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Army Wives

From Crimea to Afghanistan: the Real Lives of the Women Behind the Men in Uniform

By (author) Midge Gillies
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Quarto Publishing PLC, United Kingdom
Imprint: Aurum
Published: 18th Aug 2016
Dimensions: w 289mm h 236mm d 41mm
Weight: 770g
ISBN-10: 1781312893
ISBN-13: 9781781312896
Barcode No: 9781781312896
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Synopsis
Most families have an army wife somewhere in their past. Over the centuries they have followed their men to the front, helped them keep order in far-flung parts of the empire or waited anxiously at home. Army Wives uses first hand accounts, letters and diaries to tell their story. We meet the wives who made the arduous journey to the Crimean war and witnessed battle at close quarters. We hear the story of life in the Raj and the, often terrifying, experiences of the women who lived through its dying days. We explore the pressures of being a modern army wife - whether living in barracks or trying to maintain a normal home life outside 'the patch'. In the twentieth century two world wars produced new generations of army wives who forged friendships that lasted into peacetime. Army Wives reveals their experience and that of a new breed of independent women who supported their men through the Cold War to the current war on terror. Midge Gillies, author of acclaimed The Barbed-Wire University, looks at how industrial warfare means husbands can survive battle with life-changing injuries that are both mental and physical - and what that means for their family. She describes how army wives communicate with their husbands - via letters and coded messages, to more immediate, but less intimate, texts and Skype. She examines bereavement, from the se ances, public memorials and deaths in a foreign field of the Great War to the modern media coverage of flag-draped coffins returning home by military plane. Above all, Army Wives examines what it really means to be part of the ' army family' , in the past and today, and how these women's lives reveal a deeply human experience that is often hidden from those of us on the outside.

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"Entertaining [...] invaluable for social historians." * The Sunday Times * "Heart-breaking detail... Gillies is one of our most acute historians of behind-the-scenes military life." -- Kathryn Hughes * The Mail on Sunday * 'She is exquisitely sensitive to the emotional lives of soldiers' wives' -- Joanna Bourke, Professor of History, University of London * BBC History Magazine * "Midge Gillies is to be congratulated on presenting a different angle on military life, understanding the many different facets of what it takes to be an army wife, and appreciating that their vital role must never be underestimated. Courage is not confined to those serving at the front." * Best of British * "A compelling history which ranges across centuries, conflicts and continents." * History Revealed * "A gem of a read that packs an emotional punch, revealing lives that have often been hidden from view." * Family Tree *