Intellectuals and World War I

This volume considers intellectuals within the social history of World War I. It offers a reflection on intellectuals’ stance toward militarism and the outbreak of war. It examines their reactions, thoughts, and predictions and the ways in which they interpreted the meaning of the war, as well as how they saw the possibilities of the postwar era. This volume was planned as an academic and methodological exchange of views between historians and other scholars dealing with the social history of World War I in East-Central Europe. Its main aim is an attempt to answer the question of how the conflict affected intellectuals in certain clearly defined aspects (family, education, religion, gender, sexuality). Their wartime experi­ences were shaped by their whereabouts, everyday life, standard of living, and, in the case of soldiers, the type of military service. It also takes a closer look at members of the intelligentsia who fought in the trenches, those who worked in propaganda, or those who held civil service posts in the belligerent countries. It remains an important question whether the cooperation of intellectuals and scholars with the war apparatus was conscious, voluntary, whether it was a form of social mission carried out for the state or nation, or an attempt by the governments and rulers to use the “naive clerks” ­instrumentally. The book also offers a reflection on the intellectuals’ stance towards militarism and the outbreak of war: their reactions, thoughts, predictions, and the way they interpreted the war events for society. It seeks to find out how the war was conceptualized by intellectuals, how it was commented upon, and how the postwar reality was conceived.