Great Britain was with its Empire the most powerful of the major belligerents, t…
244 Results
Survey Articles (Regional)
Regional Thematic Articles
This article provides a synthesis of research on bereavement and mourning in Bri…
How did the British nation-state, visibly divided in the early 21st century alon…
The commemoration of the First World War in Britain and Ireland has a complex hi…
Regional Thematic
By Steve Marti
The dominions of Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa …
Although a military failure, the 1916 rebellion transformed Ireland by destroyin…
This article explores how British cinematographers filmed the war and how the fi…
Regional Thematic
By Matthew Johnson
The Great War marked a period of profound upheaval in British politics. The old …
This historiographical piece surveys trends and key interventions in scholarship…
Regional Thematic
By Chris Wrigley
The wartime demand for labour enhanced its economic and political strength. Indu…
The literature produced in Great Britain and Ireland during and after the First …
At the outbreak of war, the populations of Britain and Ireland understood that v…
The First World War had a profound and longstanding effect upon the British econ…
The outbreak of war in 1914 interrupted a political crisis within the United Kin…
Discussions of press and propaganda in the British Isles sometimes focus excessi…
When Europe went to war in 1914, the continental belligerents had plans for the …
Regional Thematic
By Justin Dolan Stover
Several distinct cultural, political, and class-based groups organized paramilit…
During the First World War, hundreds of thousands of men found themselves intern…
British and Irish domestic propaganda evolved patchily throughout the war. It un…
This article considers the challenges faced by Britain’s armies, engineers, scie…
Regional Thematic
By Lois Bibbings
This article considers social conflict and protest within the United Kingdom dur…
This article assesses the place of shell shock in the subjective experience of B…
No British government had ever formed or provided for an army of the size requir…
While Britain financed the war successfully doing so exacted a toll. To meet war…
This article briefly surveys the impact of the First World War on the lives of B…
Encyclopedic Entries
The general trend in aircraft development during World War I was towards better-…
Much like fighter aircraft, World War I reconnaissance and bomber technology adv…
Field Marshal Edmund Allenby was a British army officer who commanded a variety …
On the night of 22-23 April 1918, the Royal Navy attacked the German occupied to…
Norman Angell (birth name Ralph Norman Lane), built a long career as an internat…
Asquith was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the outbreak of war. He form…
Between February 1915 and the Armistice, Germany conducted three submarine campa…
Arthur James Balfour was a British Conservative politician and statesman who ser…
The Balfour Declaration, the document that set the stage for establishing the st…
David Beatty was a British admiral. He is best known for leading Britain’s Battl…
Gertrude Bell’s earlier travels and intellectual interests, alongside her wartim…
Annie Besant (1847-1933) was a British supporter of Indian nationalism. During W…
The "Black and Tans" were British ex-soldiers recruited to reinforce the United …
Bonar Law was leader of the Conservative Party in Britain during the war. He ent…
Between 1914 and 1918 the British Expeditionary Force grew from a small professi…
The British Mandate for Palestine (1918-1948) was the outcome of several factors…
Vera Brittain’s memoir Testament of Youth, and her wartime diary published in 19…
A technique of concealment and protection, a means to deceive but not kill, camo…
Minister plenipotentiary for England in Lisbon, there was consensus about Lancel…
By the beginning of the 20th century, field armies had integrated the combat arm…
Edith Cavell was an English nursing matron executed by the Germans in Brussels o…
The Cenotaph is a major British war memorial. Standing in Whitehall, London, it …
Extracurricular mobilization of children through literature took place between 1…
In December 1914, there were several truces between enemy soldiers along one par…
Churchill was Navy Minister during the early stages of the war but was widely cr…
In a conflict characterized as a Holy War between “right” and “might”, the suppo…
World War I had a profound impact on concepts of citizenship. Not only did hosts…
The basic tactical question for all military powers prior to 1914 was how to app…
Before World War I, coffee had become a popular drink in countries in the northe…
A selection of communication technologies, ancient and modern, was available at …
On 1 November 1914, the German East Asiatic Cruiser Squadron defeated the 4th Br…
Adopted in 1906, HMS Dreadnought represented an innovative battleship design tha…
World War I was not simply a conflict among European states but a global war of …
During the First World War both sides accused each other of employing illegal sm…
During the Battle of the Falklands, the British naval force commanded by Admiral…
Of the two world wars, the First World War was special in that fear figured prom…
A minority section of the women’s movements opposed World War I and organized th…
John Fisher led the Royal Navy in the run-up to and in the early years of the Fi…
The use of portable flamethrowers in combat was a First World War innovation. Th…
Sir John French was the commander of the British Expeditionary Force between Jul…
Gas warfare is a method of war that employs weapons that are designed to cause c…
General Headquarters (GHQ) was the organization that commanded all British and I…
During the First World War Britain became gripped with a Germanophobic hatred in…
The Spring Offensives of 1918 were Germany’s last attempt to defeat the British …
Philip Gibbs was the most celebrated, and arguably the most important, of the Br…
The Grand Fleet was Britain’s most important manifestation of sea power in World…
Robert Graves was a British writer who enlisted in August 1914. He fought at the…
Douglas Haig was Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force from late…
Liberal Secretary of State for War 1905-1912. Haldane’s reforms of the British R…
The hand grenade is a small hand-thrown bomb dating back to antiquity. Advances …
Maurice Hankey was responsible for adapting the British government’s administrat…
Lord Northcliffe was the owner of the influential London newspapers the Daily Ma…
Lord Rothermere owned the London newspapers the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Pict…
At the beginning of the 20th century, two different systems of exercise and trai…
The First World War precipitated a revolution in infantry tactics that changed t…
The campaign for Irish Home Rule lasted from 1870 until 1914. When Home Rule bec…
John Rushworth Jellicoe was a British admiral, technologist and fleet commander.…
On 31 May/1 June 1916 the British Grand Fleet and the German High Sea Fleet clas…
Roger John Brownlow Keyes was a British naval officer of the First World War. As…
The "khaki" general election of 1918 was held in Great Britain almost immediatel…
B.H. Liddell Hart served as a British infantry officer on the Western Front in 1…
Lloyd George was a leading Liberal politician before World War I, who went on to…
Germany’s aerial bombing campaign against Great Britain in the First World War, …
Ramsay MacDonald opposed British entry into the European conflict in 1914. Altho…
Between 1914 and 1918, the machine gun played an ever-increasing role on the bat…
The First World War represents the apex of the ideal of the male warrior hero. B…
This article offers a brief survey of the Canadian-born newspaper baron, Max Ait…
The Great War unfolded on multiple fronts and saw millions of men and women call…
The real naval war in the Mediterranean turned out to be a struggle against Germ…
British mandate Mesopotamia marks the beginning of the formation of modern Iraq.…
The Military Board of Allied Supply, formed in mid-1918, attempted to centralize…
Mine warfare or mining are the terms used to describe the digging of tunnels und…
E. D. Morel was one of the earliest critics of the secret diplomacy and alliance…
Sir Archibald James Murray was Chief of the Imperial General Staff from Septembe…
The First World War fundamentally changed the course of 20th century music. The …
Paul Nash was a British painter who served as an infantry officer and an officia…
The Anglo-German naval race was the most spectacular strand of the general marit…
William Orpen, portraitist and subject painter, born in Dublin, was one of the m…
Wilfred Owen was a poet and soldier who wrote some of the most memorable poems o…
In World War I, the mobility of troops was of major strategic importance. New tr…
During World War I, sport competitions became very popular amongst the soldiers …
Prostitution was considered among the most important societal problems facing ci…
The rear area was the space behind the front, linking the operational zone with …
Reconnaissance was aviation’s most important mission in the Great War. When war …
The rifle was by far the most common weapon used in the world war. When the majo…
William Robert Robertson was the first British soldier to advance from private t…
Room 40 was a highly secretive British intelligence organization within the dire…
During World War I, motor vehicles took on a key role as transport facilities fo…
The Ruhleben internment camp, situated on the outskirts of Berlin, held British …
This article examines how the outbreak of war in 1914 established Bertrand Russe…
Siegfried Lorraine Sassoon was a British soldier, poet and novelist. His work bi…
Much attention has been accorded to the massive scale of military operations in …
An Irish-born writer and critic, best known as a playwright, George Bernard Shaw…
In 1914, quick-firing field artillery could fire more shells than domestic indus…
The soldier’s personal equipment had a dual purpose: it was intended to enable h…
Soldier’s humour, as expressed in jokes, songs and slang, reflected a dark, iron…
Starting in 1915, periods of leave known as "permissionnaires" played a vital ro…
Spy Fever describes an anxiety or paranoia that enemy spies might be active with…
The steel helmet was invented and fielded in response to increased lethality on …
This article summarises the main wartime stereotypes that defined war propaganda…
Storm troopers were soldiers in specialized assault units, which emerged in the …
During the First World War the German government made extensive use of submarine…
This article briefly introduces the suffragettes and their campaign, reflecting …
The Supreme War Council was an Allied administrative organisation, created by th…
Fernando Tamagnini de Abreu e Silva was a Portuguese general during World War I.…
World War I introduced new technologies and doctrine in a quest to overcome the …
Whether on the Western or Eastern Front, by German, French, British, Canadian, A…
Battle of the Somme was a feature-length British documentary film, released in …
Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend commanded the 6th (Poona) Division in Mesopot…
During World War I, Arnold J. Toynbee, as a member of the Political Intelligence…
"Trench Art" is a genre of folk art comprised of items created in wartime, or fr…
The Union of Democratic Control was a prominent opposition group in Britain that…
The governments of all belligerent countries issued special loans to finance the…
As a long-lasting industrial war, the Great War led to the realization of consid…
In the First World War, war toys were regarded as a means to strengthen children…
One third of the 9.7 million soldiers killed or declared missing during the Grea…
Wireless telegraphy became an integral part of warfare on the ground, in the air…
The YMCA was a Christian charitable organization that provided a range of rest a…
Zeppelins heralded the potential of strategic bombing. Although airships were or…
See Also
This article considers the use and evolution of air power during the First World…
During the First World War millions of animals were utilised for war work, and c…
The First World War and its direct repercussions in the postwar period (revoluti…
New weapons produced during the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s heighten…
The nature of the First World War put an end to traditions for battle painting. …
The term "atrocity" describes an act of violence condemned by contemporaries as …
In the modern era, new forms of mourning and meaning-making for fallen soldiers …
Soldiers’ attitudes towards the Great War are a controversial issue, as they pro…
This article presents cartoonists as patriotic propagandists mobilizing their pe…
Censorship was an indispensable war weapon: its task was to keep the people in a…
The First World War centenary saw an emergence of new portrayals of the conflict…
The centenary of the First World War revealed palpable anxieties around a loss o…
Innovative historical scholarship played an important role in the shaping of mem…
Libraries (local, specialist, and national) contributed in numerous and importan…
This article discusses how European museums – in particular, national war museum…
Mass conscription recast relationships in families, raised minors’ potential as …
By 1914 the leading states had succumbed to varying degrees of militarism, subor…
Thematic
By Peter Geiss
The article discusses the role of the media in the complex international process…
Total war is a controversial term used in the past by politicians, publicists an…
Cultural approaches to the Great War have played a key part in the renewal of Fi…
Thematic
By Birgitta Bader-Zaar
The idea that World War I was a watershed in gender relations has pervaded both …
The end of fighting in 1918 raised hopes for swift and equitable military demobi…
Throughout history, intoxicants were an important part of the war experience. Th…
The internment of enemy aliens in the First World War was a global phenomenon. C…
During the entire war, warring powers used the “secret war” to try to break the …
The First World War played a significant role in the evolution of film both as a…
During the First World War, food became a major issue for military and civilian …
This article discusses the close relationships between national governments, adv…
The rapid spread of epidemics ravaged military personnel and civilians in and ou…
There have been four generations of historical writing about the 1914-1918 war. …
Hospitals framed and configured the convalescence of wounded and sick soldiers d…
This article focuses on the extent to which imperialism contributed to the outbr…
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, establishing both the Leagu…
The article examines international efforts to curb states’ war-making prerogativ…
The international crisis that began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Fer…
Across the major belligerent powers, industrial production and the mobilization …
This article compares the history of labour movements during the war across a ra…
While public memory of the First World War in Europe often focusses on the death…
This article seeks to present an overview of First World War literature across m…
Claims to “just war” formed the basis for the propaganda campaigns of the First …
After the First World War, the general staffs and military geographers of all th…
It is impossible to talk about “the” medical care or “the” medical service of Wo…
What role do representations of the First World War play in media that reach a w…
There is an ongoing debate among historians whether the First World War did in f…
Despite World War I’s reputation as a senseless bloodbath whose military operati…
This essay offers a comparative survey of the practice of military justice among…
This article examines the lessons derived by the military organizations that par…
This article describes the lives and afterlives of the First World War museums i…
The First World War created disfigured and mutilated bodies on a grand scale. Ne…
All of the great belligerent states of World War I were naval powers and engaged…
Many issues surrounding the conduct of war in the years 1914-1918 were imperviou…
The Great War was never considered the “war to end all wars” by the states and a…
The First World War was a global conflict that caught most of the participants i…
In August 1914, a targeted and systematic manipulation of opinion by the media, …
The idea of peace in total war may seem irrelevant, but pacifism, or peace activ…
This paper examines major peace initiatives during World War I. It describes eff…
The First World War represents a watershed in the history of war photography. It…
Post-war economies were beset with problems, ultimately leading to the Great Dep…
The Great War gave new impulses to the further development of public welfare sys…
Word War I had a significant impact on the evolution of the European media scene…
The First World War marked the shift from a 19th century, relatively ad hoc mana…
This article summarizes and compares the principal arguments and strategies of p…
This article explores the policies adopted and implemented against enemy propert…
Raw materials were vital during the First World War. Due to the armaments produc…
National Red Cross societies played a very important role in the First World War…
This article addresses the scale of wartime population displacement in continent…
From the cradle to the grave, popular religion formed a necessary and vital, if …
The paper describes the impact of war on peasantry and its mobilisation in the w…
The military service of teachers and the mobilization of schoolchildren for volu…
Wartime science and technology developed in the context of the Second Industrial…
Allied capacity at sea to sustain global transport and supply determined their a…
This article deals with the nature of social conflict during the war. The length…
This article explores how the anticipation, reality, and memory of sacrifice inf…
Soldier newspapers are a massive, yet little used primary source of the First Wo…
From 1914 to 1918, theatres in all major European cities staged plays – comedies…
A vast array of initiatives designed to counteract the destructiveness of the Fi…
Reflecting current historiography, this article focuses primarily on Christian c…
The debate about the origins of the war remains a vibrant area of historical res…
Regardless of whether it was based on volunteer enlistment or conscription, mass…
This article offers an overview of peacemaking after the First World War from th…
Imperialism shaped almost every facet of international politics from 1898 to 191…
The Great War witnessed mass armies battling with modern, quick-firing weapons s…
Cities — with their comparatively large and dense but also vulnerable population…
This essay traces belligerent policies toward venereal disease (VD) on the fight…
Veterans’ associations formed an influential social movement during the interwar…
This piece explores the visualisation of violence for home front audiences and s…
Despite what some believe, there is still a lot to say and learn about the First…
At its outbreak, newspapers in the Allied and neutral democracies hoped to prese…
Static “trench warfare” belied a dynamic transformation in warfare between 1914 …
The Great War required war-making states to mobilize and sustain the financial r…
In nations where literacy was well-established by 1914, letter-writing was criti…
Military sources provide the primary statistics of war losses and casualties dur…
During the First World War soldiers from all combatant nations suffered from a w…
Through investigating the pivotal role of honour in private and public matters, …
To understand the Great War, one has to understand weapons. Weapons are linked t…
The Western Front, a 400-plus mile stretch of land weaving through France and Be…
It may surprise us to learn that some sectors of the European public were in fav…
This article explores women’s economic, social, and political responses to the F…
Female war reporters from belligerent and neutral countries were present in the …
This article provides an overview of xenophobia during the First World War - nam…