Comemorating race and empire in first world war centenary (Broché)

Commemorating race and empire in the First World War centenary

The Centenary of the First World War in Europe was framed as a moment of national trial and as a collective European tragedy. But the « Great War for Civilisation » was more than just a European conflict. It was a global war, a clash of empires that began a process of nationalist agitation against empires and the racisms that underpinned them in Asia, Africa and beyond. Despite the global context of Centenary commemorative activity these events remain framed by national and state imaginaries. These frames are ones in which the ideas about nation, race and empire that shaped men's and women's lives during the Great War sit uncomfortably with modern sensibilities. By drawing on original archival research in French and Mandarin and by employing new and multidisciplinary conceptual frames of analysis, this exciting and innovative volume shows how race and empire were commemorated and occluded during the First World War Centenary.