'Total War' means that all resources of a nation (social, political, economic and cultural) are harnessed to the war effort - Everybody and everything is involved. Was the First World War a Total War for Britain?

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Simon Walker

‘Total War’ means that all resources of a nation (social, political, economic and cultural) are harnessed to the war effort. Everybody and everything is involved. Was the First World War a Total War for Britain?

“Nowadays, there is no such animal as a non-combatant,” said Peter Strasse the commander of a Zeppelin bomber on the first bombing raid on London in 1915. The Germans saw that in Britain, there was not a single person who was not involved in the war effort, making them all legitimate targets. This would mean that the First World War was a Total War, but this is a very broad reaching statement. It is literally not possible for absolutely everything to be involved, but things certainly started to change to be that way. These changes affected different people by varying amounts, some things for good and some for bad. It can be stated that these changes fall into distinct categories of social, economic, political, and cultural, but in actuality these all had great effects on each other. The social and cultural change of women going to work had large impacts on the political scene where they could now vote, for example. The role of the government within the war cannot be under emphasised, and it is to these that many of the items of change can be attributed, with the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) playing a crucial role in the entire war, particularly that on the home front.

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DORA was introduced on 8th August 1914, giving the government far reaching powers over the country, adding significantly to the ways in which normal people were affected by the war and increasing their role in the war effort. One of the things that this enabled the government to do was to enact censorship and to use propaganda to show British forces in a better light. For example, C. F. G. Masterman was appointed the head of the British War Propaganda Bureau (WPB), in August 1914, and was responsible for publishing many articles particularly showing the frightfulness of the German Hun. ...

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