Behind the Front (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521837613)

Until now scholars have looked for the source of the indomitable Tommy morale on the Western Front in innate British bloody-mindedness and irony, not to mention material concerns such as leave, food, rum, brothels, regimental pride, and male bonding. However, re-examining previously used sources alongside never-before consulted archives, Craig Gibson shifts the focus away from battle and the trenches to times behind the front, where the British intermingled with a vast population of allied civilians, whom Lord Kitchener had instructed the troops to 'avoid'. Besides providing a comprehensive examination of soldiers' encounters with local French and Belgian inhabitants which were not only unavoidable but also challenging, symbiotic and uplifting in equal measure, Gibson contends that such relationships were crucial to how the war was fought on the Western Front and, ultimately, to British victory in 1918. What emerges is a novel interpretation of the British and Dominion soldier at war.

Author: Craig Gibson
ISBN-10: 0521837618
ISBN-13: 9780521837613
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/27/2014
Pages: 480
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2014 pg. 521