Socialist Women and the Great War 1914-21

Socialist Women and the Great War: Protest Revolution and Commemoration an open access book is the first transnational study of left-wing women and socialist revolution during the First World War and its aftermath. Through a discussion of the key themes related to women and revolution such as anti-militarism and violence democracy and citizenship and experience and life-writing this book sheds new and necessary light on the everyday lives of socialist women in the early 20th century. The participants of the 1918-1919 revolutions in Europe and the accompanying outbreaks of social unrest elsewhere in the world have typically been portrayed as war-weary soldiers and suited committee delegates—in other words as men. Exceptions like Rosa Luxemburg exist but ordinary women are often cast as passive recipients of the vote. This is not true; rather women were pivotal actors in the making imagining and remembering of the social and political upheavals of this time. From wartime strikes to revolutionary violence to issues of suffrage this book reveals how women constructed their own revolutionary selves in order to bring about lasting social change and provides a fresh comparative approach to women's socialist activism. As such this is a vitally important resource for all postgraduates and advanced undergraduates interested in gender studies international relations and the history and legacy of World War I. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollection.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.