Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon

Although civilian internment has become associated with the Second World War in popular memory, it has a longer history. The turning point in this history occurred during the First World War when, in the interests of ‘security’ in a situation of total war, the internment of ‘enemy aliens’ became part of state policy for the belligerent states, resulting in the incarceration, displacement and, in more extreme cases, the death by neglect or deliberate killing of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world. This pioneering book on internment during the First World War brings together international experts to investigate the importance of the conflict for the history of civilian incarceration.

Stefan Manz is Professor of German and Global History at Aston University, Birmingham. His book Constructing a German Diaspora: The ‘Greater German Empire’, 1871–1914 is also published by Routledge.

Panikos Panayi is Professor of European History at De Montfort University, United Kingdom. His publications include The Enemy in Our Midst: Germans in Britain During the First World War and Prisoners of Britain: German Civilian and Combatant Internees during the First World War.

Matthew Stibbe is Professor of Modern European History at Sheffield Hallam University. His edited volume titled Captivity, Forced Labour and Forced Migration in Europe during the First World War and his co-edited volume (with Ingrid Sharp) titled Women’s International Activism during the Inter-War Period, 1919–1939, are both published by Routledge.