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The Home Front: Seeing it Through: Passchendaele & Third Ypres
In the 4th volume of the series The Home Front, the author looks at the main events that happened at home in Britain and in other countries, Allied or enemy as well as the neutral nations during 1917. The text provides an overview of the year and sets out to show the effects of war on the civilian population, how it impacted on their daily lives and how they coped with it. Each book is international in scope and draws parallels between the warring nations in their experiences. As in the previous books the focus is on images in order to best understand how they represented themselves and how their world was portrayed to them and with little censorship - bomb damage was freely shown even though it was obvious that the Germans would get hold of the images. With the text are over 200 photographs and illustrations that are divided into discrete sections of the civilian experience of the war. Readers will be familiar with but a few of the illustrations as most have not been used since they were taken in 1917.
For those on the Home Front, 1917 was a year when Total War started to become an actuality. The U-boat campaign meant that food did not get through resulting in shortages. As a result, more land was worked and people started an allotment. With army's demands for men and material seemingly never ending, there were even fewer men about. The majority of those still working were involved in some form of war work and during the year they were joined by thousands more women keen to do their bit. Women replaced men in many traditional male roles. It was a new world. 1917 was a year of belt-tightening, increasing hard work and strain. It would once again, not be over by Christmas, no matter how much they wished.
For those on the Home Front, 1917 was a year when Total War started to become an actuality. The U-boat campaign meant that food did not get through resulting in shortages. As a result, more land was worked and people started an allotment. With army's demands for men and material seemingly never ending, there were even fewer men about. The majority of those still working were involved in some form of war work and during the year they were joined by thousands more women keen to do their bit. Women replaced men in many traditional male roles. It was a new world. 1917 was a year of belt-tightening, increasing hard work and strain. It would once again, not be over by Christmas, no matter how much they wished.
149 pages, Paperback
Published January 23, 2018
3 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 17, 2021
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I really enjoyed reading this book, this is the second book that I have read in this series and I found it to be full of fascinating photographs. I do like this kind of book where you can look at the images that have been selected to tell the story.
I am a massive fan of social history and this book was excellent. It really illustrated what people were going through in 1917 and they were still unsure at that time as to when the The Great War would end.
The book contains a multitude of black-and-white photographs that are used to tell the story. The text is limited with a few lines commentary on the photos and I think that adds to the impact – the author really has let the photographs tell the story – and it works really well.
I liked that many of the photos selected had not been used before, you can read some books that cover this period and they are using the same stock images and I didn’t find it to be the case with this one, there was a mass of images that I had not seen before. It is 4 stars from me – highly recommended!
I really enjoyed reading this book, this is the second book that I have read in this series and I found it to be full of fascinating photographs. I do like this kind of book where you can look at the images that have been selected to tell the story.
I am a massive fan of social history and this book was excellent. It really illustrated what people were going through in 1917 and they were still unsure at that time as to when the The Great War would end.
The book contains a multitude of black-and-white photographs that are used to tell the story. The text is limited with a few lines commentary on the photos and I think that adds to the impact – the author really has let the photographs tell the story – and it works really well.
I liked that many of the photos selected had not been used before, you can read some books that cover this period and they are using the same stock images and I didn’t find it to be the case with this one, there was a mass of images that I had not seen before. It is 4 stars from me – highly recommended!
August 25, 2018
The cursory, introductory essay details the challenges facing the home front in 1917, the fourth year of the Great War ... trying to be even-handed, the author notes the condition of most of the combatant nations, but primarily Britain, France, and Germany, with added notes for America (who entered the War in this year) and Australia ... the period photographs are stellar, and really bring home the truth of the various situations faced ... a visual equation for the War as fought by civilians ...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews