ABSTRACT
“During the War” illustrates how the conflict radicalized these issues further. Irish nationalism underwent a sea change as the physical force contingent took ground from the parliamentarians. Alsace became a football between France and Germany as war raged on parts of that territory, producing a miserable experience for the Alsatians who were mistreated and mistrusted by both armies and both states. The Italian government entered the war in 1915 in a bid to gain the “unredeemed” provinces of the Risorgimento, and in hopes of unifying their fractured country and of finally “making Italians.” The brutal Italian war experience would not serve these purposes well, and only radicalized the problem of non-Italian minorities in the lands claimed for redemption, many of whom saw Italy as a foreign invader and fought assiduously, even as conscripts, for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
