'Amy Lidster uniquely transforms the history of wartime Shakespeare into a narrative that convinces due to its apt emphasis on the fragmented, provisional, and multi-layered nature of this complex phenomenon.' Ton Hoenselaars, Professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture, Utrecht University
Introduction: a history of wartime production and reception; Part I: 1. Royal Shakespeare: Commemorating conflict during the Seven Years' War (1756-63); 2. Shakespeare as propaganda: British military performances during the American revolutionary war (1775-83); 3. 'Patriotic' Shakespeare and dialectics of conflict during the French revolutionary-Napoleonic wars (1792-1815); Interlude. Nostalgia, nation building and the Russian war (1853-56); Part 2: 4. Fragmenting Shakespeare(s) and the first world war (1914-18); 5. 'What we are fighting for': the state mobilization of Shakespeare during the second world war (1939-45); 6. 'Anti-war' Shakespeare: just war theory, sponsorship, and the impact of theatre during the Iraq war (2003-11); Conclusion: wartime Shakespeare – 'a playable surface'.
