Beyond the Home Front: Women's Autobiographical Writing of the Two World Wars - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0333670167 ISBN 13: 9780333670163

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997

Synopsis

How women perceived the world wars of this century is markedly different from the common perception of how these wars affected their lives. Drawing on a broad variety of sources, many long out of print, this anthology brings together the autobiographical accounts of both famous and ordinary women to provide a new view of the changing role of women as they experienced the sorrows, the terrors and the occasional joys of war in the twentieth century.

About this title

From the Author

Womens' lives in times of total war
War, in its increasing totality, has been the defining experience of our century. Although by its very definition, total war is waged against entire populations, in the popular imagination, war remains "men's business," and women occupy only peripheral positions on the "home front" either as the grieving mother, the tender nurse, or the cold-hearted female profiting from men's sacrifice. From this perspective, men in times of war hold center-stage, while women wait anxiously in the wings for the outcome that will decide their fate. Yet when we examine the records that women in wartime have left behind them, we ought not to be surprised that they saw their lives rather differently. During the First World War, women ardently sought inclusion as the price to be paid for citizenship and equality. They frequently rejected the role imposed on them by government propaganda as the swooning victim of enemy brutality. Twenty years later, robbed of any semblance of protected status, they reached deeply into their female experience to find ways to avoid the victimization thrust on them by total war and to gain what measure of control over their lives that they could. The selections in Beyond the Home Front illustrate the richness and complexity of women's wartime lives. All autobiographical, chosen for the power of their literary expression as well as for their content, they come from British, European, and North American sources, many long out of print. This volume helps to reclaim women's experience of war as part of the universal experience of the twentieth century, different from that of men, but not as different as we may have thought.

From the Back Cover

In Beyond the Home Front, Yvonne M. Klein presents selections from autobiographical writing by women in the two World Wars that illustrate the richness and complexity of women's wartime lives. The collection reminds us that although women generally did not take up arms, their war-stories are neither peripheral nor secondary to the real story of the wars. This volume helps to reclaim women's experience of war as part of the universal experience of the twentieth century, different from that of men, but not as different as might be thought. The volume, which will appeal to the general reader as well as to the student of history and literature, includes contextual introductions as well as brief biographies of each of the writers.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0333670167
• ISBN 13: 9780333670163
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Klein Yvonne M.