A Kingdom United Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland

by Pennell, Catriona

• ISBN13: 9780199590582
• ISBN10: 0199590583
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In this, the first fully documented study of British and Irish popular reactions to the outbreak of the First World War, Catriona Pennell explores UK public opinion of the time and successfully challenges the myth of British 'war enthusiasm'. A Kingdom Unitedexplores what people felt, and how they acted, in response to an unanticipated and unprecedented crisis. It is a history of both ordinary people and elite figures in extraordinary times. Dr Pennell demonstrates that describing the reactions of over 40 million British and Irish people to the outbreak of war as either enthusiastic in the British case, or disengaged in the Irish, is over-simplified and inadequate. Emotional reactions to the war were ambiguous and complex, and changed over time. By the end of 1914 the populations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland had largely embraced the war, but the war had also embraced them and showed no signs of relinquishing its grip. The five months from August to December 1914 set the shape of much that was to follow.A Kingdom Uniteddescribes and explains that twenty-week formative process. Pennell draws from a vast array of diaries, letters, journals, and newspaper accounts by the very people who experienced the war in its first dramatic five months. She outlines the variety of responses felt amongst both the ordinary people and elite figures from across the country.

Author Biography

Catriona Pennell graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 2008 with a PhD in modern British and Irish history. During her research, she was awarded two major scholarships: the R.B. McDowell-Ussher Fellowship from Trinity College, Dublin (2003-2006), and the R.H.S. Centenary Fellowship from the Institute of Historical Research (2006-2007).

Table of Contents

List of Figures, and Map	p. xii
List of Tables	p. xiii
List of Abbreviations Used in Text	p. xiv
List of Abbreviations Used in Notes	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Outbreak of War, July to August	p. 22
The National Cause	p. 57
The Enemy	p. 92
Encountering Violence: Imagined and Real	p. 118
A Volunteer War	p. 143
John Bull's Other Island	p. 163
Settling Into War	p. 198
Conclusion	p. 227
Dramatis Personae	p. 233
Statistical Breakdown of 441 Witnesses Featured in Dramatis Personae	p. 275
Location of Utilized Diaries, Memoirs, and Journals (Published and Unpublished)	p. 276
Anti-German Riots and Western Military Events, October 1914	p. 277
Sources and Bibliography	p. 281
Index	p. 299
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