Capital Cities at War. Paris, London, Berlin 1914-1919: Volume 2: A Cultural History.(Book review)

Capital Cities at War. Paris, London, Berlin 1914-1919: Volume 2: A Cultural History, edited by Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007. 545 pp. $110.00 US (cloth).

Whereas the first volume of Capital Cities at War (1999) utilized sociological theories about community and was heavily quantitative, the second volume is more eclectic and qualitative in its approach. One of the primary goals of both volumes is to break down the strictly national historiography that dominates the field in order to examine the war from a comparative perspective that is "relational" instead of sequential. The basic approach for each chapter is to utilize a single theme, and then employ evidence from all three locations to provide a truly comparative perspective. At the heart of these essays is the belief that national identity is expressed in public spaces. For example, the presence of soldiers on their way to the front, on leave from the front, or recovering from wounds received at the front in effect reminded citizens everyday, if not every …