This volume gives students and researchers an insight into British central government in 1914, how and why it altered during the war years and what permanent changes remained when the war was over. The war saw the scope of governmental intervention widened in an unprecedented manner. The contributors to this book analyse the reasons for this expansion and describe how the changes affected the government machine and the lives of the citizens. They consider why some innovations did not survive the coming of peace while others permanently transformed the duties and procedures of government.

This book gives students an informed insight into the British experience in the First World War. The contributors, all established First World War historians, have drawn on their own research and secondary sources to give a succinct account of politics, diplomacy, strategy and social developments during a period of dramatic change. Each chapter gives a concise account of its subject and the chapters are well supported by maps and tables. This is an important textbook for school students and undergraduates which bridges the gap between specialized research on the First World War and the needs of the student reader.

This book gives students an informed insight into the British experience in the First World War. The contributors, all established First World War historians, have drawn on their own research and secondary sources to give a succinct account of politics, diplomacy, strategy and social developments during a period of dramatic change. Each chapter gives a concise account of its subject and the chapters are well supported by maps and tables. This is an important textbook for school students and undergraduates which bridges the gap between specialized research on the First World War and the needs of the student reader.

Anglo-American relations were transformed during the First World War. Britain was already in long-term economic decline relative to the United States, but this decline was accelerated by the war, which was militarily a victory for Britain, but economically a catastrophe. This book sets out the economic, and in particular, the financial relations between the two powers during the war, setting it in the context of the more familiar political and diplomatic relationship. Particular attention is paid to the British war missions sent out to the USA, which were the agents for much of the financial and economic negotiation, and which are rescued here from underserved historical obscurity.

This book illustrates the relationship between British military policy and the development of British war aims during the opening years of the First World War. Basing his work on a wide range of unpublished documentary sources, David French reassesses for the benefit of students and scholars alike what was meant by ‘a war of attrition’.

Because of the exceptionally high proportion of imports in Britain’s food supply and the determined efforts of the enemy to sever the supply lines, efficient management of food resources was an essential element in the British national war effort. This volume was the first comprehensive study of this vital aspect of government strategy and fills a gap in the historiography of this period. This volume provides a balanced picture by drawing together the diverse elements that went into food policy: economic and social trends, international trade relations and labour issues. The author also traces the evolution of food policy during the pre-war planning period and the early part of the war, and analyses the roles of the United States and the labour organizations.

This volume comprehensively describes how British farmers coped with the problems of shortage of labour and other factors of production, as well as assessing how well agriculture performed as a supplier of food to the nation. Use of previously neglected records provides much evidence on issues such as the deployment of substitute labour and the introduction of the tractor into British farming for the first time. Challenging accepted view on the period, the author shows that shortages of labour and other factors of production had only a slight effect on farm output and the national food supply.

Originally published in 1980 ‘Luxury’ Fleet (the phrase was Winston Churchill’s) was the first history of the Imperial German navy from 1888 to 1918. After tracing the historical background to German naval ambitions, the first two sections of the book analyse Admiral Tirpitz’s programme of building a battle fleet strong enough to engage the Royal Navy in the North Sea. The author shows the fleet in its European setting and describes the warships and the attitudes of the officer corps and seamen. The final section of the book discusses the tactical deployment of the German fleet during the First World War, both in home waters and overseas; and it weighs the balance between those who supported fleet actions in preference to those who favoured cruiser and submarine warfare.

The origins of the First World War remain one of the greatest twentieth century historical controversies. In this debate the role of military planning in particular and of militarism in general, are a key focus of attention. Did the military wrest control from the civilians? Were the leaders of Europe eager for a conflict? What military commitments were made between the various alliance blocks? These questions are examined in detail here in eleven essays by distinguished historians and the editor’s introduction provides a focus and draws out the comparative approach to the history of military policies and war plans of the great powers.

This systematic historical and sociological study of the phenomenon of football hooliganism examines the history of crowd disorderliness at association football matches in Britain and assesses both popular and academic explanations of the problem. The authors’ study starts in the 1880s, when professional football first emerged in its modern form, charting the pre and inter-war periods and revealing that England’s World Cup triumph formed a watershed. The changing social composition of football crowds and the changing class structure of British society is discussed and the genesis of modern football hooliganism is explained by tracing it to the cultural conditions and circumstances which reproduce in young working-class males an interest in a publicly expressed aggressive masculine style.