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Ities 1996 Volume 17/Number 5 Join The NOVEMBER/DECEMBERHUMANITIES 1996 VOLUME 17/NUMBER 5 JOIN THE AID SERVICEand 5EDVE in FRANCE^ 1 M * ■' r ^ A X V «• 5; IT f*1 T he G r e a t W ar NOVEMBERfDECEMBERHUMANITIES 1996 VOLUME 17/NUMBER 5 EDITOR'S NOTE T h e F ir s t W o r l d W a r Historian Barbara Tuchman begins The Guns of August with the breathtaking spectacle of a May morning in 1910 as nine kings and seven queens and forty-five of the world's princes rode through the streets of London to pay their final respects to Edward VII. "In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun." The funeral was to be the last great assemblage of its kind, Tuchman writes. "On history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again." World War I recruiting poster. Riding at the side of the new British sovereign, George V, was his German cousin, William II, with whom he would ultimately find himself at war. A few yards back, alongside Albert of the Belgians, rode the heir to the Austro- Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination would be the trigger. Humanities When armed conflict came in 1914, it was expected to be quick and A bimonthly review published by the National Endowment for the Humanities. decisive, over by Christmas. Instead, the war stretched over four years with Chairman: Sheldon Hackney 65 million combatants and a cost of 8.5 million lives. A generation of young Director of Communications Policy: Gary L. Krull men was lost; in Britain alone 942,000 died, among them the promising young poets Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, and Isaac Rosenberg. Ideals of Editor: Mary Lou Beatty "gentlemanly" conflict died as well. The war brought the twentieth century's Assistant Editor: Susan Q. Graceson first genocide—the slaughter of the Armenians; it brought the first aerial Writer-Editor: Amy Lifson bombing of civilians—the killing of 2,300 Londoners in zeppelin attacks; and Editorial Assistant: Steven Snodgrass Editorial Intern: Allison Hague it brought the first use of chemical weapons—poison gas drifting over the trenches. It was to be "the war to end all wars," yet it led to another just two Editorial Board: George F. Farr, Jr., decades later, larger and even more bloodthirsty. James Herbert, Edythe R. Manza, How the events of 1914-1918 transformed our society is the subject of a Nancy Rogers, Stephen M. Ross new eight-hour documentary, The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Marketing Director: Joy Evans Century, premiering this November on public television. The Great War, Paul Fussell writes, "took place in what was, compared with ours, a static world, Design: Crabtree & Jemison, Inc. where the values appeared stable and where the meanings of abstractions The opinions expressed in Humanities are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect seemed permanent and reliable. Everyone knew what Glory was, and what Endowment policy. Material appearing in this publication, except for that already copyrighted, Honor meant." Fussell, author of the prize-winning Great War and Modern may be freely reproduced. Please notify the Memory, talks with Endowment Chairman Sheldon Hackney about the editor in advance so that appropriate credit can be given. Humanities (ISSN 0018-7526) is pub­ disillusion that became the legacy in subsequent wars, notably Vietnam. lished bimonthly by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, One of the men who exemplified the modern technology of war, Alfred N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. Telephone: 202/606-8435; fax: 202/606-8451; e-mail: Nobel, died one hundred years ago this December. He used his munitions [email protected] fortune to endow prizes in chemistry, medicine, physics, literature, and Second-class postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: peace. In this issue we look at two of these Nobel laureates—and an almost- Send address changes to United States laureate—who played larger and lesser roles in the First World War and Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402. New whose work has had ramifications to the present day. We also see a gentler subscriptions and renewals: U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, side of the Nobel, visiting a preservation project under way to preserve the P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. archives of the publishing house of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, home to Annual subscription rate: $16.00 domestic, $20.00 foreign. Two years: $32.00, $40.00. twenty Nobel Prize-winning writers. For subscription questions or problems, telephone: 202/512-2303; fax: 202/512-2233. —Mary Lou Beatty 2 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1996 The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities November/December 1996 THE GREAT WAR AROUND THE NATION 4 A Conversation with . The author of The Great War and Modern 30 From the Ground Up Memory, Paul Fussell, talks with Endow­ A photo essay illustrates ment Chairman Sheldon Hackney about the lessons learned as changing concepts of heroism and glory. students at Ohio's Kenyon College explore family farming. 10 The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century An eight-hour documentary details how 35 Let’s Play the clash of Europe's ruling families An exhibition in Arkansas destroyed a generation of young men. examines how Americans By Blaine Baggett, Jay M. Winter, spent their leisure time at and Joseph Angier P a g e 4 the turn of the century. By Amy Lifson 25 The Scientist behind Poison Gas: The Tragedy of the Habers 36 State by State A historian speculates about the suicide A listing of exhibitions, of a prominent woman scientist whose lectures, films, chautauquas, husband developed poison gas. and conferences through­ By Jeffrey A. Johnson out the nation. 36 Chicago Humanities Festival Looks at Birth and D eath THE NOBEL PRIZE Playwright Edward Albee and biographer Stephen A Gathering of Nobels: Farrar, 14 Ambrose are among Straus and Giroux at Fifty the notables appearing. The publisher of more Nobel laureates than any other literary firm is celebrating Worcester’s Native Son its fiftieth anniversary. By Ellen Marsh 39 Massachusetts celebrates the work of screenwriter The Dispute over Nuclear Fission 20 and playwright Samuel The achievements of physicist Lise Meitner Nathaniel Behrman. put her on the path to a Nobel, but fate took a strange turn. By Ruth Lezvin Sime 48 Blood Brothers: From Typing to Genetics DEPARTMENTS A deceptively simple system of classifying blood brought Karl Landsteiner the Nobel 41 Noteworthy medal in 1930. By William H. Schneider 42 C alen d ar 55 D eadlines P a g e 3 0 HUMANITIES 3 ndowment Chairman E Sheldon Hackney talked recently with Paul Fussell about the impact of World War I on the twentieth century. Fussell, a retired Uni­ versity of Pennsylania profes­ sor, is editor of THE NORTON BOOK OF MODERN WAR and the author of many books, among them THANK GOD FOR THE ATO M BOMB AND OTHER ESSAYS and the award-winning THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY. THE INITIAL A Conversation with Paul Fussell heldon Hackney: I understand S that you've got a new auto­ biography out. Paul Fussell: Yes. It's called D oing Battle, and it is about the way the war I fought in—the Second World War, where I fought as an infantry officer— has pursued me all my life and has helped determine my attitudes and my behavior. The point is, wars are not eas­ ily forgotten. Whether they're the First War or the Second War or the Vietnam War and so on, they tend to linger socially and psychologically. HP 0 9 '* i* *** IU k il. Hackney: Especially for the participants. ' * ’ i L . ■ Fussell: Absolutely. Hackney: Let me begin there. In 1975 u you were already a well-established, distinguished scholar of eighteenth- century British literature. Then you wrote - * . The Great War and Modern Memory. 'gr ‘ Fussell: Yes. Hackney: While the Vietnam War was coming to a grisly conclusion. Fussell: I'm glad you mentioned that, because it's really about the Vietnam War as much as it is about the First World War. A trench on the Somme. — Imperial War Museum •iitaocfiaBS 4 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 19% *9*^ "'jf - ' F u sse ll: As a former soldier, what struck H ackney: That book, The Great War me is the absolutely heartless way that war and Modern Memory , really changed was being pursued by the Americans, your career. partly I think because of the race problem. F u s s e ll: It did. It showed me that I The Vietnamese to us were not merely could write about anything I was inter­ communists, they were nasty little yellow ested in. By that time I'd had my say about people without souls. It didn't matter how the British eighteenth century and Augus­ we blew them up or how we bombed them tan culture. I thought, I'm going to shift or how we burned their villages and so on. my vision and write about something dif­ I was very struck by that. And one thing I ferent. This started to occur as a sort of was trying to do in The Great War and half-educated, untrained military historian Modern Memory was to awaken a sort of and cultural historian, which I have tried civilian sympathy for the people who suf­ to be since.
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