New Books Network: Framing the First World War – How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict

Podcast Episode: Michael P.M. Fox et al., eds., "Framing the First World War: How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict" (UP of Kansas, 2025)
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guests: Dr. Michael Finch, Dr. Amy Fox, Dr. David Morgan Owen
Recorded: January 21, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features a lively group discussion with the editors of "Framing the First World War," a recent volume published by the University Press of Kansas. The editors—Michael Finch, Amy Fox, and David Morgan Owen—discuss the book’s genesis, its intellectual intervention in First World War studies, and its aim to bridge the interpretive gap between cultural and military history by focusing on the concept of "framing." They delve into specific chapters that challenge national, disciplinary, and institutional silos, offering new perspectives on interaction, learning, knowledge formation, and military-civil relations during and surrounding World War I.

Introduction of the Editors

Amy Fox:

• Historian of war, specializing in the First World War
• Focus: military organisations, innovation, and the interplay between organisations and individual agency
• Senior Lecturer, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews
  “A lot of my research has considered military organizations, how they change, how they innovate and...thinking about the relationship between organisations and the individuals within them.” (02:17)

David Morgan Owen:

• Senior Lecturer, School of IR, St Andrews
• Researches strategy and maritime conflict in the First World War
  “I’m a historian primarily of the First World War, particularly interested in the history of strategy and also conflict in maritime contexts.” (02:55)

Michael Finch:

• Associate Professor, History, War and Strategy, Deakin University
• Works closely with the Australian Defence Forces
• Interest in military and strategic thought, particularly from a "First World War-adjacent" perspective
  “I guess, meandered around a little bit, but it’s unified by an interest in military and strategic thought.” (03:21)

Project Genesis & Theoretical Foundations

Intellectual Motivation:

• Sparked by pandemic-era conversations and a catalytic essay by historian John Horne:
  “The book really stemmed from a series of conversations… during the pandemic… A really clarifying kind of contribution for us that catalyzed our thinking… was an essay written by John Horne.” (04:25)
• Horne’s essay, "The End of a Paradigm," explored the "cultural turn" in First World War studies, debating its achievements and gaps.

Key Tension:

• The "cultural turn" fostered deep explorations of values, representations, and everyday experiences—but has tended to operate in “a semi parallel universe” to a “causal history” focused on decisions, outcomes, and events.
  • “Cultural history has operated in a semi parallel universe from what he termed the causal history of the First World War.” (06:15)

Breaking Down Silos:

• The editors saw a persistent division between (sub-)disciplines—military, cultural, and social history—not just methodologically but in vocabulary, national focus, and even in academic publishing.
  • “Disciplines or sub-disciplines almost being quarantined or firewalled from each other… to try and…break down those silos.” (09:13 - Amy Fox)

The Concept of “Framing”

Why Framing?

• After considering other terms like "perception" and "outlook," the editors chose "framing" for its accessibility across disciplines and its ability to capture the intersection of perception, thought, and action:
  • “We ultimately settled on framing because it seemed like a relatively accessible way for people to examine some of the themes… on different levels, while still using a kind of common register.” (12:23 - David Morgan Owen)
• Framing allows for the examination of both the object of historical study (the war, military organizations, etc.) and the historian’s own method of inquiry.

Practical Limits:

• Comparative work is difficult due to language, resources, and the sheer breadth of necessary expertise. The editors see this collection as a “first step” and a prompt for further dialogue.

Publishing Challenges:

• Not all academic presses were receptive; cultural and military history still provoke distinct gatekeeping.
  • “Some editors very keen on the military history, maybe be less so on the cultural side of things.” (17:00 - Amy Fox)
• University Press of Kansas and Joyce Harrison are credited for their support.

Key Themes and Chapter Highlights

1. Anglo-French Entanglements and Strategic Culture (22:22)

• The book challenges the notion of distinct “national ways of war”:
  • “The idea that being…a citizen of a particular nation…makes you think about war in a particular way is something that didn’t really coincide with our understanding about what actually informs the way that people think about war.” (24:15 - David Morgan Owen)
• There is often as much cooperation as rivalry, with cross-references in military theory and praxis.
• Key Example: British military thinking drawing systematically from French and other foreign examples.

2. Framing the Military: Identity, Role, and Knowledge (30:59)

• The First World War destabilized old assumptions about what militaries “know” and do, opening up questions about who counts as a soldier, a citizen, or an expert.
  • “Existing forms of military knowledge were profoundly challenged… it was a continual feature of civil-military relations that military claims to authority were predicated upon the idea that they had some sort of…zone of professional expertise…” (32:44 - David Morgan Owen)
• Medical professionals, citizen-soldiers and various other actors moved in and out of formal and informal military spaces.

3. Informal Knowledge: Gossip in the Trenches (37:20)

• Amy Fox’s “Gossip” Chapter:
  • Explores gossip as an underestimated form of military learning and organizational sense-making.
  • “Why…not take gossip seriously as a form of sense making, as a form of learning and indeed as a form of military knowledge in and of itself?” (37:22 - Amy Fox)
  • Gossip complicates the boundaries of the military organization, revealing “unmanaged spaces” where power flows outside formal hierarchies.
  • “There’s a really important…spatial and organizational element…but also…about how it enables us to reframe military power.” (39:34 - Amy Fox)
• Editor reflections: Their experience in military education shows how nonofficial communication can have as much effect on an organization as formal orders or doctrines.

4. Inter-Military Interaction and Learning (45:21)

• Chapters on Franco-Russian, U.S., and Italian cases highlight the cosmopolitan flow of ideas across military borders.
  • “Almost the starting off point of seeing a military through a primarily national lens…is maybe an assumption that it’s worth challenging from the start...” (45:55 - David Morgan Owen)
• Even “unsuccessful” militaries (Habsburg, Italian, Russian) display intellectual energy, internal debate, and the universal challenges of learning under pressure.
• Issues of translation, “stickiness” of local knowledge, and the politics of prestige and imitation complicate the implementation of foreign innovations.
  • “How sticky right or contextual specific experiences and knowledge are, how actually they resist translation…” (50:12 - Amy Fox)

5. The Naval Blockade and the Maritime Turn (54:09)

• Two chapters look at the British and French blockade efforts, highlighting how perceptions and representations of the blockade (rather than its actual effects) shaped postwar strategy and international order.
  • “At almost every level, the debate about the blockade is much more about representation and experience than it is about any serious attempt to grapple with the causality of it.” (55:10 - David Morgan Owen)
• The “blockade” became a metaphor for future economic warfare and appeared in interwar debates about sanctions and peace enforcement.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Cultural military histories... almost being quarantined or firewalled from each other.” (09:13 – Amy Fox)
• “Framing… seemed like the best way of finding something that expressed that sort of nexus between perception and thought and action.” (15:17 – Michael Finch)
• “Gossiping is just…everyone does it, right?…But I think what was really striking to me was how dismissed and underrated and undervalued gossip has been.” (37:22 – Amy Fox)
• “The idea that being a particular nation… makes you think about war in a particular way is something that didn’t really coincide with our understanding about what actually informs the way that people think about war.” (24:15 – David Morgan Owen)
• “There’s such enormity of effort…in actually trying in a very genuine way to get to grips with the problem, even if you don’t end up in a place where you get the right solution.” (52:14 – Michael Finch)
• “In many aspects of the war, the war at sea has proven kind of stubbornly peripheral… where it appears, is often connected to this word called blockade.” (54:09 – David Morgan Owen)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:16] Editor Introductions
• [04:24] Origins of the Book; John Horne’s "End of a Paradigm"; Problems in the Field
• [12:21] Adoption of "Framing" as the Key Concept
• [22:22] Anglo-French Relations and Strategic Culture
• [30:59] Military Identities and Authority—What is a Soldier?
• [37:20] Gossip, Informal Learning and Knowledge Transmission (Amy Fox)
• [45:21] Inter-Military Exchanges—Case Studies on Learning & Failure
• [54:09] Blockades, Maritime Perspectives, and the Role of Perception
• [59:21] Editors’ Next Projects

Future Work by the Editors

• David Morgan Owen: Book on sea power in WWI, examining Britain’s maritime strategy beyond just the blockade.
• Michael Finch: Biographical/legacy study of Basil Liddell Hart and the making of his strategic reputation.
• Amy Fox: Collective biography of four military couples from 1909–1920s, exploring intimacy, empire, and military life—with themes of gossip likely to remain central.

Closing Thoughts

The editors position "Framing the First World War" as a collective scholarly advance—a prompt to transcend disciplinary boundaries and to recognize the complex plurality of ideas, interactions, and representations that shaped the global conflict. In their hands, “framing” becomes both a historical phenomenon and a methodological imperative, inviting further research that connects, rather than divides, military history and the broader human experience of war.

For more, see:
Framing the First World War: How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict (University Press of Kansas, 2025)
[Listen to full episode on the New Books Network]