For King and Country
The British Monarchy and the First World War
Part of Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare
- Author: Heather Jones, University College London
- Date Published: December 2021
- availability: Available
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781108429368
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This is a ground-breaking history of the British monarchy in the First World War and of the social and cultural functions of monarchism in the British war effort. Heather Jones examines how the conflict changed British cultural attitudes to the monarchy, arguing that the conflict ultimately helped to consolidate the crown's sacralised status. She looks at how the monarchy engaged with war recruitment, bereavement, gender norms, as well as at its political and military powers and its relationship with Ireland and the empire. She considers the role that monarchism played in military culture and examines royal visits to the front, as well as the monarchy's role in home front morale and in interwar war commemoration. Her findings suggest that the rise of republicanism in wartime Britain has been overestimated and that war commemoration was central to the monarchy's revered interwar status up to the abdication crisis.
Read more- Revisionist account of the British monarchy during the Great War which shows that the war actually consolidated the crown rather than undermining it
- Reveals the role of the monarchy – and monarchism – in British war identities, morale and commemoration as well as its role in empire, Ireland and in European diplomacy
- Takes a cultural history approach to shed new light on wartime attitudes to gender, grief, empire and Britishness
Awards
- Winner, 2021 Norman B. Tomlinson Jr prize for best work of history in English on World War One, World War One Historical Association
Reviews & endorsements
'Heather Jones's engaging and insightful book makes a persuasive argument about the importance of the First World War in the British monarchy's evolving role and image. Through skilful analysis of an impressively broad range of archival sources, Jones shows how archaic associations of the Crown with the concepts of honour, duty, religion and service took on a new resonance during four years of disruptive and destructive conflict.' Alison Fell, author of Women as Veterans in Britain and France after the First World War
See more reviews'Heather Jones shows how the British monarchy democratised itself during the First World War by placing its traditional and sacred functions at the service of the nation and empire. In doing so, she pioneers a new kind of cultural and political history. A truly outstanding book.' John Horne, editor of A Companion to World War I
'This book fills a very large gap. It is thoroughly researched and provides a comprehensive analysis of the British monarchy during the First World War. It also ranges widely, shedding new light on crucial aspects of the British (and Irish) experience between 1914 and 1918.' David Stevenson, author of 1917: War, Peace, and Revolution
'This is a necessary book … Heather Jones has exhaustively explored the impact of the King and his family on the national consciousness and the motivation of the war effort.' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph
'For King and Country advances our understanding of the way in which institutions can be reconfigured to meet new social and political pressures. It makes a significant contribution to the large literature on the evolution of institutions. Thus, its relevance is not limited to the Great War and the British monarchy, substantial and worthwhile as her contribution to these subjects certainly is … her wonderfully written and engaging book is an outstanding piece of scholarship.' Sam Clark, The British Journal for Military History
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×Product details
- Date Published: December 2021
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781108429368
- length: 320 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 157 x 32 mm
- weight: 1.05kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction
Prelude: The monarchy and wartime political power. Part I. The role of the British monarchy in cultural mobilisation for war:
1. Monarchist mentalities and British mobilisation, 1914–1916
2. Monarchist culture and combatant practices. Part II. The emperor's new clothes: Changing cultures of deference:
3. The royal body in wartime
4. De-sacralisation discourses – challenges to the monarchy's status, 1916–1918. Part III. The unknown soldier: The role of the monarchy in post-war commemoration
5. The monarchy and the armistice: Ritualising victory, channelling war grief
6. The monarchy's role in sacralising post-war commemoration
Conclusion.
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