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'At Duty's Call'

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In this book, Reader attempts to understand the extraordinary mass voluntary enlistment of two and a half million men in the British army in the first sixteenth months of the Great War
Paperback / softback
176 Pages
02-August-1988
$71.47
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The Victorian private solider was a despised figure. A working man had to be desperate indeed to take the Queen's shilling. Yet in the first sixteen months of the Great War two and a half million men from the UK and many more from the empire, flocked to the colours without any form of legal compulsion. There had never been a volunteer army like it.
What was in the air of England in the generation or so before 1914 to bring about such collective exultation? How did it come about that, in a society which in oft-proclaimed contrast to Germany rejected conscription and prided itself on having no taint of militarism, men could be induced to volunteer in such numbers? The nation's general state of mind, system of values and set of attitudes derived largely from the upper middle class, which had emerged and become dominant during the nineteenth century. The book examines the phenomenon of 1914 and the views held by people of that class, since it was under their leadership that the country went to war.

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    Product Details
    ISBN-13
    9780719097539
    Author
    W. J. Reader
    Publisher
    Manchester University Press
    Published
    02-August-1988
    Format
    Paperback / softback
    Pages
    176

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    $71.47
    Ships in 3-5 business days

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    'At Duty's Call'

    $71.47

    Description

    The Victorian private solider was a despised figure. A working man had to be desperate indeed to take the Queen's shilling. Yet in the first sixteen months of the Great War two and a half million men from the UK and many more from the empire, flocked to the colours without any form of legal compulsion. There had never been a volunteer army like it.
    What was in the air of England in the generation or so before 1914 to bring about such collective exultation? How did it come about that, in a society which in oft-proclaimed contrast to Germany rejected conscription and prided itself on having no taint of militarism, men could be induced to volunteer in such numbers? The nation's general state of mind, system of values and set of attitudes derived largely from the upper middle class, which had emerged and become dominant during the nineteenth century. The book examines the phenomenon of 1914 and the views held by people of that class, since it was under their leadership that the country went to war.

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