Civilian Life
For the first time in history, war was absolute. It affected not only politics and military, but also the economy and lifestyle of the populations. Governments of belligerent nations began to assume control of the home front and eventually militarized civilian war production by subordinating private enterprises to governmental control and imposing severe discipline on the labor process. The demand for raw materials and manufactured goods were met by abandoning ideals of a capitalist market economy. Tight controls were instituted over economic life: planning boards reorganized entire industries, set production quotas and priorities, and determined what would be produced and consumed. From another side, government authorities established wage and price controls, extended work hours, and sometimes restricted the movement of workers. The age requirement for military service was also extended. Nations tapped into their supply of male to-be-soldiers by drafting men between sixteen and sixty to serve at the front of the army. An increasing demand for workers at home was created, and as a result, women increasingly joined the workforce.
Women's Role
As men marched off to war, job slots were filled with female workers. Attracted by high wages and patriotism, women took over formerly “male” jobs. Women took over their husbands’ farms and businesses, found jobs as postal workers and police officers, and on the battlefield, worked most visibly as nurses, physicians, and communication clerks. Most famous is the work women put into making shells at munitions factories, an incredibly dangerous job. Another famous and life-threatening position women took was TNT production. TNT was claimed safe, but in fact caused severe poisoning depending on the length of exposure, showing its effects by turning skin yellow and hair orange. Nonetheless, women claimed the war to be a liberating experience because it freed them from traditional expectations that had limited their work and personal lives. Work gave women a sense of mission, led by the knowledge that they were contributing to the war.
Helen Thomas in the Great War
Helen Thomas.
Helen Noble was born in Liverpool in 1877 on July 11th. Educated at Wintersdorf School in Southport, she became a nursery governess in Rotherfield. In 1896, after she had met the poet, Edward Thomas, they wed and Helen began teaching at a boarding school. In the summer of 1915 Edward Thomas enlisted as a private in the Artists’ Rifles. The following year he advanced and transferred to the Royal Artillery. On April 9th of 1917, he was killed by an exploding shell at Arras. Helen wrote about her relationship after the war in As it Was and World Without End. Her daughter, Myfanwy Thomas, claims the books were a form of self therapy to help her cope with the death of her husband.
In her autobiography, she describes her husband’s decision to join the Artists’ Rifles.
"One day when Edward was in London ostensibly looking for work, he sent me a telegram telling me he had enlisted in the Artists' Rifles. I had known that the struggle going on in the spirit would end like this, and I tried to prepare myself for it. But when the telegram came I felt suddenly faint and despairing. "No, no, no," was all I could say; "not that." But I knew it had to be and that it was right. He was - so the telegram said - to come in a few days a soldier."
Helen Thomas describes the last time she saw her husband.
"A thick mist hung everywhere, and there was not sound except, far away in the valley, a train shunting. I stood at the gate watching him go; he turned back to wave until the mist and the hill hid him. I heard the old call coming up to me: "Coo-ee!" he called. "Coo-ee!" I answered, keeping my voice strong to call again. Again through the muffled air came his "Coo-ee." And again went my answer like an echo. "Coo-ee" came fainter next time with the hill between us, but my "Coo-ee" went out of my lungs strong to piece to him as he strode away from my.
"Coo-ee!" So faint now it might only be my own call flung back from the thick air and muffling snow. I put my hands up to my mouth to make a trumpet, but no sound came. Panic seized me, and I ran through the mist and the snow to top of the hill, and stood there a moment dumbly, with straining eyes and ears. There was nothing but the mist and the snow and the silence of death.
Then with leaden feet which stumbled in a sudden darkness that overwhelmed me I groped my way back to the empty house."
In 1917 Helen Thomas wrote to her friend, Janet Hooton, on the death of her husband, Edward Thomas.
"It's only quite lately that I've felt able to write to any of the numerous friends who have written to me and helped me through these terrible days that so nearly were utter despair.
Sometimes the pain comes back, terrible, soul rending, but it is as if he took my hand in his dear one and gave me fresh courage to live again the life he would have me live, happy and carefree with the children. I try to remember how rich I am in his love and his spirit and in all those wonderful years, and to so forget that I am poor in not having his voice and touch and help.
I send you a copy of the letter his commanding officer wrote to me. It is above all letters precious to me in its simple sincerity and the characteristic picture it gives of my beloved. The very last letter I had from him was written the day before death came and it was bubbling with happiness and eagerness and love."
Propaganda
British propaganda encouraging military funds to keep the war going.
Propaganda are advertisement attempts that served the purpose of dehumanizing rivals, encouraging patriotism and nationalism, and keeping the war afloat. It was meant to maintain the spirit of the home front and counter threats to national unity through censorship and manipulation. Propaganda offices tries to convince the public that military defeat would mean the destruction of everything good, honorable, and saint. Posters, pamphlets, news casts, and “scientific” studies depicted the enemy as subhuman savages who engaged in vile atrocities.