Society in the First World War E-Book

Caroline Playne

• Herausgeber: il glifo ebooks
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

This volume contains four essays by Caroline Playne on the anthropology and social psychology of the First World War:
The Pre-War Mind in Britain (1928)
Society at War, 1914–16 (1931)
Britain Holds on, 1917, 1918 (1933)
The Neuroses of the Nations (1925)
During the Great War, by constant and solitary observation, Caroline Playne (1857-1948) gathered a great mass of documents on the English social life and on the phenomenon of the general consensus to the war. These observations merged into the four books collected here, in which we find a pioneering cultural history of the war that is both astonishing and infinitely interesting. Playne told what she had seen because she witnessed it, but in a way that is anything but candid. She wrote with high analytic skill, knowing she belonged to the small minority who maintained mental lucidity and independent judgment while the world around them defended itself from ruin and mourning with the illusion that events had a need and a purpose.
Playne described the English society she knew, but with the certainty that if she had lived everywhere, and especially in Germany, she would have seen things happen the same way. The Great War was the consequence of an anthropological mutation of mature industrial societies, which had little or nothing to do with national histories because it was a consequence of the loss of the sense of the institutions of our past, not of their memory. This was the assumption and certainty underlying all her work.
European society had wanted, unanimously, to trigger a destructive event of immense proportions, feeling it as a justified end in itself, and had disguised the desire to do this with appearances of motivation, sometimes with declared irrationality, sometimes pretending to restore the violated rationality, but in any case lying to itself. Why? Playne did not know, but we know little more a hundred years later. We need to reconstruct in detail the mindset of the man of the time of the Great War: and Playne, in heroic solitude, has left us these four books full of testimonies, full of reality, and organized to help us to take a step towards solving the enigma of social consensus in the Great War.

Leseprobe

Caroline E. Playne

Society in the First World War

The Pre-War Mind in Britain

Society at War 1914-1916

Britain Holds On 1917, 1918

The Neuroses of the Nations

il glifo ebooks

ISBN:9788897527428

First edition: March 2018 (A)

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Contents

Foreword: Caroline Playne, Pacifist and Social Anthropologist

A Tetralogy on the First World War

The Vision of the Problem of War

Some Implicit Postulates

Sources on Caroline Playne

Note to the 2018 electronic edition

PW - THE PRE-WAR MIND IN BRITAIN

PW - Original title page

PW - PREFACE

PW - INTRODUCTION

PW - Chapter I - A GENERATION IN A HURRY

PW - Chapter II - PANICS AND THE PRESS

PW - Chapter III - THE TEACHING OF MILITARISM

PW - Chapter IV - THE EARLIER IMPERIALISM

PW - Chapter V - THE LATER IMPERIALISM

PW - Chapter VI - IMPERIALIST MOODS

PW - Chapter VII - ANGLO-GERMAN ANTAGONISM

PW - Chapter VIII - THE DAYS BEFORE THE FLOOD

PW - Chapter IX - IN FULLNESS OF TIME

PW - Chapter X - THE BREAKDOWN

PW - Chapter XI - THE FATEFUL PLUNGE

PW - Chapter XII - A SUMMARY AND REACTIONS IN OTHER LANDS

PW - CONCLUSION

PW - INDEX

SW - SOCIETY AT WAR 1914—1916

SW - Original title page

SW - PREFACE

SW - INTRODUCTION

SW - Chapter I - “FALLING IN”

SW 1.1.War Had Come

SW 1.2.Why We Are Fighting

SW 1.3.An Appeal Without Precedent

SW - Chapter II - THE DAY OF IDEALISM

SW 2.1.The Idealism of Those Who Went

SW 2.2.The Ideal They Pursued

SW 2.3.Reactions at Home

SW - Chapter III - THE CITIZENS’ WAR

SW 3.1.War Disposals

SW 3.2.Civilian War Psychology

SW 3.3.Citizens’ War Work

SW 3.4.Some Deeper Concerns

SW - Chapter IV - THE WOMEN’S WAR

SW 4.1.Women’s Ardour

SW 4.2.Homes in War Time

SW 4.3.War Adventures

SW 4.4.Modern Amazons

SW 4.5.Air - Raids

SW - Chapter V - THE STATESMEN’S WAR

SW 5.1.All Out for War

SW 5.2.Pursuing the World War

SW 5.3.The United Will

SW 5.4.Divided Counsels

SW 5.5.War to the Uttermost

SW 5.6.Peace Proposals

SW 5.7.The Knock - Out

SW - Chapter VI - THE FAILURE OF THE CLERICS

SW 6.1.The Real Tragedy

SW 6.2.Our War

SW 6.3.Clerics at the Front

SW 6.4.Fighting Parsons

SW 6.5.Sustaining the War

SW 6.6.I Was Wounded in the House of My Friends

SW - Chapter VII - SOCIETY’S WAR

SW 7.1.Society in Martial Array

SW 7.2.Art and War

SW 7.3.Fortune - Telling

SW 7.4.War Time Talk

SW - Chapter VIII - THE MAD WORLD’S WAR

SW 8.1.War Rumours

SW 8.2.Prophets of Madness

SW 8.3.Spy Mania

SW 8.4.Persecution Mania

SW 8.5.The Conscientious Objectors

SW - Chapter IX - THE BUSINESS OF WAR

SW 9.1.The Press in the War

SW 9.2.Propaganda

SW 9.3.War Finance

SW - Chapter X - THE KNOCK-OUT BLOW

SW 10.1.Was the War of 1914 Won?

SW 10.2.No Peace at any Price

SW - Chapter XI - WAR, MORE WAR

SW 11.1.War an End in Itself

SW 11.2.War’s Burdens Must Be Borne

SW 11.3.Lack of Vital Energy

SW 11.4.War’s Invasion of Social Life

SW - INDEX

BH - BRITAIN HOLDS ON 1917, 1918

BH - Original title page

BH - PREFACE

BH - Chapter I - THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1917

BH 1.1.WITH LLOYD GEORGE IN THE SADDLE

BH 1.2.GERMANY WILL DO HER WORST

BH 1.3.PARLIAMENT RETIRED TO THE BACKGROUND

BH 1.4.THE FIRST RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

BH 1.5.WAR ANOMALIES

BH 1.6.WAR FINANCE

BH - Chapter II - SPRING, 1917

BH 2.1.AMERICA COMES IN

BH 2.2.TOPSY - TURVY OFFICIALISM

BH 2.3.FOOD AND LOW SPIRITS

BH 2.4.THE “KADAVER” STUNT

BH 2.5.WAR WORK

BH 2.6.MEN ON CRUTCHES

BH 2.7.A CHANGE OF VIEW

BH 2.8.WAR PROFITS

BH 2.9.WAR, PEACE AND DIPLOMACY

BH 2.10.WAR IN LONDON

BH - Chapter III - SUMMER, 1917

BH 3.1.DEMOCRATIC AWAKENINGS

BH 3.2.WAR WEARINESS HERE AND THERE

BH 3.3.THE CHURCHES FACE DILEMMA

BH 3.4.THE PRIME MINISTER AND IRRESPONSIBILITY

BH 3.5.THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY

BH 3.6.CONDUCTORS OF WAR POLICY

BH 3.7.A REASONABLE MAN’S PEACE

BH 3.8.THE NATIONAL PARTY

BH 3.9.WAR TIME THRILLS

BH - Chapter IV - THE LAST MONTHS OF 1917

BH 4.1.SOCIALISM IN WAR TIME

BH 4.2.LLOYD GEORGE’S POLITICS.

BH 4.3.TORY PREJUDICES

BH 4.4.BOLOISM

BH 4.5.WAR MORALISTS

BH 4.6.THE ZEALOTS

BH 4.7.THE PEACE OFFENSIVE

BH 4.8.THE LANSDOWNE LETTER

BH 4.9.MOODS AND MOVEMENTS

BH 4.10.THE YEAR CLOSES

BH - Chapter V - MEN AND WOMEN OUT THERE

BH 5.1.THE BLAZING BATTLE FIELDS

BH 5.2.FLOWERS ON SEPULCHRES

BH 5.3.ENGLAND’S SPLENDID DAUGHTERS

BH - Chapter VI - GREAT THOUGHTS AND GAY DOINGS

BH 6.1.“JOHN BULL” CARRIES ON

BH 6.2.GAIETY AS USUAL

BH 6.3.WAR AND ART

BH 6.4.SPINNING THE WAR TOP

BH - Chapter VII - THE EARLY MONTHS, 1918

BH 7.1.THE GRINDING OF THE WAR CHARIOTS

BH 7.2.THE PATRIOTISM OF WAR FINANCE

BH 7.3.UNITED WE STAND

BH 7.4.THE WORLD’S IMPASSE

BH 7.5.THE GERMAN ADVANCE

BH 7.6.EXPLOITING NEUTRAL NATIONS

BH 7.7.THE RESISTERS OF UNENDING WAR

BH 7.8.THE OFFICIAL DICTUM

BH 7.9.THE GLIMMER OF ANOTHER DAY

BH - Chapter VIII - SPRING, 1918. THE CRISIS OF THE WAR

BH 8.1.OVERWHELMING PROBLEMS

BH 8.2.THE CONTINUED ADVANCE

BH 8.3.THE MAN POWER BILL

BH 8.4.THE FOURTH EASTER

BH 8.5.THE CALLOUS THRONG

BH 8.6.RENEWED CHEERFULNESS

BH 8.7.CRIME AND COUNTER CRIME

BH 8.8.ACCUSATIONS AND COUNTER ACCUSATIONS

BH 8.9.THE AMAZING CABINET

BH 8.10.FLAPPER FINANCE

BH 8.11.“THE HAVOC OF THE MIND”

BH - Chapter IX - SUMMER, 1918. THE TURNING POINT

BH 9.1.WAR PROSPERITY

BH 9.2.WAR TIME SCENES

BH 9.3.SLAYING ENEMIES WITH TONGUE AND PEN

BH 9.4.NO TUMBLING INTO PEACE TRAPS

BH 9.5.TROUBLES AT HOME

BH 9.6.THE TURN IN THE TIDE

BH 9.7.NO CHEERFULNESS AT HOME

BH - Chapter X - “ENDING THE WAR”

BH 10.1.THE LAST PEACE TRAP

BH 10.2.A NEW WORLD ORDER

BH 10.3.THE DEBAUCHED PRESS

BH 10.4.FURTHER STRUGGLES FOR PEACE

BH 10.5.THE MYSTERIOUS PLAGUE

BH 10.6.A PLAGUE OF THE SPIRIT

BH 10.7.THE LAST LAP

BH 10.8.ENDING THE WAR

BH 10.9.THE ARMISTICE

BH - Chapter XI - THE WAR AND LATER DAYS

BH 11.1.SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

BH 11.2.PRUSSIAN MILITARISM

BH 11.3.THE CHIEF WAR AIM

BH 11.4.THE AFTERMATH

BH - EPILOGUE

BH E.1.THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WAR PERIOD

BH E.2.THE ANTICLIMAX

BH - INDEX

NN - THE NEUROSES OF THE NATIONS

NN - Original title page

NN - PREFACE

NN - General Introduction

NN - Part I - The Neurosis of Germany

NN - Chapter 1-I - THE NATURE AND SYMPTOMS OF THE GERMAN NEUROSIS

NN - Chapter 1-II - ITS ORIGINS AND GROWTH TRACED IN HISTORY

NN - Chapter 1-III - GERMAN MILITARISM AS THE FOSTERING - GROUND OF NATIONAL NEUROSIS

NN - Chapter 1-IV - THE PAN - GERMAN INTOXICATION

NN - Chapter 1-V - THE INFLUENCE OF THE RULERS OF GERMANY

NN - Chapter 1-VI - THE TENSION OF THE LAST FEW DAYS

NN - PART II - THE NEUROSIS OF FRANCE

NN - Chapter 2-I - THE NATURE AND SYMPTOMS OF THE FRENCH NEUROSIS

NN - Chapter 2-II - THE GROWTH OF FRENCH NEUROSIS AS DISPLAYED IN SOCIAL LIFE, EDUCATIONAL IDEALS AND ART

NN - Chapter 2-III - THE CHARACTER OF THE FRENCH NEUROSIS AS PORTRAYED IN LITERATURE

NN - Chapter 2-IV - THE NEUROSIS OF FRANCE AS REVEALED IN HISTORY AND POLITICS

NN - Chapter 2-V - THE “PAN - FRENCH” AND OTHER GROUPS

NN - Chapter 2-VI - THE NEUROSIS OF THE LAST MONTHS

NN - Chapter 2-VII - THE LAST TENSE DAYS

NN - Chapter 2-VIII - A SUMMARY AND COMPARISON OF THE GROUP - NEUROSES OF FRANCE AND GERMANY

NN - INDEX

Back cover

Caroline Playne

Foreword: Caroline Playne, Pacifist and Social Anthropologist

A Tetralogy on the First World War

A general history of the Great War[1] written by Marc Ferro about fifty years ago contains a reference to Caroline Playne, called “an American then living in London”: an incorrect description, because the person we speak of was certainly English. Caroline Playne had written some books in which she described the early twentieth century society as pervaded by a sort of collective neurosis that prevented the problems of the present from being considered from a realistic point of view and led to building a very precise mythical representation, according to which in the near future an inevitable war would grant a general liberation of latent energies and accumulated frustrations. “The phenomenon is the same in Berlin or London”: the root of the phenomenon was entirely in the social structure of the present industrial societies, and the consequence, in all the nations of Europe, was that the possible war was obsessively represented as necessary and as an end in itself, and at the same time as wantonly willed by an adversary, until this obsession became tragically a reality. The hint of Marc Ferro suggests that we are in the presence of a figure not to be neglected: an author who was able to watch the First World War in an anthropological perspective consonant with the sensitivity of the twentieth century, a perspective that revolved around the concept of the social structure of the industrial society, without resorting to the set of stereotypes about nationalities and their presumed characters, including biological ones, that filled the literature of the late nineteenth century. Playne seems to have left behind the Psychology of crowds by Le Bon, the ambiguous and widespread nineteenth-century text through which we began to focus on the characteristic problems of mass society. Or perhaps, of the society labelled as “mass”, and in fact qualified by an exuberance of lived experiences with respect to the ability to metabolize them, which characterized the whole twentieth century, which extends into our present, and which does not concern only the “masses”, but also and above all the elites, the privileged of every kind and the individuals in their solitude. Playne was aware of the necessity to innovate a literature, that of collective psychology, in which[2]: “It is unfortunate that a flood of ill-conceived books on psychological subjects have appeared”.

Who is this author we speak of? Caroline Playne was born in England in 1857, to an English father and a Dutch mother (there is no reason to attribute the American nationality mentioned by Marc Ferro), and we know little of what she did in the first half of her long life. She wrote and published two novels, (1904) and (1907), the latter of which seems to contain an embryonic study of the dynamics of wars and conflicts, as we learn from a contemporary review, which we quote entirely because it gives us an idea of the evolution of Playne’s vision