ABSTRACT
Among the legacies of the First World War was the belief, widely held-especially in Germany-that Britain and her Allies had triumphed because of the collapse of civilian morale in Germany and AustriaHungary. The implication was that in modern war the prowess of the armed forces was in itself insufficient for victory: if the “home front” did not hold firm then all was lost. And not just the war. Where morale crumbled, social unrest followed and governments fell: the two revolutions in Russia in 1917 and those in Germany and AustriaHungary in 1918 were an alarming reminder to governments everywhere in 1939 of the political consequences of failure to sustain the spirit and commitment of the people.
