Synopses & Reviews
After the Great War, Veterans were a new transnational mass phenomenon. Their status raised a number of new questions about the presence of ex-soldiers in society, their entitlement in terms of welfare (pensions, disability benefits, etc), and their role in politics and on the international stage. This volume sets national expertise within a transnational framework. It shows traditions of internationalism and of commitment to international institutions among former soldiers that even survived into the post-1945 world. The volume discusses extent and impact of international veterans' organisations such as CIAMAC and FIDAC and draws out important comparative points between well-researched and documented movements (i.e. France, Britain, Germany) and those that are less well-known. Certainly in terms of geography, the project will show that these cultures did not exclude any part of formerly belligerent Europe, and that 'fraternal links' between veterans branched out across the continent and beyond. The volume explores these transformations in the memory of war and the identity of veterans in the interwar period throughout Europe and the wider world.
Synopsis
After the Great War, Veterans were a new transnational mass phenomenon. This volume uses case studies to discuss the extent and impact of international veterans' organisations and draws out important comparative points between well-researched and documented movements and those that are less well-known.
About the Author
Dr Julia Eichenberg teaches Modern European History at Humboldt Universität Berlin. After completing her Dr.phil. at Universität Tübingen, she has held fellowships at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. She has published on paramilitary violence, veterans' welfare, and international collaboration in the interwar period. Her book on Polish veterans and their international contacts was published by Oldenbourg, Munich. She recently started a project on exile governments in London, 1940-1945 Dr John Paul Newman lectures in Modern European History at NUI Maynooth. He is currently preparing a monographic study of the wartime generation in interwar Yugoslavia, provisionally titled Embattled Kingdom: The South Slav Wartime Generation and the Breaking of Yugoslavia 1918-1945.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Great War and Veterans' Internationalism; Julia Eichenberg and John Paul Newman
PART I: CULTURES OF VICTORY
1.René Cassin and the Victory of French Citizens-Soldiers; Antoine Prost
2. 'The Legion that Sailed but Never Went'. The British Legion and the Munich Crisis of 1938; Niall Barr
3. Well-Armed Internationalism: American Veteran Organizations and the Crafting of an "Associated" Veterans' Internationalism, 1919-1939; Stephen Ortiz
PART II: ASPIRATIONAL ALLIES
4. Polish Eagles and Peace Doves. Polish Veterans between Nationalism and Internationalism; Julia Eichenberg
5.Allied Yugoslavia. Serbian Great War Veterans and their Internationalist Ties; John Paul Newman
6. Social Benefits and the Rhetoric of Peace in Czechoslovak Veteran Organizations; Natali Stegmann
PART III: THE REVISIONIST CHALLENGE
7.German Veterans' Associations and the Culture of Peace: The Case oft he Reichsbanner; William Mulligan
8.The Italian Associazione Nazionale Mutilati e Invalidi di Guerra and Its International Liaisons in the Post Great War Era; Martina Salvante
PART IV:THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION
9.International Veterans' Organizations and the Promotion of Disarmament between the Two World Wars; Thomas Davies
10. Beyond Cultures of Victory and Cultures of Defeat? Inter-war Veteran Internationalism; John HorneBibliography