Peace at Last: A Portrait of Armistice Day, 11 November 1918

by Guy Cuthbertson

Overview

A vivid, original, and intimate hour-by-hour account of Armistice Day 1918, to mark its centenary this year

November 11, 2018, marks the centenary of the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany ending World War I. While the events of the war and its legacy are much discussed, this is the first book to focus solely on the day itself, examining how the people of Britain, and the wider world, reacted to the news of peace.
 
In this rich portrait of Armistice Day, which ranges from midnight to midnight, Guy Cuthbertson brings together news reports, literature, memoirs, and letters to show how the people on the street, as well as soldiers and prominent figures like D. H. Lawrence and Lloyd George, experienced a strange, singular day of great joy, relief, and optimism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300233384
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	11/06/2018
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Guy Cuthbertson is Head of the School of Humanities at Liverpool Hope University. He lives in Liverpool, UK.

Table of Contents

1 Great Rejoicings 1

2 The Last Hours 20

3 The Hour of Victory 50

4 Carnival Afternoon 101

5 Armistice Night 157

6 After the Party 225

Endnotes 247

Further Reading 274

Acknowledgements 276

Image Credits 281

Index 284

Editorial Reviews

12/03/2018
Cuthbertson (Wilfred Owen), an associate professor of English literature at Liverpool Hope University, marks the centenary of Armistice Day by compiling a thorough evocation of that day and how the armistice was received and celebrated throughout the world, particularly by Britain and British troops abroad. His emphasis on the human element—the reactions of everyone from soldiers to schoolboys, government to civilians—captures a spontaneous, temporary mass insanity in full bloom. As befits Cuthbertson’s expertise in poetry and literature, his narrative voice is romantic, even flowery: “The day was a vast party with its drinking, music, dancing, fancy costumes, romance, beauty, vulgarity and vandalism; with people coming and going, paths crossing and strange encounters taking place, and crowds that swelled, surged, dispersed and re-emerged.” He also covers the anniversary’s subsequent transformation into a day of remembrance. Although the level of detail (for example, an 11-page section on the role of church bells in the celebrations) and sometimes dense prose may put off some readers, Cuthbertson is nothing if not thorough in creating this vivid picture of the British response to the end of the war. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Absorbing and well-researched. . . a pleasure to read and full of fascinating tidbits."—Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal

“A novel and wide-ranging examination of the conclusion of the war once solemnly declared to be the one to end all wars.”—Kirkus

“A timely contribution to our understanding of the First World War through the lens of its final day, Peace at Last chronicles a range of voices and experiences that have not been brought together before. It is a fascinating read.”—Jane Potter, author of Boys in Khaki, Girls in Print: Women's Literary Responses to the Great War 1914-1918 

“Peace at Last offers a fresh, vivid, and deeply researched analysis of the British experience on Armistice Day 1918. The book is a delight to read: full of perceptive commentary and arresting detail.”—David Stevenson, author of With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918
 

“Cuthbertson is a superb biographer, and his panoramic new book gives us the biography---so to speak---of Armistice Day. It is the most complete account so far of a day that, even a century later, shows no sign of loosening its hold on our cultural memory.”—Tim Kendall, author of Modern English War Poetry
 

“Cuthbertson combines the curiosity of the biographer and the delicacy of the literary historian to recover the life-story of a single day. Imaginative, moving and brilliantly researched, Peace at Last brings together ordinary men, women and children as well as artists and writers in a novel way to help us better understand an extraordinary day in world history.”—Santanu Das, author of Touch and Intimacy in First World War Literature
 

From the Publisher

2018-09-02

World War I began with an assassin's bullet in Sarajevo. How did it end? This vigorous study offers answers.

The war part of WWI has been thoroughly documented. But what of the peace part in this centennial year? Cuthbertson (English Literature/Liverpool Hope Univ.; Wilfred Owen, 2014, etc.) follows an intriguing premise, examining how people greeted the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, and the inevitable question, "Is it peace at last?" As to the latter, there were plenty of doubts, for the end of the war really was an armistice, with a peace treaty that came only a year later. Still, writes Cuthbertson, many Europeans took it as a sign that the slaughter had come to an end. As he tours nations and battlefronts, the author turns up varied reactions: Upon learning the news, Prussian officers held as prisoners in England grumpily refused to play their morning soccer game, while the great folklorist and anthropologist James G. Frazer, observing the exultant bonfires lit in London, thought back to the bacchanalian revels of ancient Rome: "Anyone who knew his work could have seen the world of The Golden Bough come to life." And people were still dying as the Spanish flu raged around the world, killing as many as died in battle. The question of whether the end of the war really constituted a victory for the Allies was a nagging one indeed, for no sooner did the war end than a revolution began in Germany that would eventually give birth to yet another war. Meanwhile, British and American forces were off to a different front, fighting the Bolsheviks in Russia. As Cuthbertson sagely observes, "during the Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev would remind the USA that while Russia had never invaded America, America had once invaded Russia." Naturally, the author concludes in that matter, "capitalism made the most of the Armistice as an opportunity to make money."

A novel and wide-ranging examination of the conclusion of the war once solemnly declared to be the one to end all wars.

Kirkus Reviews

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