Nations, Identities and the First World War: Shifting Loyalties to the Fatherland

Nations, Identities and the First World War examines the changing perceptions and attitudes about the nation and the fatherland by different social, ethnic, political and religious groups during the conflict and its aftermath. The book combines chapters on broad topics like propaganda state formation, town and nation, and minorities at war, with more specific case studies in order to deepen our understanding of how processes of national identification supported the cultures of total war in Europe. This transnational volume also reveals and develops a range of insightful connections between the themes it covers, as well as between different groups within Europe and different countries and regions, including Western and Eastern Europe, the Ottoman Empire and colonial territories. It is a vital study for all students and scholars of the First World War.

Nico Wouters is Director of the Centre for War and Contemporary Society (State Archives Belgium) and Guest Lecturer at the University of Ghent, Belgium. He is the co-editor of The Handbook of State Sponsored History after 1945 (2018), the author of Mayoral Collaboration under Nazi Occupation in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, 1938-46 (2016) and the editor of Transitional Justice and Memory in Europe (1945–2013) (2014). He is also Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Belgian History.

Laurence van Ypersele is Professor of Contemporary History at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. She is also a board member on the international research committee of the Historial de la Grande Guerre of Péronne, France. She is the author and co-author of several French-language books in the area of war and memory.