The Great War and Urban Life in Germany
Freiburg, 1914–1918
$63.99 (C)
Part of Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare
- Author: Roger Chickering, Georgetown University, Washington DC
- Date Published: April 2009
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521109772
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63.99
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Paperback
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In deference to the principle that total war requires total history, Roger Chickering traces the all-embracing impact of the First World War on life in the German city of Freiburg. His book shows how the war took over every facet of life in the city, from industrial production to the supply of basic material resources, above all food and fuel. It documents the breakdown of distinctions between the home front and the fighting front, as the city fell victim to strategic bombing. It analyzes the war as a sensory experience, which could be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted as it exhausted the city, drained it of residents, and eroded civic bonds among those who remained. Roger Chickering offers the most comprehensive history ever written of a German city at war. The book will appeal to urban and military historians, as well as to social and cultural historians.
Reviews & endorsements
"The first impression of this book is that it is a labor of love that took many years to complete. It is a well-balanced account of Freiburg during the Great War..."
--Jeffrey R. Smith, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, German Studies ReviewSee more reviews"Chickering's study of Freiburg does not revise the conclusions of more recent social research, but its thoroughness and insight provide a much more exact understanding of how war actually works on the homefront: requisition, distribution, censorship, taxation, charity, etc. A chapter about the assault on sensory experience... is new and fascinating, as is Chickering's account of the disintegration of organizational life. One can literally feel the war tear Freiburg apart."
--Isabel V. Hull, Cornell University, Journal of Interdisciplinary History"The book is extraordinary, almost a reference book: that is likely how this 26-page monster will be used. Chapter by chapter, Chickering analyses, in Freiburg, the home/front connection/divide, mobilization, propaganda, women, crime, prisoners of war, food, class, and religion, among other subjects...formidable learning is on display." --The International History Review
"...compelling reading for the specialist, students of Wilhemine Germany, and those interested in twentieth-century total war...a welcome addition to the literature on the Great War, for it demonstrates that, in the modern age, few can avoid the fall-out of conflict." --Frederic Krome, University of Cincinnati Clermont College: Canadian Journal of History
"Chickering's goal, he tells us, was to produce an account that was "comprehensive, coherent, plausible, and ... easy to read" (p. 9). It is well met." -Jesse Kauffman, H-Urban
"This is the best and most revealing of several recent books dealing with the urban social history of The Great War." -Len Shurtleff, Stand To!
"a marvel of nuance and insight" -Central European History, Michael Geyer
"Chickering's unfailingly observant, detailed and comprehensive study of civilian life in Freiburg in Breisgua during World War I is a marvel of nuance and insight." -Michael Geyer, Central European History
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×Product details
- Date Published: April 2009
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521109772
- length: 648 pages
- dimensions: 229 x 152 x 36 mm
- weight: 0.94kg
- contains: 18 b/w illus.
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction: total war and total history
1. The loveliest place to live in Germany
2. The beginning
3. Visitations
4. Tools and toils of war
5. Collecting things
6. Breakdown
7. The war on the senses
8. Public intimacies
9. War and locality
10. The national community in town
11. Class
12. Transections
13. Fragmentation
14. Exhaustion.
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