A Nation in Arms

Name: A Nation in Arms
Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)

by I. F. W. Beckett

Amazon

3.6(5)

A Nation in Arms examines the British Army during the First World War, from the small professional force of 1914 to the mass citizen army created by volunteering and conscription. Its contributors consider recruitment, training, command, operations, morale and the relationship between the army and British society, showing how wartime expansion transformed both military institutions and the experience of service between 1914 and 1918.

The transformation affected more than battlefield strength. Recruiting millions of civilians required new systems of training, officer selection, medical care and administration, while families and workplaces had to adapt to prolonged absence and casualty. The volume therefore treats the wartime army as a social institution whose expansion connected the Western Front directly with communities across Britain.