Gender and War in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe [Paperback]

This volume explores the role of gender on both the home and fighting fronts in eastern Europe during World Wars I and II. By using gender as a category of analysis, the authors seek to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the subjective nature of wartime experience and its representations. While historians have long equated the fighting front with the masculine and the home front with the feminine, the contributors challenge these dichotomies, demonstrating that they are based on culturally embedded assumptions
about heroism and sacrifice. Major themes include the ways in which wartime experiences challenge traditional gender roles; postwar restoration of gender order; collaboration and resistance; the body; and memory and commemoration.

This volume is an impressive collection of articles that will appeal to those interested in the history of eastern Europe, war and the war experience, both world wars, and gender and womens studies.Although in disciplinary terms it is represented as a history project the collection also enters into sociology, anthropology, and literature, and is a significant contribution in the interdisciplinary field of gender studies. . .. . . an exceptionally rich collection of diverse texts. . . . [A] significant contribution in the interdisciplinary field of gender studies. . .. . . thoughtful, fascinating . . . . this fine volume is notable for its unified presentation of complex and engaging issues. It provides an introduction to the most significant recent historiography in gender studies and military history, as well as an overview of some of the most stimulating new research being done in an important field. March 2009

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Gender and War in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe Nancy M. Wingfield and Maria Bucur
Part I. Challenging Gender Roles/Restoring Order
2. Female Generals and Siberian Angels : Aristocratic Nurses and the Austro-Hungarian POW Relief Alon Rachamimov
3. Civiló9