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

This is the first book to study the cultural impact of the Armistice of 11 November 1918. It contains fourteen new essays from scholars working in literature, music, art history and military history. The book looks comparatively at British, German and Austrian works, covering authors such as Elizabeth Bowen, Alfred Döblin, Ford Madox Ford, Philip Gibbs, C. E. Montague, Arthur Schnitzler, Helen Zenna Smith, and Virginia Woolf; composers such as Arthur Bliss and Ernst Krenek; artists Käthe Kollwitz, Käte Lassen, Wyndham Lewis, Lotte Prechner and John Singer Sargent. The chapters discuss the ways in which the war was memorialised in military cemeteries and art exhibitions, and how journals such as the Times Literary Supplement and the Bookman engaged with the Armistice and its aftermath. Together the essays offer new ways of thinking about the hopes and disappointments which accompanied the end of the First World War.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 that moment of silence 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. The book is aimed at students and academics working on the First World War, as well as students of early twentieth-century literature, music and art history. It will also appeal to general readers interested in the war.Contributors include distinguished First World War scholars Jane Potter, Claudia Siebrecht, George Simmers and Alexander Watson.

'One thing is certain: among the thousands of books published to mark the centenary of the Great War, there will be few, if any, which examine the immediate aftermath of the fighting as originally, incisively and movingly as the collections of essays in 'The Silent Morning'.', Susan Smart|'This is a magnificent collection of essays on an original and exciting topic and will be a defining volume in the field.' Santanu Das, King's College, London|The Silent Morning 'fills a significant gap in the field' and 'paves the way for further studies, transforming the way in which First World War remembrance is thought about.' Hope Wolf, Women: A Cultural Review (26, 1: 2015)