Wartime is Your Time
Paperback: 214 pages
Publisher: Smoking Gun Books (1 Sep 2009)
ISBN-10: 0955266149
ISBN-13: 978-0955266140
An area that is often overlooked in the Great War is the aspect played by women, especially those left on the ‘Home Front'. The Great War was to change British social history for ever. In her book ‘Wartime is Your Time', Marian Gold looks at the crucial role played by women in the war years. Through an eclectic mix of personal accounts, diaries, newspaper cuttings and many other original sources of material, the changing role of women in this tumultuous period of history is graphically covered.
The book shows a delicate touch when Gold reviews the Victorian/Edwardian views of womanhood compared to the new breed of women who were coming to the fore on the home front. Many of the women who stepped into their loved ones' shoes were soon to realise that, come the end of the war, things would never be the same again.
Society changed and more importantly Marian Gold shows this subtle change in the values and the views of women in her book. The most poignant part of the book are the personal testimonies; the hopes of so many during the war are then reviewed many decades later. Gold uses them to leave the readers with a simple question: just how much did the Great War change society? On the surface it was a great deal, but underneath maybe just maybe the social position of the working class women changed just a little.
This book is a refreshing look at this area of social history during the Great War. It certainly makes one think. I can recommend it wholeheartedly.
Reviewed by: Martin Hornby, Vice Chairman, The Western Front Association
