CALL FOR ARTICLES
War-disabled people: the continuing 1914-1918 war
World War I led to six to seven million maimed men at
international level. In Europe, governments afterwards had to
face an issue which varied in magnitude in different
countries. In each of the following five countries, Germany,
France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, more than 800 000 war
disabled men had to be provided for, whereas other countries
(Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Serbian, Croatian,
Slovenian Kingdom, United States) had to deal with 100 000 to
350 000 men disabled by the conflict. In all these countries,
war-disabled men formed organizations whose political
positioning was often adversarial (apolitical, communist,
social catholic, etc.). Because they had so many members, and
because they spoke for war victims, they became influential
partners of public authorities. Generally, these associations
did not challenge existing social attitudes but prided
themselves in promoting the sacrifice of soldiers and their
wounded members[1].
Almost all war disabled were men, a majority of them being
between 20 to 40 years old, however, there were a few war
disabled female nurses too. Many encountered difficulties in
returning to their agricultural, artisanal, or industrial
jobs. Although they had been in working life for only 10 or 20
years, a number of them were forced to consider another career
to provide for their families. To solve the problem of their
continuing employment, in many European countries (Austria,
Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy) associations demanded
that all employers whether public or private were forced to
hire a certain proportion of disabled men. Therefore several
European countries (Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Poland)
adopted legal measures between 1916 and 1924 imposing an
obligation on private and public companies to employ
war-wounded workers.
The first studies on war wounded people focused on public policies,
legislation and mobilization of organizations. More recent studies focus
on life experience, on the representation of war disabled in media[2] and
on other aspects such as the pain associated with lost limbs[3]. Many of
these studies are centered on the local or national level (France[4],
Great Britain, Italy[5], Belgium[6], Germany[7], Austria, Poland[8],
etc.).Very few collective or individual books[9] plus the recent special
issue of the First World War Studies journal[10] allow crossing view
points on several national cases. Historians have started adopting
transnational perspectives on the matter[11]. This interest is likely to
develop considering the increasing exchange of experience and data between
associations and medical doctors from different countries.
However, a vast majority of these studies focus on the war and
post-war period itself, overlooking mid- and long-term
consequences of the war on the life of individuals. It seems
therefore necessary to foster the production of new research
focused on war-wounded people during the inter-war period at
local, national and international levels. A number of issues
deserve attention:
Daily life of war wounded people returning to civilian life
Feelings and emotions (resentment, pride, etc.)
The impact of high social visibility of war-wounded people on the
social representation of disability
Work, economic and family situation
Gender and physical, psychological and sexual violence
Transnational dimension of organizations mobilization and the making
of rehabilitation policies for war wounded
The journal ALTER European Journal of Disability Research welcomes all
responses to the issue of war-disabled people during the post WW1
period (1918-1939). Articles should be submitted to the Journal ALTER
European Journal of Disability Research on the website
http://ees.elsevier.com/alter/ before October 31th 2018.
Articles selected after blind peer reviewing will be published in a
special issue of ALTER-European Journal of Disability Research in
commemoration of WW1, end of 1919.
[1] Gerber David (ed.), Disabled Veterans in History, University of
Michigan Press, Enlarged and revised edition, 2012, p. xiii.
[2] Alexandre Sumpf, "War disabled on screen : remembering and forgeting
the Great War in the Russian and Soviet cinema, 1914-1940", First World
War Studies, 2015, pp. 57-79.
[3] Delaporte Sophie, « Le corps et la parole des mutilés de la Grande
Guerre », Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, n° 205, 2002/1, p.
5-14.
[4] Jean-François Montès, 1915-1939, (re)travailler ou le retour du mutilé
: une histoire de l’entre-deux-guerres, Rapport de recherche effectué pour
l’Office national des anciens combattants et victimes de guerre, 1991 ;
Romien (Pierre), « A l’origine de la réinsertion professionnnelle des
personnes handicapées : la prise en charge des invalides de guerre »,
Revue Française des Affaires Sociales, n°2, 2005, pp. 229-247 ; Rebecca
Scales, "Radio Broadcasting, Disabled Veterans, and the Politics of
National Recovery in Interwar France", French Historical Studies, vol. 31,
n°4, 2008, pp. 643-678.
[5] Ugo Pavan Dalla Torre, "Entre public et privé : l’assistance aux
invalides de guerre et les origines d’un nouveau système de welfare en
Italie (1915-1923)", Revue d'histoire de la protection sociale, 2015, p.
46-64.
[6] Pieter Verstraete, Christine Van Everbroeck, Le silence mutilé. Les
soldats invalides belges de la grande guerre, Presses Universitaires de
Namur, 2014.
[7] Heather R. Perry, Recycling the disabled : Army, medicine, and
modernity in WWI Germany, Manchester University Press, 2014.
[8] Magowska, Anita, "The Unwanted Heroes : War invalids in Poland after
World War I", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol.
69 (2), 2014, pp. 185-220.
[9] Deborah Cohen, The War Come Home. Disabled Veterans in Britain and
Germany, 1914-1939, University of California Press, 2001.
[10] Pieter Verstraete, Martina Salvante and Julie Anderson,
"Commemorating the disabled soldier : 1914-1940", First World War Studies,
2015, p. 1-7
[11] Gildas Brégain, « Un problème national, interallié ou international ?
La difficile gestion transnationale du problème des mutilés de guerre
(1917-1923) », Revue d'Histoire de la protection sociale, n°9, 2016, pp.
110-132.
You can diffuse this call for articles in your networks,
All the bests,Myriam Winance
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