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11 - Home fronts

the mobilization of resources for total war

from Part II - The Era of Total War, 1914–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

Roger Chickering
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Dennis Showalter
Affiliation:
Colorado College
Hans van de Ven
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter addresses the ways in which the dynamic of social mobilization in both world wars revealed the changing character of warfare itself. The totalizing logic of World War I blurred the boundaries between combatants and non-combatants, between soldier and civilian. Mass armies, supported by industrialized economies, demanded the commitment of the nation's material and technical resources. The defense of the nation was commonly articulated in communitarian terms, in the language of local, class, or religious solidarity. Defensive nationalism stood at the core of cultural mobilization during World War II. Military mobilization initially deprived the war industries of their most-needed workers. In both world wars, the mobilization of home fronts reflected the strategic positions of the belligerents, in particular their access to global markets for raw materials, capital, and labour. The globalized nature of warfare and the importance of combined resources were even more evident during World War II.

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