For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War

The author traces the history of the British monarchy in World War I, the monarchy's role in the war, and how the war changed British cultural attitudes towards the monarchy, showing that the war accelerated its modernization, reconfigured traditional representations of the king and queen, and led to the reconstruction of the popular image of the monarchy in new ways that contributed to its meaning, purpose, and survival, based on older concepts of honor, duty, religion, and service. She focuses on the sacralization discourses built around the British monarchy during the war, how they operated, were perceived, and were challenged, to understand the cultural meanings of the monarchy during the period. She discusses the role of the British monarchy in cultural mobilization for war; how the royal body was portrayed in cultural discourses; de-sacralization discourses in wartime society and how cultures of deference towards the monarchy were challenged by wartime change, including how this was part of the campaign for independence in Ireland; how the monarchy culturally embodied the transition from wartime to peace during the Armistice period; and how the British monarchy used commemoration to retain a sacralization role in the interwar period.