Much of the recent literature on cultural demobilisation or remobilisation after the First World War has focused on men and masculinity. By contrast, this interdisciplinary volume of essays sets out to examine the importance of women’s movements and individual female activists to the shaping of post-war Europe at the private, communal, national and transnational levels. Key themes include the commemoration of the war dead; the renegotiation of gender roles; suffrage and political rights; and women’s contribution to the establishment of new visions of peace or national revenge and regeneration in the years 1918 to 1923. The eighteen chapters cover countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Western Europe, and defeated as well as victorious nations, thus allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the deep impact of the war and its aftermath on the continent as a whole.
Contributors are Nikolai Vukov, Emma Schiavon, Christiane Streubel, Erika Kuhlman, Ann Rea, Ingrid Sharp, Olga Shnyrova, Fatmira Musaj and Beryl Nicholson, Christine Bard, Gabriella Hauch, Judith Szapor, Sylwia Kuźma-Markowska, Virginija Jurėnienė, Judit Acsády, Matthew Stibbe, Bruce Berglund, David Hudson and Jill Liddington.