ABSTRACT

How did WWI affect the love lives of ordinary citizens and their interactions as couples? This book focuses on how dramatic changes in living conditions affected key parts of the life course of ordinary citizens: marriage and divorce. Innovative in bringing together demographic and gender perspectives, contributions in this comparative volume draw on newly available micro-level data, as well as qualitative sources such as war diaries. In a first exploration intended to incite further research, it asks how patterns of marriage and divorce were affected by the war across Europe, and what the role of enduring change - or lack thereof - in gender relations was in shaping these patterns.

chapter |27 pages

Introduction 1

part I|61 pages

Something Old, Something New?

chapter 1|19 pages

“So Absent and So Present”

Marriage by Correspondence in France During the Great War

part II|119 pages

New Kinds of Couples?

chapter 4|26 pages

From Surviving the War Trenches to Storming the Gender Barricades?

Marriage Patterns in Belgium in the Early Twentieth Century and the Impact of War on Gender Relations

chapter 6|36 pages

Did the War Break Couples?

Marriage and Divorce in France During and After WWI

chapter 7|19 pages

“It Does Not Stop People From Getting Married” 1

WWI-Related Changes in Nuptiality in the City of Cracow, Poland

part III|92 pages

Open Borders, Open Minds?

chapter 8|20 pages

Uncertainty, Enabling, and Radicalization

World War I and Its Impact on Binational and Intercultural Marriages in Germany

chapter 9|19 pages

The Wife and Children of the ‘Boche’

Marriage and Procreation Between Occupiers and Occupied Women in Belgium, 1914–1918

chapter 10|25 pages

From War to Wedding

Marriage Strategies of WWI POWs in the Urals, Russia 1

chapter 11|15 pages

Female Collaborators and Resisters in Occupied Belgium

Comparative Analysis of Their Social and Family Contexts (1914–1918) 1

chapter |11 pages

Conclusion