Fighting Different Wars: Experience, Memory, and the First World War in Britain

by Janet S.K. Watson

Janet Watson's study of war and memory uses published and unpublished British wartime and retrospective writings concerning World War I. Watson examines differing attitudes to this war among men and women, across different social classes, and in different periods. She concludes that participants often saw their experience - lived and remembered- as either work or service. In fact, far from having a united front, many active participants were 'fighting different wars', and this process only continued in the decades following peace.

Genres: History, World War I

Paperback

First published February 19, 2004

Reviews

[Nicola12345]

Read for uni but I’m counting it🤷🏼‍♀️

[Steelwhisper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too revisionist for comfort. It all depends on which accounts you select for what you want to say. This selection is very one-sided and defends warfare way beyond what people truly said or were allowed to say.

[AskHistorians]

Examining the lived experiences of men and women, together, in WW1. Her chapter on nursing, how nurses were perceived, and how nurses figure into the historical myths of the war, is particularly excellent.