The First World War on the Home Front

[yperman]

Good morning,

I wondered if anyone has read yet Terry Chapman's 'The First World War on the Home Front' yet? I gather it has been recently released but Amazon does not have any reviews.

I will be very grateful for any comments.

Yperman

[bootneck]

I have just finished reading it after getting it out of the library and found it OK as an introductory book; however, I was disappointed as the cover gives the author as Terry Charman Senior IWM Historian and was suprised to find there are no foot or end notes and the bibliography was to my mind thin. I was probably expecting something more substantial. I have a number of books on the subject and have done some research on to aspects of the Home Front and am aware of how vast the subject is.

Bootneck

[yperman]

Bootneck thank you for your feedback. Is there a book you would recommend as an introduction to the Home Front?

Yperman

[John_Hartley]

I bought it as part of my research for my own forthcoming book (about food during the war). Thought it OK as a broad brush introduction but that was all - it didnt actually add significantly to my general knowledge about the home front. In due course, itwill find its way to the charity shop.

[bootneck]

You can try Richard Van Emden & Steve Humphries All Quiet on the Home Front: An Oral History of Life in Britain during the First World War (2003) but I believe that an updated 2nd edition has recently been published. David Bilton’s The Home Front in the Great War: Aspects of the Conflict 1914-1918, also published in 2003, uses Hull to illustrate various aspects and is well illustrated. It is a personal favourite while there is also Ian Beckett’s Home Front 1914-18: How Britain Survived the Great War (TNA, 2006) which is also well illustrated. They are all easy to read and I must admit none of them have foot or end notes.

There are also many books on British Society during the period which are also useful. I would recommend Gerard J DeGroot’s Blighty: British Society in the Era of the Great War (1996) and Adrian Gregory’s The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War (Cambridge, 2008).

However, a trawl of Amazon gives you many others.

I saw a review of Terry Charman’s book in a genealogical magazine this morning which also stated his position as if to prove his credentials.

Bootneck

[yperman]

Many thanks for your suggestions and the titles. Amazon here I come!

Yperman

[CGM]

You could look at The Impact of Catastrophe - the people of Essex and the First World War (1914 - 1920) by Paul Rusiecki.

Published by the Essex Record Office. 2008. ISBN 978-1-898529-28-6.

It is 454 pages long and packed with information/facts.

A flip through shows few pages without footnotes.

Information comes from 13 Essex newspapers, Borough Council Records, several Essex libraries, diaries and, of course The Essex Record Office.

The author is a historian (PhD) and a History teacher.

Also a volunteer researcher for the Victoria County History of Essex and a regional volunteer for the War Memorials Trust.

CGM

[Le_Treport]

An interesting-enough read, although I found it a bit unstructured - i.e. lots of quotes from the diaries/stories but not held together enough to drive the reading along, if that makes sense.

I also found the continual spelling out of pre-decimal currencies and imperial weights disruptive to my reading. For instance: Sugar cost 1/6d [one shilling and sixpence] per lb [pound], butter was 2s 4d [two shillings and fourpence] per lb [pound]. Or an average soldier weight x stone [y kilo, z pounds]. A simple table at the start would have made it easier to read!

[daggers]

Our small, local WH Smith has this book (First World War on the Home Front) in a shelf marked '75% off', at 'only £5.'

There were some others on WW1, also reduced but I did not note them down.

D