Honor, Gender, and Power: The Politics of Satisfaction in Pre-War Europe

Frevert's thesis is that the language of honor as it was traditionally spoken in times of strife was very badly suited to solving the massive conflicts in 1914. Rather than offering a way out, it forced the participants into a deadlock that resulted in war. Once the war had started, the language of honor served, along Weber’s lines, to instill an “ardent [pathetisch] belief in the real existence of national power” among those who fought, financed, and endured the war. The pathos largely stemmed from gendered images of honor that appealed directly to people’s emotions and senses and was one of the central underlying cultural preconditions for the outbreak of World War I. [Author]