This is the first book to study the cultural impact of the Armistice of 11 November 1918. It contains 14 new essays from scholars working in literature, music, art history and military history. The Armistice brought hopes for a better future, as well as sadness, disappointment and rage. Many people in all the combatant nations asked hard questions about the purpose of the war. These questions are explored in complex and nuanced ways in the literature, music and art of the period. This book revisits the silence of the Armistice and asks how its effect was to echo into the following decades. The essays are genuinely interdisciplinary and are written in a clear, accessible style.

Introduction: 'This grave day' - Trudi Tate and Kate Kennedy1. The parting of the ways: The Armistice, the Silence and Ford Madox Ford's Parade's end - John Pegum2. Alfred Döblin's November 1918: The Alsatian prelude - Klaus Hofmann3. 'A strange mood': British popular fiction and post-war uncertainties - George Simmers4. Fighting the peace: Two women's accounts of the post-war years - Alison Hennegan5. King Baby: Infant care into the peace - Trudi Tate6. 'What a victory it might have been': C. E. Montague and the First World War - Andrew Frayn7. The Bookman, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Armistice - Jane Potter8. 'Misunderstood ... mainly because of my Jewishness': Arthur Schnitzler after the First World War - Max Haberich9. Leaping over shadows: Ernst Krenek and post-war Vienna - Peter Tregear10. Silence recalled in sound: British classical music and the Armistice - Kate Kennedy11. Sacrifice defeated: The Armistice and depictions of victimhood in German women's art 1918-24 - Claudia Siebrecht12. 'Remembering, we forget': British art at the Armistice - Michael Walsh13. Indecisive victory? : German and British soldiers at the Armistice - Alexander Watson14. Mixing memory and desire: British and German war memorials after 1918 - Adrian BarlowBibliographyNotes on contributorsIndex