Tag Archives: University of St Andrews

Conference: The Home Front: The UK 1914-1918, St Andrews, 20-22 June 2018

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Institute for the Study of War and Strategy, University of St Andrews
Wednesday June 20, 2018 – Friday June 22, 2018

The centenary of the First World War has been and continues to be commemorated at national level with events to mark the major military and political waypoints, from the outbreak of war by way of Gallipoli, the Somme and Ypres to the armistice. And yet the war’s scale demanded more than just a major military effort: it required the mobilisation of British society as a whole. Industry was converted to munitions production, and the state intervened directly in fresh areas, from chemicals to forestry, from agriculture to fisheries. This economic effort has not attracted recent scholarly attention, despite its scale and importance. In recognition of the effort made by all the people of Britain and the Republic of Ireland, both the United Kingdom and Scotland Governments are supporting a major conference on the British home front during the First World War, to be held in St Andrews between 20 and 22 June 2018. It will be accompanied by a wider festival addressing the war in its final centenary year.

Registration is now open via the conference website here.
Early bird registration ends on 30 March 2018.

WW1 Centenary blog: Tagore in the time of war 1913-1919, by Sneha Reddy

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Ideas and influence of poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore during the first world war
Marking 100 years of Tagore’s lectures, delivered in Japan and USA, published in 1917 under the title ‘Nationalism’

‘Although Tagore is best known for his poetry, he was also an accomplished novelist, artist, dramatist, essayist and made prolific music compositions. His work gained international prominence just as the winds of nationalism and mutual distrust swept across the European continent and morphed into a conflict in 1914. The poet saw the oncoming war as an assault on humanity and explored its political and cultural consequences through his writings. European intellectuals and literary figures who witnessed the war’s brutality at their shores sought ‘insights coming from elsewhere’ and for many, Tagore’s voice ‘fit the need splendidly’ (Sen 2011).’

Full article here.

Sneha Reddy is a first-year PhD student at the School of International Relations in the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland. Her research focuses on French North African and British Indian soldiers in the First World War in the Middle East. She is on twitter @sneha_tumu