Socialist Women and the Great War

Ingrid Sharp, Matthew Stibbe, Corinne Painter

"Socialist Women and the Great War: Protest, Revolution and Commemoration is the first transnational study of left-wing women and socialist revolution during the First World War and its aftermath. Through a discussion of the key themes related to women and revolution, such as anti-militarism and violence, democracy and citizenship, and experience and life-writing, this book sheds new and necessary light on the everyday lives of socialist women in the early 20th century. The participants of the 1918-1919 revolutions in Europe, and the accompanying outbreaks of social unrest elsewhere in the world, have typically been portrayed as war-weary soldiers and suited committee delegates--in other words, as men. Exceptions like Rosa Luxemburg do exist, but ordinary women are often cast as passive recipients of the vote. But this is not the case; rather, women were pivotal actors in the making,...