We are all acutely aware of the devastation and upheaval that result from war. Less obvious is the extent to which the military and war impact on the gender order. This book is the first to explore the intersections of the military; war and gender in twentieth-century Germany from a variety of different perspectives. Its authors investigate the relevance of the military and war for the formation of gender relations and their representation as well as for the construction of individual and social agency for both genders in civil society and the military. They inquire about the origins and development of gendered images as they were shaped by war. They expound on the multifarious mechanisms that served to reconstruct or newly form gender relations in the postwar periods. They analyze the participation of women and men in the creation of wars as well as the gender-specific meaning of their respective roles. Finally; they investigate the different ways of remembering and coming to terms with the two great military conflicts of the very violent twentieth century. The book focuses on the period before; during and after the two World Wars; closely linked 'total wars' that mobilized both the 'front' and the 'home-front' and increasingly blurred the boundaries between them. Drawing on sources ranging from forces newspapers to German pilot literature; police reports on women's food riots to oral history interviews with soldiers' wives; the richly documented case studies of Home/Front add the long-overdue gender dimension to the cultural and historical debates that surround these two great military conflicts.
#3615342 in Books Tauris Academic Studies 2011-08-15 2011-09-27Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.93 x 1.32 x 5.78l; 1.30 #File Name: 184885577X304 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Slave Girls of BaghdadBy Jana RichardsonA qayna is a slave girl coveted for her beauty; valued for her talent; and a part of the long history of women enslaved by patriarchal society. This woman is in some ways a respected professional; an entertainer; and in other ways a short-lived phenomenon; a powerless pet. The complex lives of the qiyan are mired in contradiction. Fuad Matthew Caswell's The Slave Girls of Baghdad: The Qiyan in the Early Abbasid Era covers the lives and writings of these singer slave women during the 75 years of the Abbasid Era in Baghdad with detail and poise. Caswell brings the lives of four specific women out of their murky; under-researched past and sheds an analytical yet very human light on them by translating and evaluating their poetry as well as their masters' writings in order to understand their craft as well as their circumstances. The author then continues into their world by introducing other individual qiyan followed by three chapters on different functions their poetry served in society; and how they fit into the decline of the Abbasid Era. The book is one of the only books written on the topic; and even rarer in Caswell's treatment of qiyan poetry. From the outset and with each new verse; Caswell treats the slave girls' poetry with respect; almost as an untapped genre of Middle Eastern art. He provides numerous examples of the qiyan's quips with men for the purposes of entertaining and impressing them with their wit; creating difficult rhymes on the spot to meet a man's challenge. Their poetry can be beautiful; mournful; imploring; or insulting depending on their purpose; but it always seems to be intelligent. The following poem; for example; is a searing comment by one slave-girl to another: "Fly with two wings; O Khansa; For now you have two base men as lovers ...who called on you one after the other You thrived on the one and on the other As the pig thrives on two privies."Caswell identifies this as a "satirical" poem; and categorizes other poems as eulogy; mourning; or amatory. Although there are dozens of colorful; sometimes shocking examples translated and commented on; many of Caswell's points prove to be redundant from one excerpt to the next. The information is valuable yet becomes repetitive quickly; and sometimes sacrifices quality of historical commentary for quantity of original poetry. The very first chapter of the book is a brief summary of "The Social Scene"; which includes important information about slave trading and feminist perspective among other topics; further; Caswell is careful to point out the power and humanity accorded to the qiyan for their skills and training; their relationships with their masters; and their economic potential; without oversimplifying their status as slaves. While the author juggles these nuances with grace; he also neglects much historical background and slightly broader perspectives which could have taught the reader more about the qiyan. His scope is limited enough that more explanation about society at that time and in that setting would not have detracted from his use of the qiyan's works. The author also runs into an interesting situation in analyzing so much poetry in English; where so much meaning is skewed or lost. Some knowledge of the Arabic language is helpful to understand why many phrases are eloquent. For example; a slave owner writes that "the good life is a tender maiden; and my reclining in a tavern." These lines are at once lovely and clunky; a quality attributable their translation into English. This makes the book a little harder to read; but at no fault of the author and without unreasonable labor by the reader. The Slave Girls of Baghdad is an informative and important book; and one filled with useful if somewhat copious primary source examples. It is at once absolutely necessary and slightly inefficient; but overall extremely worth the read for anyone with an academic interest in the topic.
