For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War (Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare)

"This is a ground-breaking history of the British monarchy in the First World War and of the social and cultural functions of monarchism in the British war effort. Heather Jones examines how the conflict changed British cultural attitudes to the monarchy, arguing that the conflict ultimately helped to consolidate the crown's sacralised status. She looks at how the monarchy engaged with war recruitment, bereavement, gender norms, as well as at its political and military powers and its relationship with Ireland and the empire. She considers the role that monarchism played in military culture and examines royal visits to the front, as well as the monarchy's role in home front morale and in interwar war commemoration. Her findings suggest that the rise of republicanism in wartime Britain has been overestimated and that war commemoration was central to the monarchy's revered interwar status up to the abdication crisis"-- Provided by publisher 04.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 1 05.0_pp_v_v_Contents 5 06.0_pp_vi_viii_Figures 6 07.0_pp_ix_ix_Table 9 08.0_pp_x_xiv_Acknowledgements 10 09.0_pp_1_19_Introduction 15 10.0_pp_20_40_The_Monarchy_and_Wartime_Political_Power 34 11.0_pp_41_168_The_Role_of_the_British_Monarchy_in_Cultural_Mobilisation_for_War 55 11.1_pp_43_100_Monarchist_Mentalities_and_British_Mobilisation_19141916 57 11.2_pp_101_168_Monarchist_Culture_and_Combatant_Practices 115 12.0_pp_169_322_The_Emperors_New_Clothes 183 12.1_pp_171_244_The_Royal_Body_in_Wartime 185 12.2_pp_245_322_De-Sacralisation_Discourses 259 13.0_pp_323_404_The_Unknown_Soldier 337 13.1_pp_325_360_The_Monarchy_and_the_Armistice 339 13.2_pp_361_404_The_Monarchys_Role_in_Sacralising_Post-War_Commemoration 375 14.0_pp_405_412_Conclusion 419 15.0_pp_413_494_Notes 427 16.0_pp_495_541_Bibliography 509 17.0_pp_542_576_Index 556 This is a ground-breaking history of the British monarchy in the First World War and of the social and cultural functions that monarchism played. It is the first study to fully explore the role of the monarchy during the war and challenges assumptions that the conflict undermined the crown.