	263	(1)
4 Domesticity and the Upheaval of War	264	(2)
(B) International Migration and the War	266	(4)
III Continuities	270	(3)
(A) Fertility Trends	270	(1)
(B) Mortality Trends	271	(2)
IV Pensioners, Widows and a 'Burnt-out Generation' ?	273	(6)
9 DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY, CULTURAL HISTORY AND MEMORIES OF WAR	279	(27)
I Demographic History and Cultural History: the Case of the First World War	219	(66)
II Popular Literature and Trench Journalism	285	(4)
III War Literature	289	(16)
(A) The Literature of Warning	289	(2)
(B) The Soldiers' War: Separation and Bereavement	291	(9)
(C) The Aftermath of War and The Guilt of the Survivor	300	(5)
IV Conclusion	305	(1)
Statistical Appendix	306	(8)
Notes	314	(20)
Bibliography	334	(16)
Index	350