Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Twentieth-Century Europe (Daily Life Through History Series)

by Nicholas Atkin

Overview

Expert contributors write on the experiences of civilians in the many wars of twentieth-century Europe. Among the events discussed are the Europeans who lived through occupation and bloodshed in the First World War; the Russians who lived and died in the devastating civil war in 1917-1922, leading eventually to the terrors of Stalinism; the Spaniards of many factions who fought against each other in bloody civil wars; the ordinary people of France, Germany, Britain, Italy and other countries who faced the hardship and horrors of the Second World War; and the ethnic- and religious-based fighting and atrocities, often targeted at civilians, in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 into the twenty-first century. Carefully selected sources for further research help users find additonal information on civilian life during these events. Chapters including vivid accounts of civilians' roles and experiences through wars in twentieth-century Europe are supplemented by recommended print and online resources for further study, a glossary defining important terms and concepts, and a timeline putting events into a chronological context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313056192
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/30/2008
Series:	Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Nicholas Atkin is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Reading, England. His publications include Church and School in Vichy France, 1940-44 (1991), Petain (1997), The French at War, 1934-44 (2001), The Forgotten French: Exiles in the British Isles, 1940-44 (2003), The Fifth French Republic (2005) and, with Frank Tallett, Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism since 1750 (2003).

Table of Contents

Series Foreword     xi
Preface     xv
Acknowledgments     xix
Abbreviations     xxi
Chronology     xxiii
The Daily Life of Civilians in Wartime: Europe's Twentieth-Century Experience   Nicholas Atkin     1
Towards Total War     1
Whose Lives?     6
Daily Life and the People's Wars     10
The Unique and the Universal     15
World War One, 1914-18: Daily Life in Western Societies   Francois Cochet     23
Home and Fighting Fronts at the Start of the War: A Complicated and Ambiguous Relationship     25
The Economic and Social Dimensions of the War     34
The Psychological and Cultural Consequences of the War     40
Conclusions     45
The Daily Lives of Civilians in the Russian Civil War   Sam Johnson     49
The Origins of the War     51
Urban Life     53
The Countryside     61
Evacuation, Refugees, and Famine     65
Daily Life in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39   Michael Richards     73
State, Economy, and Society     74
Mentalities and Ideologies     81
Civil War and Violence     89
Defeat and Victory: Resources, Morale, and the Struggle for Survival     95
Conclusions     100
The Civilian Experience of World War Two: Displacement, Government, Adjustment, Comportment   Nicholas Atkin     105
Displacement     106
Government     114
Adjustment     119
Comportment     129
Conclusions     134
Writing the History of Daily Life in the Cold War   Frank Tallett     141
New Approaches to Military History     141
Civilians in the Cold War     145
When the Cold War Got "Hot"     147
Getting and Spending: Material Conditions and the Cold War     148
Rhetoric and the Culture Wars     154
Conclusions     157
Staying Behind: Civilians in the Post-Yugoslav Wars, 1991-95   Maja Povrzanovic Frykman     163
Yugoslavia: The Political Backdrop     163
The Wars     167
The Myth of Ethnic Conflict     171
Place-Bound Experiences     173
Letters from Zagreb     174
The Bosnian War from Within     177
The Presence of Death     179
Striving for Normality     179
Modes of Resistance      182
Oases of Normality, Imitations of Life     184
Staying Behind: Humiliation and Dignity     187
Glossary     195
Bibliography     201
Index     217
About the Editor and Contributors     229

Editorial Reviews

. . . an asset to all high school media centers as well as public and academic libraries.” —ARBAonline

“…will be of great use to undergraduate, but there is enough for the specialist as well.” —European History Quarterly

From the Publisher