An intimate history of the front : masculinity, sexuality and German soldiers in the First World War

Resource Information

The work An intimate history of the front : masculinity, sexuality and German soldiers in the First World War represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

An intimate history of the front : masculinity, sexuality and German soldiers in the First World War

Title remainder

masculinity, sexuality and German soldiers in the First World War

Statement of responsibility

Jason Crouthamel

Creator

• Crouthamel, Jason

Subject

• Gay military personnel -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
• Soldiers -- Conduct of life
• Soldiers -- Sexual behavior -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
• World War, 1914-1918 -- Social aspects -- Germany

Language

eng

Summary

The epochal shifts that the First World War effected in political, economic, and intellectual history has long been an object of scholarly inquiry, but the war's impact on ideas of gender and sexuality have received far less attention. This eye-opening study gives a nuanced but provocative account of how German soldiers in the Great War experienced, articulated, and enacted masculinity. Drawing on an impressive array of relevant narratives and media - including front newspapers, family correspondence, diaries, and military court records - it explores the ways that both heterosexual and homosexual soldiers expressed emotion, understood romantic ideals, and approached intimacy and sexuality. As author Jason Crouthamel demonstrates, German soldiers both transgressed and reinforced gender roles, developing complex notions of masculinity that diverged from national ideals of self-sacrifice and emotional self-control. As a result of their often traumatic experiences on the front, these men experimented with emotions and behaviors otherwise considered "deviant, " redefining them as acceptable or even necessary for surviving modern war.--

Assigning source

Provided by Publisher

Cataloging source

UKMGB

Dewey number

940.343

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography