Uncovered Fields: Perspectives in First World War Studies (review)

This handsomely produced publication offers fifteen essays from a range of exceptionally erudite First World War scholars representing universities in seven different countries. Uncovered Fields, a truly international collaboration, emanates from a conference held in Lyon, France, in 2001, where rising historians, considered to have "recently entered the fray," presented their research. Like the event that prompted the book's creation, the ambition here is to impart the current vitality that abounds for World War I studies under the banner of the "new cultural history of the war" (p. 2).

The range and depth of this transnational collection offers abundant material for compelling analysis of new, seldom-addressed areas, which may ultimately contribute to a better understanding of the conflict. Germany features prominently in the diverse, yet themed arrangements with explorations into racism amongst the Schutztruppe officer corps in East Africa, anti-Semitism and Germanophobia in Great Britain, and life for a community of British civilians held captive in a German internment camp. With another focus on communities at war, Pierre Purseigle's richly illustrated essay "Beyond and Below the Nations," offers a comparative study of life in an English town with another in France during the First World War.

Anne Duménil's essay, "Soldiers' Suffering and Military Justice," sympathetically addresses war's psychological consequences, as does another absorbing study by André Loez, on the meaning of soldiers' tears. Proof that contemporary socio-military history can encompass the individual's mental and emotional suffering is further demonstrated in several thoughtful essays on war neuroses, to include schizophrenia and shellshock.

The perplexing lack of scholarly literature centered on the Belgian resistance is the focus of Tammy Proctor's informative essay "La Dame Blanche, Gender and Espionage in Occupied Belgium." Other contributors, like Ismee Tames, question dominant interpretations of national history such as the war's effect on the cultural and intellectual life of the Dutch. Another relatively overlooked area in the 1914-18 historiography, the impact of the war years throughout Latin America, is deftly presented here by Olivier Compagnon.

Historians of the American First World War effort may be disappointed to discover that the United States merits consideration in only one essay, "Cromwell on the Bed Stand," by Michael Neiberg. His analysis of civil-
military relations in Britain, France, and America, skillfully challenges the traditional separation between military and cultural history, bridging that divide with engaging analysis of the relationship between politicians and military officers in all three nations.

Jenny Macleod and Pierre Purseigle have done an excellent job compiling a fertile resource of contemporary historiography that achieves its objective: to reveal "one of the strongest and most dynamic undercurrents in the history of modern warfare—the cultural and social dimensions of the World War I experience" (p. 2). A vital history emerges from their comparative approach, giving credibility to claims of a renewed interest in the First World War that has been growing since the 1990s. Whether this is, as some historians assert, a "reaction against the overwhelming weight of the Second World War both in collective memory and historiography" (p. 6), awaits further scrutiny.

Sadly, the book's steep price may deter some readers, but those who do make the investment are sure to feel rewarded by its quality scholarship and prodigious bibliographical references.