A history "from below", this book is a study of the cultural and social consequences of British working class women's practical engagement in the First World War. It aims to transform our understanding of the nature and scope of "war" as a cultural and social category, one that constructs myths of class and gender solidarity, while manipulating class loyalties, and fueling class distinctions and divisions. Because cultural identity is always mediated by class and by material conditions, an examination of the lives, oral narratives, factory newspapers and other writings of working class women proves that during and after the First World War these women were transforming Britain's cultural politics.
Women's War Work, 1914-1919 - The Cultural Response - The Dangers of
First World War Work - Working-Class Women's Factory Newspapers - D.O.R.A.
and Women's Social and Domestic Lives During the War - Women's Work and
Maternity - Demobilization and the Cost of the War - Conclusion
CLAIRE A. CULLETON is Associate Professor of English at Kent State University. She has written several articles and chapters on women, war and culture, and has written essays, chapters and a book on James Joyce.
