“This is an important contribution to the study of Berlin women in this period and, perhaps equally significant, to a major theme currently reemerging in twentieth-century German history: to wit, that World War I was not the bridge between Imperial Germany and the Third Reich.” — Historian
“Davis’s sensitivity both to the material and symbolic dimensions of these women’s life-world makes this a rich and rewarding study. A wide array of source material is presented in a narrative that is emphatic without being sentimental.” — American Historical Review
“A valuable contribution to our understanding of World War I . . . . Thoughtfully argued and solidly researched work.” — Journal of Interdisciplinary History
“Home Fires Burning . . . is exciting women’s history and much more. . . . An exhaustive and persuasive study. . . . [Davis] opens up our understanding of women’s agency and influence — and political agency more broadly — to give us a story that has not yet been told. . . . Well-written and handsomely produced. . . . This is an important book, not only for what it tells us about women’s surprising influence, born of war, but because it gives us a refreshingly new understanding of the political history of Germany in the last years of the Empire.” — Women’s Review of Books
“This welcome book provides much food for thought.” — CHOICE
“Many have called for studies relating the political to people’s everyday lives in the twentieth century, and, in Home Fires Burning, Belinda Davis has most successfully done it. This is a wonderfully thick and nuanced study primarily on women trying to get by in World War I and, thus, producing ‘politics’ in metropolitan Berlin. In numerous street scenes their efforts broke the ground for wide-ranging political transformation. Consumers’ actions refocused politics on people’s needs and, thus, sparked the revolutionary movements of 1918 (not only in Berlin but in Germany at large). Here we have a case study, but its implications affect the writing of contemporary history in general.” — Alf Lüdtke, University of Erfurt, Max Planck Institut für Geschichte, Göttingen
“This important and original World War I study graphically depicts and analyzes the impact of poor women’s street demonstrations on German government policy. Focusing on female agency, Davis transforms traditional views of the interaction between state and society, as well as making a major contribution to the history of women in wartime.” — Bonnie S. Anderson, author of Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement
“A major and most carefully researched study of the evolution of German society under the impact of total war. Davis takes social and gender history beyond the conventional focus of everyday life and subtly examines the constant power-political interaction between the civilian masses and the monarchical authorities.” ― Volker R. Berghahn, Columbia University
Book Description
Women’s influence on German domestic policy during the Great War
From the Inside Flap
Challenging assumptions about the separation of politics and everyday life, Davis uncovers the important influence of poorer women on German domestic policy during World War I.
From the Back Cover
Challenging assumptions about the separation of politics and everyday life, Davis uncovers the important influence of poorer women on German domestic policy during World War I.
About the Author
Belinda J. Davis is associate professor of history at Rutgers University.
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