THE HOME FRONT IN WORLD WAR I, 1914–1918 Term paper

World War I ushered in a century of total war, a form of warfare that increasingly blurred the distinction between soldiers at the battlefront and civilians at the home front. By the end of the war in 1918 the patterns of daily life at home had changed forever. The staggering losses of men and material had forced all belligerents to adopt conscription, rationing, and economic planning. In addition to putting men into uniform, in Germany conscription also meant obligatory labor service for all men between the ages of seventeen and sixty. But these measures were not enough to meet demands. In Britain, France, and Germany, women joined the work force in record numbers. The labor force at Krupp, Germany’s premier munitions maker, was nearly 40 percent female in 1916, and in Britain more than 2 million women were in the labor force. By 1916 France and Germany had issued 67 million people ration cards, limiting their consumption of meat, sugar, bread, and fuel. German bakers sold “war bread” made from wheat mixed with potatoes. French workers were asked to give up meat two days a week and forgo pastry one day a week. Britain did not issue ration cards, but the government imposed voluntary rationing of butter and controlled the sale of sugar. Wartime pressures also convinced the British government to regulate closely the hours pubs could remain open. “Queuing” became the new word for waiting in line for goods and services in wartime Britain. Food scarcities on the home front spiked mortality rates. Civilian death rates in 1918 were 37 percent higher than pre-1914 rates, and the European birth rate in 1918 was 40 percent below that of 1914. In Russia, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Serbia, and Bulgaria, home front conditions were much worse; bread riots in Russia in 1917 triggered the Russian Revolution and the eventual exit of Russia from the war. If the feminization of the work force was the most visible change on the home front during World War I, two other wartime experiences helped to shape the postwar world. First, to meet wartime demands, governments grew enormously. France added 291 new war commissions to oversee wartime production, while Germany employed 4,000 bureaucrats just to regulate foreign commerce. Second, all governments encouraged the growth of large-scale businesses. Companies such as I. G. Farben in Germany, Vickers in England, and Renault in France not only provided weapons for the war, but now became the principal manufacturing centers for peacetime production, employing thousands of workers in the postwar world.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Research the ration system for civilians used in World War I. Many nutritionists believe reduced rations actually resulted in a healthier diet. Agree or disagree, providing reasons for your position.
2. The opening and closing hours of English pubs, established during the war, extended well into the 1990s. Why did the British government continue these regulations? What are the closing hours of pubs today?
3. “Queuing” is but one reminder of words associated with the home front that continue to be used today. Use Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory (see Suggested Sources) and other sources to write a paper on ways in which World War I changed the English language.
4. Investigate the role of women in World War I. What were the most significant political and social consequences of the feminization of work during the war?
5. Trace the development of one of the large World War I arms manufacturers such as Krupp, Vickers, I.G. Farben or Renault. Use Gerd Hardach, The First World War, 1914–1918 and William Manchester, The Arms of Krupp: 1587–1968 (see Suggested Sources).
6. Read Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth (see Suggested Sources) and write an essay on how she viewed life in England during the war.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Suffrage Movement in Britain Before World War I, 1906–1914” (#6), “The Battle of the Somme, 1916” (#7), and “The 1917 Russian Revolution” (#10). Search under labor unions, women’s rights, and pacifism.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Brittain, Vera. Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900–1925. New York: Macmillan, 1933. A most readable account of the home front in England.

Carlotti, Francçois. “World War I: A Frenchman’ s Recollections.” American Scholar 57 (Spring 1988): 283–89. A vivid memoir of a little French boy living in wartime France.
Secondary Sources

Becker, Jean-Jacques. The Great War and the French People. Translated by Arnold Pomerans. Dover, N.H.: Berg, 1985. The most complete account of the French home front.

Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975. An imaginative account of how the prose and poetry of World War I forever changed the English language.

The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century. [videorecording] A KCET/BBC co-production in association with the Imperial War Museum. Distributed by PBS Video, 1996. Includes very good contemporary footage of everyday life for civilians during the war.

Hardach, Gerd. The First World War, 1914–1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. A solid economic analysis that is particularly good on the German home front.

Kochka, Jürgen. “The First World War and the ‘Mittlestand’: German Artisans and White Collar Workers.” Journal of Contemporary History 8 (1973): 101–24. A good portrayal of how middle-class Germans were affected by the war.

Manchester, William. The Arms of Krupp: 1587–1968. Boston: Little, Brown, 1968. A well written study of Germany’s leading arms manufacturer.

Marwick, Arthur. The Deluge: British Society and the First World War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1965. A good starting point for the British home front.

Williams, John. The Other Battleground: The Home Fronts: Britain, France and Germany, 1914–1918. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1972. A solid account for Britain and France.