| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the Journal of Social History online. About 338 words from this article are provided below; about 709 words remain.

If you are an individual subscriber to the Journal of Social History, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Journal of Social History, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of Social History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to the journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.2 | The History Cooperative

REVIEWS

The British Working Class and Enthusiasm for War, 1914-1916. By David Silbey (London: Frank Cass, 2005. x plus 189 pp.).
This brief book, containing just 131 pages of text, attempts to explain why working-class Britons responded enthusiastically to the outbreak of war in 1914. Although impoverished, often isolated from the political system, and having almost as much suspicion about their own government as that of Germany, working-class men nevertheless volunteered in numbers so large that they overwhelmed the British recruitment and training systems. This important question is far too complex for a book this small, leaving us with more data than analysis and more questions than answers.	1
The Great Britain of 1914 that Silbey describes was "on the edge of an appalling catastrophe" (Leo Amery quoted on 17). To be sure, the question of Irish Home Rule added to the tensions inside Britain, and the suffrage controversy divided Britons on an issue with both political and emotional overtones. Still, to depict Britain as "on the edge of a civil war, a sex war, and a class war" surely overstates the point (17). This inaccurate image of a society coming apart at the seams is used to frame the problem and to provide a contrast to the willingness of Britons to fight for that same society.	2
Silbey's explanation for British war enthusiasm follows a well-worn course. He argues that two factors were paramount. First, the advent of a national media network and mass literacy led to a connection between the working class and the goals of the nation and the empire. Seeing themselves as members of that nation and empire, men came to identify with Britain, even if their understandings were often conditioned by local loyalties. Serving in the British Army, then, meant not just defending the foreign policy goals of Whitehall, but defending one's family, network of friends, and town. This analysis somehow assumes that literacy and newspapers were required to make men feel a connection to their homes and families.	. . .

There are about 709 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.