As France entered the 20th century, it embodied, for many people, and to many socialists, the ideals of liberty, egality and fraternity that had been the pillars underpinning the revolution of 1789. Surrounded on all sides by kingdoms and empires,… Continue Reading
The First World War is still widely perceived to be a white man’s war based on the Western front. Popular images of brave young white men dying for king and country dominate museum exhibits. But some 4 million non-white men… Continue Reading
In the 1916 novel Under Fire: The Story of a Squad, Henri Barbusse vividly describes the experience of the First World War.1 By means of this book, which won the Prix Goncourt the same year, Barbusse, a French writer and… Continue Reading
In Kiev a strike began in the railway workshops…the immediate cause was miserable conditions of labour and wage demands were presented… During the night two delegates of the railwaymen were arrested. The strikers immediately demanded their release…they decided not to… Continue Reading
On 4 August 1914 social democratic deputies in both the German Reichstag and the French Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously for war credits.1 Among those who voted on that day were deputies who had, less than a week earlier, met… Continue Reading
The anniversary of the First World War has already made clear the extent to which the history of the war is contested. For David Cameron, the planned commemoration costing £50 million will be a: “commemoration that captures our national spirit… Continue Reading