TY - BOOK ID - 85469208 TI - Behind the front : British soldiers and French civilians, 1914-1918 PY - 2014 SN - 1107776732 1107779189 1107778662 1139020382 1107781175 1107784379 1107784832 1107779936 0521837618 131661221X 9780521837613 PB - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Civilians in war KW - World War, 1914-1918 KW - European War, 1914-1918 KW - First World War, 1914-1918 KW - Great War, 1914-1918 KW - World War 1, 1914-1918 KW - World War I, 1914-1918 KW - World War One, 1914-1918 KW - WW I (World War, 1914-1918) KW - WWI (World War, 1914-1918) KW - History, Modern KW - War KW - War and society KW - History KW - Social aspects KW - Campaigns KW - Great Britain. KW - Angliǐskai︠a︡ Armii︠a︡ KW - Tsava ha-Briṭi KW - British Army KW - בריטניה. KW - צבא הבריטי KW - England and Wales. KW - Civilians in war - France - History - 20th century KW - World War, 1914-1918 - Social aspects - France KW - World War, 1914-1918 - Campaigns - Western Front UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:85469208 AB - Until now scholars have looked for the source of the indomitable Tommy morale on the Western Front in innate British bloody-mindedness and irony, not to mention material concerns such as leave, food, rum, brothels, regimental pride, and male bonding. However, re-examining previously used sources alongside never-before consulted archives, Craig Gibson shifts the focus away from battle and the trenches to times behind the front, where the British intermingled with a vast population of allied civilians, whom Lord Kitchener had instructed the troops to 'avoid'. Besides providing a comprehensive examination of soldiers' encounters with local French and Belgian inhabitants which were not only unavoidable but also challenging, symbiotic and uplifting in equal measure, Gibson contends that such relationships were crucial to how the war was fought on the Western Front and, ultimately, to British victory in 1918. What emerges is a novel interpretation of the British and Dominion soldier at war. ER -