The National Archives | Exhibitions & Learning online | First World War

The National Archives > Exhibitions > First World War

The war and the changing face of British society

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The Imperial War Museum's collections include original documents, published material, photographs, artwork, exhibits, film and sound recordings - see the IWM website for further details regarding access to their research facilities.

General

Beckett, I and Simpson, K (eds), A Nation in Arms: A social study of the British army in the First World War (Manchester, 1995).
Bourne, J, Britain and the Great War 1914-18 (London, 1989).
Buitenhuis P, The Great War of Words: Literature as propaganda, 1914-18 and after (London, 1989).

Constantine, S, Kirby, M and Rose, M, The First World War in British History (London, 1995).

Ferguson, N, The Pity of War (London, 1998).
French, D, British Strategy and War Aims, 1914-16 (London, 1986).
French, D, The Strategy of the Lloyd George Coalition, 1916-18 (Oxford, 1995).
Fuller, J, Troop Morale and Popular Culture in the British and Dominion Armies, 1914-1918 (Oxford, 1990).

Horne, J, Labour at War: France and Britain, 1914-1918 (Oxford, 1991).

Liddle, P (ed.), Home Fires and Foreign Fields: British social and military experience in the First World War (London, 1985).
Lloyd George, D, War Memoirs of David Lloyd George (6 vols, New York, 1982).

Marwick, A, The Deluge: British society and the First World War (London, 1991).

Rubin G, War, Law and Labour: The Munitions Acts, state regulation and the unions, 1915-21 (Oxford, 1987).

Sanders, M and Taylor, P, British Propaganda during the First World War, 1914-18 (London, 1982).
Simkins, P, Kitchener's Army: The raising of the New Armies, 1914-16 (Manchester, 1988).

Taylor, A J P, English History 1914-1945 (Oxford, 1965).
Taylor, A J P (ed.), Lloyd George: A diary (London, 1971).
Turner, J (ed.), Britain and the First World War (London, 1988).
Turner, J, British Politics and the Great War (New Haven, 1992).

Wilson, T, The Myriad Faces of War: Britain and the Great War, 1914-1918 (Cambridge, 1986).
Winter, J, The Great War and the British People (London, 1985).

Anti-conscription and conscientious objectors

Bond, B, 'British "Anti-War" Writers and Their Critics' in Cecil, H and Liddle, P (eds), Facing Armageddon: The First World War experienced (London, 1996).

Carsten, F, War against War: British and German radical movements in the First World War (London, 1982).

Kennedy, T, Hound of Conscience: A history of the No-Conscription Fellowship 1914-1919 (Arkansas, 1991).

Robbins, K, The Abolition of War: The 'Peace Movement' in Britain, 1914-1919 (Cardiff, 1976).
Rempel, R (ed.), Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18: Bertrand Russell (London, 1995).
Russell, B, Portraits from Memory (London, 1958).

Swartz, M, The Union of Democratic Control in British Politics during the First World War (Oxford, 1971).

Winter, J, Socialism and the Challenge of War: Ideas and politics in Britain (London, 1974).

Espionage

Andrew, C, Secret Service: The making of the British intelligence community (London, 1985).

Beesly, P, Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914-18 (London, 1982).

Childers, E, The Riddle of the Sands (Oxford, 1988).

French, D, 'Spy Fever in Britain, 1900-1915', Historical Journal (1978).

Hiley, N, 'Counter-Espionage and Security in Great Britain during the First World War', English Historical Review (1986).

Sellers, L, Shot in the Tower: The story of the spies executed in the Tower of London during the First World War (London, 1997).

Women and the First World War

Braybon, G, Women Workers in the First World War (London, 1989).
Braybon, G and Summerfield, P, Out of the Cage: Women's experiences in two world wars (London, 1987).

Condell, D and Liddiard, J (eds), Working For Victory? Images of women in the First World War, 1914-1918 (London, 1987).

Higonnet, M, Jenson, J, Michel, S and Weitz, M, Behind the Lines: Gender and the two world wars (New Haven, 1987).

Ineson, A, Science, Technology, Medicine, Welfare and the Labour Process: Women munition workers in the First World War (Brighton, 1981).

Khan, N, Women's Poetry of the First World War (Brighton, 1988).

Thomas, G, Life on All Fronts: Women in the First World War (Cambridge, 1989).

Wall, R and Winter, J (eds), The Upheaval of War (Cambridge, 1988).

Websites

Please note that these links are provided to facilitate further research. The National Archives does not endorse the information given on these sites in any way.

The First World War: The Home Front
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWhome.htm

Messages Home
http://learningcurve.pro.gov.uk/greatwar/messages/frameset.htm

'Take Up the Sword of Justice': British Posters of World War One
http://gulib.lausun.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/britpost/britpost.htm