Citizen Soldiers: The Liverpool Territorials In The First World War (studies In The Social And Cultural History Of Modern Warfare)

This page intentionally left blank Citizen Soldiers The popular image of the British soldier in the First World War is of a passive, obedient victim, caught up in events beyond his control, and isolated from civilian society. This book offers a different vision of the soldier’s experience of war. Using letters, diaries and official sources relating to Liverpool units, Helen B. McCartney shows how ordinary men were able to retain their civilian outlook through four years of war and use it to influence their experience in the trenches. These citizen soldiers came to rely on local, civilian loyalties and strong links with home to bolster their morale, whilst their civilian backgrounds and beliefs gave them the ability to challenge those in command if they felt they were being treated unfairly. Citizen Soldiers examines the British soldier not only in his military context but in terms of his local, social and cultural life. It will appeal to anyone wishing to understand how the British soldier thought and behaved during the First World War. H E L E N B . M c C A R T N E Y is a Senior Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London, based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare General Editor Jay Winter Yale University Advisory Editors Omer Bartov Brown University Carol Gluck Columbia University David M. Kennedy Stanford University Paul Kennedy Yale University Antoine Prost Universite´ de Paris-Sorbonne Emmanuel Sivan Hebrew University of Jerusalem Robert Wohl University of California, Los Angeles In recent years the field of modern history has been enriched by the exploration of two parallel histories. These are the social and cultural history of armed conflict, and the impact of military events on social and cultural history. Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare presents the fruits of this growing area of research, reflecting both the colonization of military history by cultural historians and the reciprocal interest of military historians in social and cultural history, to the benefit of both. The series offers the latest scholarship in European and non-European events from the 1850s to the present day. For a list of titles in the series, please see end of book. Citizen Soldiers The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War Helen B. McCartney    Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521848008 © Helen B. McCartney 2005 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2005 - - ---- eBook (EBL) --- eBook (EBL) - - ---- hardback --- hardback Cambridge University Press