Commemorative Spaces of the First World War ─ Historical Geographies at the Centenary

This is the first book to bring together an interdisciplinary, theoretically engaged and global perspective on the First World War through the lens of historical geography. Seeking to move away from military history and memory studies, contributors explore conceptual contributions of geography to analysing the First World War, as well as reflecting upon the imperative for an academic discussion on the War’s centenary. This book explores the War’s impact in more unexpected theatres, blurring the boundary between home and fighting fronts, investigating the experiences of the war among civilians and often over-looked combatants. The book also critically examines the politics of hindsight in the post-war period, and offers an historical geographical account of how the First World War has been memorialised within ‘official’ spaces as well as many of the ‘alternative spaces’ of commemoration that are often overlooked and undervalued.

James Wallis is currently completing his Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award, which is a partnership between the Geography Department at the University of Exeter and Imperial War Museums, London. He recently had a chapter published in ‘Remembering the First World War’ (Edited by Bart Ziino, Routledge, 2015). This examined the practice of amateur family history in forging new understandings of the First World War, as enabled by the various platforms put in place for the Centenary period.

David Harvey is a Professor of Historical and Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter (UK) who has worked within the field of heritage studies for a number of years. In particular, his research has contributed to some key heritage debates, including processual understandings of heritage, extending the temporal depth of heritage, the outlining of heritage-landscape relations and the opening up of hidden memories through oral history.