Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part One Germany, The United States, and Total War
- Part Two War and Society
- 3 The Political Economy of Warfare in America, 1865-1914
- 4 Hugo Stinnes and the Prospect of War Before 1914
- 5 War Preparations and Ethnic and Racial Relations in the United States
- 6 Religion and War in Imperial Germany
- 7 Socializing American Youth to Be Citizen-Soldiers
- 8 Preparing German Youth for War
- 9 Heroes and Would-Be Heroes: Veterans' and Reservists' Associations in Imperial Germany
- 10 Mobilizing Philanthropy in the Service of War: The Female Rituals of Care in the New Germany, 1871-1914
- Part Three Memory and Anticipation: War and Culture
- Part Four The Experience of War
- Index
9 - Heroes and Would-Be Heroes: Veterans' and Reservists' Associations in Imperial Germany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part One Germany, The United States, and Total War
- Part Two War and Society
- 3 The Political Economy of Warfare in America, 1865-1914
- 4 Hugo Stinnes and the Prospect of War Before 1914
- 5 War Preparations and Ethnic and Racial Relations in the United States
- 6 Religion and War in Imperial Germany
- 7 Socializing American Youth to Be Citizen-Soldiers
- 8 Preparing German Youth for War
- 9 Heroes and Would-Be Heroes: Veterans' and Reservists' Associations in Imperial Germany
- 10 Mobilizing Philanthropy in the Service of War: The Female Rituals of Care in the New Germany, 1871-1914
- Part Three Memory and Anticipation: War and Culture
- Part Four The Experience of War
- Index
Summary
The term total war came into existence in connection with World War I as a slogan used by leading participants such as Georges Clemenceau and Erich Ludendorff to propagate or justify an unlimited war effort. It subsequently gained wider usage in politics and in more theoretical discourses because it seemed to grasp the peculiarities of twentieth-century warfare in contrast to previous wars: that is, an increasing size of armies, a broadening scope tending toward a global scale, and the systematic mobilization of the “home front” for the war effort (mass production of weapons, scientific development of war technology, mobilization of all members of society), which simultaneously meant that combatants and noncombatants alike gained military significance and were thus targeted by blockades or wide-ranging weapons of mass destruction. Because the population did not consist of powerless chess pieces, this “total” mobilization also demanded an ideological mobilization to justify the immense effort. A rigid friend-enemy thinking that demonized the enemy (leaders and common people alike) and raised apocalyptic as well as euphoric expectations seemed necessary to justify the high price of war and the inhumane measures taken.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Anticipating Total WarThe German and American Experiences, 1871–1914, pp. 189 - 216Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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