Extract

The essays collected in this volume discuss the war of ideas that contributed to the sense that the First World War was more than simply the solution of political conflicts through armed action: it was a genuine “clash of civilisations”. With a few exceptions (Helena Ragg-Kirkby on D. H. Lawrence, Rhys Williams on Carl Sternheim and Fred Bridgham on Friedrich von Bernhardi), the essays take a comparative approach. Ian Boyd White and Ingo Cornils take an “on the one hand – on the other” approach, to popular “invasion novels” and science fiction, respectively; Nicholas Martin examines the British demonisation of Nietzsche. Other essays (Stefan Manz on Alexander Tille and Andreas Huether on Kuno Meyer) demonstrate how cross-cultural mediation was entirely compatible with warlike nationalism, or explore the dilemmas of Austrian Anglisten (Holger Klein). Gregory Moore's essay on Darwinism and national identity usefully undermines the tendency in comparative studies to assume, presumably out of a desire to avoid any “war guilt” accusations, a simple structural similarity in British and German views of war in the period.

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