This year - 2014 - is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Great War. Many excellent histories have been published in the past few years, and one of the best is British historian Jerry White's book, "Zeppelin Nights", which focuses on London during the war years. Professor White teaches at Birbeck College at the University of London. He is the author of three previous histories of London and its people.
The Great War is best looked at in smaller, more manageable portions than in its entirety. In examining London and the part its citizens played in the war effort, Jerry White has captured how most Britons carried on during the war. London was a microcosm of English society at large. It was an incredibly cosmopolitan city; immigrants from all over Europe and the British colonies made the population very diverse. In particular, Germans and Austrians were over-employed in the restaurants and hotels. When war was declared in August, 1914, those German and Austrian residents - called "aliens" - were sent back to their native countries and the service industries suffered. Restaurants and hotels lost their staffs. This was just one way that residents and businesses began to "make do". Not only were service industries affected by the "aliens" leaving, businesses lost British male employees who had signed up for military service. Houses lost staff when former ladies maids went off to do "war work". Women began taking the places in factories, stores, and transportation, which caused problems when these same men returned home in 1918 and 1919.
But how many Londoners who had marched gaily off to war in 1914 actually returned at war's end? How many soldiers were either killed or badly injured? The population of soldiers - both officers and men - was a fairly large percentage of the male population of London. White examines the London "home front", where hospitals were filled with wounded soldiers from the fighting in France. How did people "make-do" when food was rationed, the German zeppelins were bombing the city, and loved ones were dying both in the streets and on the battlefields? Using primary sources like diaries and interviews transcribed both during the war and soon after, Jerry White has written a lively history of both a city and its people. This was a tough four year period, which ended both in victory for the Allies but also in the calamitous Spanish flu epidemic. It's a great history book.
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Top reviews from other countries
James Hayes
Compelling history of a capital in the Front Line for the first time
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 11, 2014
Richmonde
Great slice of social history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2017
Chris Longmuir
Excellent account of social conditions in London during the First World War.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2014
