'A Small Vital Flame'. Anti-war women in NW England 1914-1918

'Throughout Britain and throughout Europe, the women must win, nay, they will win and say: ‘No More War!’ (Workers 'Dreadnought, July 1916) This book restores largely forgotten, provincial women into the narrative of resistance to the First World War.The experience of maintaining unpopular dissent, in a time of total war, was personally and politically transformative for many women activists. The War was significant in sharpening and extending their political activism: however they understood their own activism in different ways, translating pacifist or political critiques of militarism into specific campaign membership. However by the end of the War anti-war activists from a range of suffrage, socialist and pacifist campaigns were working together for a negotiated peace. Their individual and collective stories reveal an extensive network of women who were involved in anti-war activism across Britain between 1914-1918.