At War Again: Soldiers, Civilians, and Multi-War Experiences in the British Empire, 1885-1918

Abstract

In the decades on either side of the turn of the twentieth century, Britain was at war in its empire. At War Again: Soldiers, Civilians, and Multi-War Experiences in the British Empire, 1885-1918 is the first academic history of a diverse group of Britons who took part in multiple British imperial conflicts, from so-called expeditions, campaigns, rebellions, and wars that took place throughout Africa and in other British colonies, to the First World War. Multi-war veterans belonged to a particular cohort that came of age in the waning years of the nineteenth century and who were often in their late thirties, forties, or fifties when they experienced World War I. They were working-class soldiers, career military officers, nurses, caregivers, and family members of those who served. Together, the diversity of their experiences shows that the particular character of the British empire at the turn of the century meant that it was not only possible, but common, to live a life repeatedly punctuated by experiences of war. This project recasts the relationship between colonial violence and military history by studying the lives and experiences of those Britons for whom the First World War did not come first. Their lives not only allow for a re-consideration of the relationship between the First World War and earlier British imperial wars, but also demonstrate the centrality of war and violence to the maintenance and expansion of European empires, particularly in Africa. Using critical approaches to biographical writing and analysis, including group biography and approaches to the biographies of material culture objects, this project argues for the importance of continuities that extend beyond traditional chronological and geographic lines. Starting first from the experiences of individuals whose lives unite nineteenth-century colonial wars to the First World War, it then analogizes out to consider bigger picture connections across systems of empire, nation, and war. It also shows that as British multi-war veterans made meaning of their repeated military service and their participation in programs of colonial violence, they also came to understand themselves as Britons. This project, then, makes an argument for the importance of subjective experience and identity formation as essential for understanding the connections between colonial conflict and the First World War.