The Russian Quality of Life, 1914–1917

Contrary to the views of some historians, prices during the First World War rose faster than wage increases, leading to declining living standards and fueling popular unrest, thus contributing to the 1917 revolutions.     

The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900–1914

J. N. LOCKMAN. Scattered Tracks on the Lawrence Trail: Twelve Essays on T. E. Lawrence. Whitmore Lake, Mich.: Falcon Books, 1996. Pp. xxii, 208. $24.00 (us); ANITA ENGLE. The Nili Spies. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. x, 244. $36.00 (us); YOAV GELBER. Jewish-Transjordanian Relations, 1921-48. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Pordand, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. 320. $37.50 (us); MICHAEL J. COHEN. Fighting World War Three from the Middle East: Allied Contingency Plans, 1945-1954. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. xv, 349. $24.00 (us), paper; P. J. VATIKIOTIS. The Middle East: From the End of Empire to the End of the Cold War. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. Pp. xi, 284. $65.00 (us); YEZID SXYIGK. Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. Pp. xliv, 953. £70.00; HAROLD M. CUBERT. ThePFLP's Changing Role in the Middle East. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Pordand, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. xiii, 235. $47.50 (us); MAJID KHADDURI and EDMUND GHAREEB. War in the Gulf, 1990-91: The Iraq-Kuwait Conflict and Its Implications. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. x, 299. $39-95 (CDN); KEMAL KIRISCI and GARETH M. WINROW. The Kurdish Question and Turkey: An Example of a Trans-state Ethnic Conflict. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. xvi, 237. $45.00 (us); ZEEV MAOZ, ed. Regional Security in the Middle East: Past, Present, and Future. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. 208. $42.50 (us); EFRAIM KARSH, ed. Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security. London: Frank Cass, 1996; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. 298. $37.50 (us); AHARON LEVRAN. Israeli Strategy after Desert Storm: Lessons of the Second Gulf War. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. ix, 169. $47.50 (us).     

The Field Artillery Revolution and the European Military Balance, 1890–1914

ABSTRACT

This article centres on the introduction of the French 75mm light field gun, and its impact on the European military balance in the two decades before the First World War. It argues that the 75mm (and particularly its new recoil-absorption mechanism) dramatically accelerated the rate of fire and gave France a major military advantage over Germany between c. 1899 and 1906. Subsequently the application of the new technology to howitzers and heavy artillery enabled Germany to redress the balance. On the eve of war, however, Germany's leaders feared a new round of French and Russian emulation, and this fear influenced their policy in the July 1914 crisis. The article also examines the failure to forestall the quick-firing revolution at the First Hague Peace Conference; the new technology's role in the First Moroccan Crisis; its dissemination across Europe and the Franco-German competition to amass reserves of shells.     

The place of drink: Temperance and the public, 1856–1914

Discussions of the place of drink in Britain between 1856 and 1914 were centrally concerned with alcohol as a public problem. Temperance organizations like the United Kingdom Alliance largely abandoned their attempts to reform individuals and instead demanded the prohibition of drink sales. This new concern for the public sphere of politics and public opinion was matched by a new sensitivity to the social contexts of drinking, the role of the drink trade and rituals of conviviality. Temperance documents thus allow us to glimpse two new senses of the public: a wider public sphere, in which the Alliance sought to organize public opinion through lectures, the press and the preparation of moral statistics; and a space of social interaction governed by rational behaviour and ideals of citizenship. It is also possible to construct a contrasting, 'customary', sense of public space based upon drink as a form of gift exchange which symbolized strong bonds of reciprocity. In striving to replace these ties with more abstract and political senses of citizenship and democratic rights, temperance workers played a part in the remaking of understandings of public space as a mirror image of the public sphere.