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This collection seeks to move noncombatant perspectives to center stage, acknowledging their importance, destabilizing the primacy of the combatant, and explaining or undermining the staging of warfare as a singular and acontextual production.

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Introduction: Onto Centre Stage: Warfare in the Western World Gilt Epaulettes For a Gilded Age: Citizen Volunteers and Martial Culture in Post-Civil War New York Patterns From the Guardians of Neutrality: Women Social Democrats in Sweden and Their Resistance Against Civil Defense, 1939-1940 Bride Ship, Brothel Ship: Images of War Brides Arriving in New Zealand in the 1940s Innocence and Punishment: The War Experiences of the Children of Dutch Nazi Collaborators The Child Soldier in Literature or How Johnny Tremain Became Johnny Mad Dog From Bedpans to Bulldogs: Lottie: Gallipoli Nurse and the Pitfalls of Presenting War to the Young ´We Aren´t Playing That Passive Role Any Longer´: American Women´s Protest of the Vietnam War Mixed Messages: Gender, Peace, and the Mainstream Media in Australia, 1983-1984 The War at Home: Toys, Media, and Play as War Work

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"There is a rapidly expanding literature on the cultural history of civilians in modern warfare. But Abbenhuis and Buttsworth bring new subjects to the table, both methodologically and geographically." - Leonard V. Smith, Frederick B. Artz Professor of History, Oberlin College

"[Abbenhuis and Buttsworth] have collected essays that emphasize the nexus of both antiwar and anti-military thought with feminist perspectives, stressing ways in which women have contributed to modern pacifism or have been deprived of recognition for their contributions to the culture of war. Especially engaging are the essays detailing the efforts of women social democrats in WWII Sweden to work for peace and still contribute to civil defense, and the plight of war brides coming to New Zealand and the mixed perceptions with which they were received." - CHOICE

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MAARTJE ABBENHUIS is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
SARA BUTTSWORTH is a Senior Tutor in the history department at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

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