Singled Out

When I was growing up November 11 was still called Armistice Day in remembrance of the end of World War I at exactly the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1918: Ninety years ago today.

My father and all his brothers fought in the Pacific in WWII but it is the earlier war — the Great War — that captures my attention despite Tom Brokaw’s claims about my parents and their friends being “The Greatest Generation.” I don’t deny their hardships, victories and rightful place in history, but I am nevertheless caught in that earlier era. It was the moment when the modern world we now live in was created and the moment when the seeds of their war were planted. 

My interest is being fed by what seems like a veritable cottage industry of WWI books. They’ve been appearing in a steady stream for the last decade: Stephen O’Shea’s “Back to the Front” (1996), John Keegan’s authoritative 1999 military history, Margaret Macmillan’s “Paris 1919” about the peace talks (2001), and Juliet Nicolson’s “The Perfect Summer” about England just before the war (2006). They’re all lined up in a crisp row on my bookshelves.

But, for me, the standout has to be Virginia Nicholson’s “Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War,” one of the few books that looks at the war from women's viewpoints.   

I read a number of book blogs here in the U.S. but also in the U.K. (see the list at the end) where I keep finding books like Nicholson’s that aren't in the bookstores or public library here in Wisconsin. “Singled Out” was an expensive read since the price is in pounds not dollars and I had it shipped from overseas. The writing wasn't always the best, but the subject is one that has been rarely covered and was still well worth the cost in dollars and time spent reading. 

Perhaps the most difficult thing about a book like this is that women's experiences and options have changed so radically that it's hard for us to picture the narrow possibilities that confined single women before the war. But that is also the value of this book: it presents that life across all social and economic classes so we get a broad look at the issue. The book also introduces readers to dozens of women who went on to make satisfying and productive lives — and sometimes a name — for themselves.

Some will be well-known to many readers like Vera Brittain whose “Testament of Youth” is one of the most famed and devastating books about the war ever penned. Others, like novelists Cicely Hamilton and Winifred Holtby are only now getting their due as their books are brought to new audiences through feminist publisher, Persephone Books. You’ll find women who carved out careers as stockbrokers, engineers and archeologists as well as those who had quieter lives. The book also provides excellent source information and a bibliography offering further opportunities for reading and research.

 

This cigarette advertisement shows the kind of life that was a cultural given at the start of WWI: that all those young women waiting for their soldier sweethearts to return from the Front would one day bask in a bright future together, in a world made safe for democracy.

After reading "Singled Out," it is apparent that the women of today are in the debt of those two million women whose fates were changed by the war. As the book notes, "A cohort of stay-at-home wives and mothers could never have achieved for women what this generation of spinsters did in meeting the challenge of grief and loss. For them, being denied marriage was a liberation and a launching pad."

"They were not in the first rank of suffragettes and pioneers, but on foundations laid by those earlier women — education, opportunity, equality — and through sheer force of numbers, they steered women's concerns to the top of the agenda, and there they have remained."

It is a book that, once read, is hard to forget.

 

Virginia Nicholson (above) looks at the effect of World War I on the lives of a broad group of women from the United Kingdom in her book, "Singled Out." Nicholson, the grand daughter of Vanessa Bell, is pictured at Charleston, the Bloomsbury Group's house.

BOOK BLOGS

I read a number of blogs about interior design, gardening, and textiles as well as about books and reading. Some, like U.K. blogs Cornflower and Yarnstorm, cross many of those categories. Others concentrate on books but I think all of them are worth adding to your list of bookmarks. 

dovegreyreader scribbles is written by "a Devonshire based bookaholic, sock-knitting quilter who used to be a community nurse in her spare time." How can you not want to read what she has to say? The writer behind A BOOK A WEEK lives in my town so I know I will usually be able to easily find the books she's reading — something that is often a problem with the U.K. bloggers' titles. 

If you stop by VINTAGE READS, you'll note that she is posting about war-related books like some of the other U.K. bloggers, including Cornflower. They seem to be much more conscious of Nov. 11 than we are here in the U.S. Also of note is Other Stories, which is subtitled "Books, Feminism and Other Stories" and always has something of interest to say and lastly (but not leastly) is  Citizen Reader who concentrates on non-fiction.

Comments

[Kim]

I have a similar fascination with both WWI and WWII... but WWII would be my grandparents' generation, and my great-grandfather fought in WWI. Do you suppose that we tend to romanticize these things which are further away from our time, historically speaking?

In any case, this was a great post. And my neverending "Need to Read" list has just expanded... :)

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Oh yes, I'm sure the further back the more we are able to romanticize things. Think of the Civil War which is kind of our equivalent of WWI in the sense that civilians were targets, it was fought in people's front yards etc.

"Back to the Front" is also a really good book by a guy whose grandfathers fought in WWI. He goes with a friend who wants to see the Western Front and when they get to the spot and pull out the WWI maps they realize there is still a visible scar for miles where the earth was torn up and the chalk subsoil rose to the top. This is in the early 1980s which is just stunning to think about. He treks the whole Western Front and tries to look at things without romanticizing them. Lots of odd facts, bits of trivia and just plain fascinating.

Loved your blog. Today I was out in the garden with my husband trying to rake leaves and shred them for mulch for next spring. Also brought in the deck furniture and all of our ceramic decorative pots. This was with temps that never got much above 30 degrees and a light rain falling. I am not ready for winter esp. after all the recent warm days!

[Sarah Laurence]

This is a great Veterans Day post. That Singled Out book sounds interesting.

I enjoy dovegreyreader too. I met her at the Oxford Literary Festival, and she’s as charming as her blog. Another good resource for finding book blogs is BritLitBlogs. It’s a directory of UK book bloggers. Both are in my blog sidebar. I wish we had the American equivalent.

Although I like to go to local independent bookstores first, you can usually find most titles through Amazon.

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Sarah — You're right, it would be nice to have an American equivalent of the BritLitBlogs. There seem to be garden equivalents with Blotanical etc.

And yes, I always try local before Amazon. We are lucky that we still have a good feminist bookstore in Madison.

[Easy and Elegant Life]

Obsessed as I am with the period between the wars, I broke out of my habit and recently purchased "The Perfect Summer." I'm waiting for "beach week" to have at it.

Wonderful and thoughtful post, as always.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Of course, it is your period of interest that saw such a creative frenzy and all the cultural changes as modernism arrived and the war departed.