Challenging assumptions about the separation of high politics and
everyday life, Belinda Davis uncovers the important influence of
the broad civilian populace--particularly poorer women--on German
domestic and even military policy during World War I.
As Britain's wartime blockade of goods to Central Europe
increasingly squeezed the German food supply, public protests led
by "women of little means" broke out in the streets of Berlin and
other German cities. These "street scenes" riveted public attention
and drew urban populations together across class lines to make
formidable, apparently unified demands on the German state.
Imperial authorities responded in unprecedented fashion in the
interests of beleaguered consumers, interceding actively in food
distribution and production. But officials' actions were far more
effective in legitimating popular demands than in defending the
state's right to rule. In the end, says Davis, this dynamic
fundamentally reformulated relations between state and society and
contributed to the state's downfall in 1918. Shedding new light on
the Wilhelmine government, German subjects' role as political
actors, and the influence of the war on the home front on the
Weimar state and society,
Home Fires Burning helps rewrite
the political history of World War I Germany.