We are pleased to announce the publication of the book of essays stemming from the 2018 conference. Published by Bloomsbury, this handsome volume contains 18 new essays with five introductions, under subject headings of Multilingual Environments, Language and Identity, Non-combatants, and Post-war. A truly international production, dealing with subjects such as Russian food queues, language classes in internment camps, phrasebooks and propaganda, and the post-war life of war slang, this book takes the subject beyond the well-known slang of the Western Front and shows how analysis of language helps us understand international conflict.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/multilingual-environments-in-the-great-war-9781350141346/
We were very pleased to have received endorsements from those who will be recognised as authorities on the conflict and its aftermath.
“This is a fascinating treatment of the Great War as a multilingual disaster. Language here is an active agent, a forger of identities, a trigger of memories, and a prism refracting the words of war into the rhetoric of remembrance. Essential reading for those perennially intrigued by the lingering shadow of the 1914-18 conflict.” – Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History emeritus, Yale University, USA
“This is an important study of a facet of the total war: language. In 1914-18 combatants mobilised language, which evolved to take account of new experiences, while some wartime words had an afterlife which long outlasted the conflict. A enlightening book, it deserves to be widely read.” – Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies, University of Wolverhampton, UK
There will be a webinar to launch the book, and we are grateful to the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War at Kings College London for providing the facilities for this. The time and date will be announced soon.
Languages and the First World War 