The Edinburgh Companion to First World War Periodicals
The 2024 ESPRit Prize was awarded to The Edinburgh Companion to First World War Periodicals, edited by Marysa Demoor, Cedric Van Dijck and Birgit Van Puymbroeck and published by Edinburgh University Press in 2023. We congratulate the editors and all the contributing authors.
The volume examines newspapers and magazines produced during the First World War as cultural artefacts in their own right. Bringing together scholars from several fields, it considers the role of the press during the conflict and the ways in which the war changed periodical culture. Its chapters range from studies of materiality, networks, archives, emotion and memory to the work of editors, journalists, artists and photographers. They explore trench, prisoner-of-war camp and hospital journals alongside pacifist, women’s suffrage, labour and avant-garde publications. Contributions on different parts of the world place these varied forms of print within the war’s global history.
The ESPRit Prize committee was unanimous in its decision, describing the book as a “genuine tour de force”. The committee commended its breadth and the diversity of critical, theoretical, thematic, national and linguistic perspectives through which it examines the First World War press. It also praised the richness of its scholarship and its attention to methods, material forms, genres, historical events and global perspectives.
Prize ceremony award
The prize was presented at the awards ceremony during the 2025 ESPRit Conference in Málaga. Discover more on the publisher's website.
