Since the 1990s, research on everyday warfare and the culture of war has been at the center of studies on World War I in the German-speaking world. In this context, the field of research of the so-called new military history has emancipated itself from a military history that until then had been perceived as traditional and was primarily interested in the narrower military history in the sense of a history of military operations. This modernized “military history from below” (Militärgeschichte von unten) has changed the focus to the war of the simple crew soldier: the “Krieg des kleinen Mannes,” as Wolfram Wette programmatically formulated it in 1992 in his edited work Der Krieg des kleinen Mannes. Eine Militärgeschichte von unten (Munich, 1992). Thus, the focus of research interest in military history shifted decisively: from traditional military history or, one could say, “military history from above,” which was primarily research on the military elite (with its focus on officers and military leaders), to nonelite simple soldiers. Until now, these soldiers had not really been granted a life of their own in historiography: they were overshadowed by major military politics, military elite research, and the so-called applikatorische Militärgeschichte—a military history that was dedicated to military applications.

In the context of this paradigm shift in World War I research, historians in the German-speaking world also began to take a systematic interest in the wartime situation on the so-called home front. As a result, a new line of research began to take shape, which for the first time was also interested in the everyday life of civilians on the home front and, within the framework of these new studies, operationalized approaches to women's and gender history, the history of mentality, economic and social history, and—increasingly—cultural history. Connected with this paradigm shift was also a reorientation with regard to the reception and use of sources. “Nonofficial” sources increasingly became the focus of historical research: diaries, letters (in World War I, mainly field letters or Feldpostbriefe and other biographical sources—to use modern terminology, self-testimonies or so-called egodocuments). Traditional historiography and military history were criticized precisely because of their scholarly positivism and selective reception of sources, which all too often exhausted itself in political, diplomatic, and operative source genres.

The edition of the war diaries of the Salzburg general merchant Alexander Haidenthaller from World War I, presented by the five editors, takes its place in this innovative direction of world war research. The edition is the product of a research seminar conducted by Laurence Cole and Matthias Egger of the University of Salzburg and is therefore an expression of high student commitment. A large part of the edition was produced by students who participated in the research seminar held in 2017/18. Haidenthaller's highly interesting records are of interest far beyond the narrower Salzburg context and represent an important micro and regional historical source for research on the Austrian home front away from the military fronts. On more than six hundred manuscript pages, Alexander Haidenthaller put his impressions and experiences from the war years on paper. In an occasionally emphatic manner, he describes the unsettled period of the beginning of the war and the social uncertainty that manifested itself during its first months, especially in the cities. Mental attitudes and ideologies, as well as stereotypes and resentments, which the war brought to light with even greater clarity, run like a thread through the edition. Of particular interest are the descriptions of everyday wartime life from the perspective of the economy of scarcity and the daily struggle over supplies with the institutions of the war state, as well as the effects on the small-scale economic structure that shaped the everyday life of the general store owner Haidenthaller in Gnigl and Salzburg.

With its foreword, a carefully and competently prepared introduction, appendix, and register, the edition is a valuable composition that provides new insights into the individual wartime life of civilians in the hinterland of the World War I. It is to be hoped that this edition will be widely distributed and—above all—receive a broad scholarly reception.