Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World War I Berlin

Challenging assumptions about the separation of high politics and everyday life, this book uncovers the important influence of the broad civilian populace, particularly poorer women, on German domestic and even military policy during World War I. As Britain’s wartime blockade of goods to Central Europe increasingly squeezed the German food supply, public protests led by
women of little means
broke out in the streets of Berlin and other German cities. These
street scenes
riveted public attention and drew urban populations together across class lines to make formidable, apparently unified demands on the German state. Imperial authorities responded in unprecedented fashion in the interests of beleaguered consumers, interceding actively in food distribution and production. But offcials’ actions were much more effective in legitimating popular demands than in defending the state’s right to rule. In the end, argues Davis, this dynamic fundamentally reformulated relations between state and society and contributed to the state’s downfall in 1918.