Review Article: Refighting the First World War

Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig. Decisions for War, 1914–1917. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xvi, 266. $60.00 (US), cloth; $17.99 (US), paper; Michael S. Neiberg. Fighting the Great War: A Global History. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2005. Pp. xx, 395. $27.95 (US); Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson. The Somme. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005. Pp. vi, 358. $35.00 (US); David Stevenson. 1914–1918: The History of the First World War. London: Allen Lane, Penguin Books, 2004. Pp. xxii, 728. £25.00.     

Big Data and the Military: First World War Personnel Records in Australia,Britain, Canada,New Zealand and British Africa

The digitisation of a large number of First World War personnel files in different countries permits novel big data analyses that contribute in important ways to the histories of the British Empire and of individual countries including Australia. Mass digitisation is very recent; we are only beginning to realise the power of the new resources. In this article we highlight recent use of First World War datasets for non-First World War research questions as an example of the potential uses of big data for historians. Much of the new research considers aspects of living standards and health that are not accessible from other sources.     

The Patriot Game: Russia and the First World War

D.C.B. LTEVEN. Russia and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Pp. 213. $25.00 (US); LEWIS H. SIEGELBAUM. The Politics of Industrial Mobilization in Russia, 1915–1917: A Study of the War-Industries Committees. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Pp. xix, 312. $27.50 (US); WTLLIAM OLEASON. Alexander Guchkov and the End of the Russian Empire. Independence Square, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1983 (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 73, Part 3, 1983). Pp. 90. No price available.     

Jesus and the Ideal of the Manly Man in New Zealand after World War One

This article investigates attempts to portray Jesus as a “manly Man” for “manly men” in the wake of World War One. The Jesus that emerged as a result of this enterprise was a heroic personality formed through interplay between ideals about soldiers and Christ. Whilst only some military virtues were valued — and only in particular forms — even these proved problematic in certain respects. In particular, attempts to integrate soldierly and moral manliness, especially through resurgent use of notions like chivalry and crusade, failed to connect with soldiers’ actual experiences. Nonetheless, the manly Jesus represented an important religious response to World War One. It illuminated much about New Zealand religion and religious interaction with visions of ideal manhood. In particular, visions of a manly Jesus highlighted that ideals of moral and domestic manhood and more assertive ones coexisted in a state of tension.     

Review Article: The First World War Imagined

ALFREDO BONADEO. Mark of the Beast: Death and Degradation in the Literature of the Great War. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989. Pp. viii, 172. $19.00 (US)

SAMUEL HYNES. A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture. London: Bodley Head, 1990. Pp. xii, 514. £20.00.