Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this, the first fully documented study of British and Irish popular reactions to the outbreak of the First World War, Catriona Pennell explores UK public opinion of the time, successfully challenging post-war constructions of "war enthusiasm" in the British case, and disengagement in the Irish.Drawing from a vast array of contemporary diaries, letters, journals, and newspaper accounts from across the UK, A Kingdom United explores what people felt, and how they acted, in response to an unanticipated and unprecedented crisis. It is a history of both ordinary people and elite figures in extraordinary times. Pennell demonstrates that describing the reactions of over 40 million British and Irish people to the outbreak of war as either enthusiastic in the British case, or disengaged in the Irish, is over-simplified and inadequate. Emotional reactions to the war were ambiguous and complex, and changed over time. By the end of 1914 the populations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland had largely embraced the war, but the war had also embraced them and showed no signs of relinquishing its grip. The five months from August to December 1914 set the shape of much that was to follow. A Kingdom United describes and explains the twenty-week formative process in order to deepen our understanding of British and Irish entry into war.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 Outbreak of War, July to August
• 2 The National Cause
• 3 The Enemy
• 4 Encountering Violence: Imagined and Real
• 5 A Volunteer War
• 6 John Bull's Other Island
• 7 Settling into War
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In this impressive book, Pennell (Univ. of Exeter, UK) challenges received wisdom that the outbreak of war was greeted in Britain and Ireland with mass enthusiasm, that people believed it would be over by Christmas 1914, and that they pursued "business as usual." Drawing on extensive evidence from public records, newspapers, contemporary works, and the journals, diaries, and letters of 414 individuals, Pennell argues that there was no universal "rush to the colors" in August 1914, but rather a more complex range of emotions and reactions, before the great majority of people somberly rallied to the national cause in a process of "settling in" to the realities of war. One strength is the book's focus on the opinions of a number of subgroups of British and Irish people--the old and young, male and female, urban and rural, elite or ordinary, and at the national and local levels--on such subjects as the enemy, volunteering, and Britain's allies. Another strong point is the author's handling of Ireland's response. Pennell concludes that despite the lingering tensions about home rule, recruitment of Nationalists in this time frame was not substantially less than that of Unionists, with the difference based on economic rather than political considerations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries. A. H. Plunkett Piedmont Virginia Community College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Catriona Pennell graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 2008 with a PhD in modern British and Irish history. During her research, she was awarded two major scholarships: the R.B. McDowell-Ussher Fellowship from Trinity College, Dublin (2003-2006), and the R.H.S. Centenary Fellowship from the Institute of Historical Research (2006-2007).