DOCSLIB.ORG

THE ENDURING IMPACT of the FIRST WORLD WAR a Collection of Perspectives

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE ENDURING IMPACT of the FIRST WORLD WAR a Collection of Perspectives THE ENDURING IMPACT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR A collection of perspectives Edited by Gail Romano and Kingsley Baird Mud, Blood and Not So Much Poppycock: ‘Myth’ Formation and the British Army in Late 1917 Alex Mayhew London School of Economics and Political Science Abstract This article explores the origins of the ‘myths’ that have come to dominate popular memory of the First World War in Britain. Perceptions of the conflict as a bloody exercise in futility, orchestrated by inept generals, and fought in fields of mud are undoubtedly unrepresentative. Yet, far from pure fiction, such impressions can be historicised. Drawing on wider research into soldiers’ perception of crisis during 1914–1918, this piece argues that the kernel of many of these ‘myths’ can be found in the lived experience of the western front in 1917. Keywords Battle of Passchendaele; First World War; historical memory; historical myths; morale; 20th century Britain The ‘myths’ of the Great War have been questioned Archbishop of Canterbury, was among the speakers and deconstructed by historians, yet, despite their paying homage to the lost servicemen. ‘On this day,’ efforts, they have had a limited impact on the popular he declared, ‘we remember all those caught up by memory of 1914–18 in Britain.1 The Battle of the the Battle of the Somme; those who faced the terrible Somme’s centennial remembrance ceremony, which waste and devastation, those who fought against all the took place on 1 July 2016, provides an illustrative case odds, who endured the clinging mud and squalor of the study of how historical memory can be distorted and trenches’.3 The failure of more balanced scholarship repurposed, used, and misinterpreted. Moving though to moderate such impressions has caused a fair it was, the event failed to capture the nuances of recent amount of soul searching, not to mention frustration, historical scholarship. Arriving at the Commonwealth among historians. Indeed, it has generated new War Graves Commission site at Thiepval, France, research evaluating ‘the extent to which the range of attendees shuffled into the seating area that lay in the commemorative activities undertaken since 2014 has shadow of Sir Edwin Lutyens’ towering memorial engaged with, challenged, or changed this “myth”’.4 to the ‘Missing of the Somme’.2 Justin Welby, the Gordon Corrigan certainly would not be pleased. 1 See, especially, H. Jones, ‘As the Centenary Approaches: The Regeneration of First World War Historiography’, The Historical Journal 56 Issue 3 (Sept. 2013): 857–878, and H. McCartney, ‘The First World War Soldier and his Contemporary Image in Britain’, International Affairs 90, no. 2 (2014): 299–315. 2 For the Thiepval Memorial see, for example, G. Stamp, The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme (London: Profile Books, 2006, 2007) or J. Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, 2003), 105–108. For discussions of centenary activities see, for example, P. Cornish, ‘Imperial War Museums and the Centenary of the First World War’, Twentieth Century British History 27 Issue 4 (Dec. 2016): 513–517 or J. Kidd and J. Sayer, ‘Unthinking Remembrance? Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red and the Significance of Centenaries’,Cultural Trends 27, Issue 2: First World War Commemorations (2018): 68–82. 3 ‘Battle of the Somme: Royals at the Somme Commemoration’, BBC News Online, accessed 28 October 2019, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36674451. 4 ‘Reflections on the Centenary of the First World War: Learning and Legacies for the Future’ Research Network, accessed 16 October 2019, http://reflections1418.exeter.ac.uk/. For related research see C. Pennell, ‘Taught to Remember? British Youth and First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours’, Cultural Trends 27, Issue 2: First World War Commemorations (2018): 83–98. Bulletin of the Auckland Museum 21: 39–44 https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/research/publications/bulletin/vol21/mayhew https://dx.doi.org/10.32912/bulletin/21/7 40 Alex Mayhew His monograph Mud, Blood and Poppycock was a used the personal memoirs of men and particular units, wholesale attack on these inaccurate ‘myths’ about as well as soldiers’ newspapers and ego-documents the conflict. ‘The popular view of the Great War’, (such as letters and diaries) written at the time. he wrote, ‘is of a useless slaughter of hundreds of First, though, it is important to consider exactly what 11 thousands of patriotic volunteers, flung against barbed a ‘myth’ is. Historians, with some notable exceptions, wire and machine guns by stupid generals who never often deploy the term as the antonym of ‘truth’ and consequently something to be avoided or combated. went anywhere near the front line’.5 Dan Todman, however, uses ‘myth’ as a shorthand Historians should not simply dismiss these for ‘history you can remember’. In his work a myth impressions of the First World War. It is more useful to ask describes ‘a belief about the past held by an individual where these common tropes emerged from, and why it is but common to a social group’, be it a nation, town, or that they have become so central to public interpretations family. These myths ‘simplify, reducing complex events of 1914–18. Other scholars have made attempts to of the past to an easily understood set of symbols’ that tackle these questions. Adrian Gregory, for instance, ‘ease communication’.12 Other disciplines see myths as a has examined the ways in which the commemoration category of analysis, a key feature of human society, and ceremonies came to privilege the grieving, rather than something to be studied not dismissed. They might well the veterans, and became, at least to old soldiers, a be misrepresentations, in part imaginary or exaggerated; symbol of the disconnect between the future they hoped but they are also commonplace. They vary by religion 6 for while at war and the reality of peace. Dan Todman’s and nation, and their origins are often clouded by the compelling analysis of the historical memory of the war passage of time. Nonetheless, Todman makes it clear demonstrates how ‘myths’ surrounding ‘mud’, ‘death’, that each of Britain’s historical myths has a purpose or ‘donkeys’, ‘futility’, and ‘poets’ have been filtered by function: ‘mud’, for example, is ‘used to evoke a broader generational and historical context over the course of the myth of the horror of the First World War’.13 Those who 7 20th century. Todman, however, shows that ‘the modern espouse a functionalist explanation of myths would myth of the war has its origins in events and emotions at agree and argue that they provide a frame for social the time’.8 Perhaps, then, Jay Winter’s conceptualisation action or a worldview. Paul Radin suggested that myths of ‘palimpsests’ helps to explain the formation of these direct popular perception: ‘a myth is always explanatory. stereotypes. Winter defines the ‘word “palimpsest” as The explanatory theme often is so completely dominant something that is reused or altered but still bears visible that everything else becomes subordinated to it’.14 In traces of its earlier form’.9 With this concept in mind, contrast, structuralists suggest that a myth provides this article argues that many of these ‘myths’ are drawn meaning and purpose to fragmented and often conflicting from a set of experiences that befell British soldiers on cultural attitudes and perceptions.15 The truth, as William the western front in 1917.10 To do so, it will explore G. Doty has argued, is that myths are ‘complex’. some of the key characteristics of this year, drawing on They can ‘be attempts to explain, others may satisfy the findings of a wider research project on morale, which human needs, symbolize something, consist of binary 5 G. Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock (London: Orion Publishing, 2003, 2004) 1–2. For the most balanced and successful attempt to ‘pick’ at these myths see G. Sheffield,Forgotten Victory. The First World War: Myths and Realities (London: Headline Book Publishing, 2001). For the development of myths during the war itself see, especially, E. Leed, No Man’s Land: Combat and Identity in World War I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979, 2009), 115–123. 6 A. Gregory, The Silence of Memory: Armistice Day, 1919-1948 (London: Bloomsbury, 1994). Also J. Damousi, The Labour of Loss: Mourning, Memory and Wartime Bereavement in Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). 7 D. Todman, The Great War: Myth and Memory (London: Bloomsbury, 2005, 2011). See also, B. Ziino (ed.), Remembering the First World War (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015); P. Grant, National Myth and the First World War (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); G. Plain, ed., Scotland and the First World War: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Bannockburn (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2016). 8 Todman, The Great War, 221. 9 J. Winter, ‘Palimpsests’, in I. Sengupta, ed., Memory, History and Colonialism (London: German Historical Institute, 2009), 167. 10 For a broader history of 1917 as a year of failure see D. Stevenson, 1917: War, Peace & Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). 11 Leed, No Man’s Land, 118–121. 12 Todman, The Great War, xiii. 13 Ibid. 2. 14 P. Radin, ‘The Basic Myth of the North American Indians’ in Eranos-Jahrbuch: Der Mensch und die Mythische Welt (Winterthur: Rhein-Verlag Zurich, 1950), 370. 15 C. Lévi-Strauss, ‘The Structural Study of Myth’ in T. Sebeok, ed., Myth: A Symposium, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974). Mud, Blood and Not So Much Poppycock 41 structures, or communicate hidden messages’.16 First (while spirits lifted a little) was still evident towards World War myths are not falsehoods. They stem from the end of the year. Importantly, it contained all of the the worst of soldiers’ shared experiences, particularly in traces of the myths that have since come to dominate 1917.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Oxford Democrat
    The Oxford Democrat. NUMBER 24 VOLUME 80. SOUTH PARIS, MAINE, TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1913. where hit the oat "Hear Hear The drearily. "That's you look out for that end of the business. to an extent. low Voted Out the Saloons called ye! ye! poll· D. *ΆΚΚ. increase the aupply quite They he said. on | are now closed." Everyone drew a aigb nail on the head," "Mouey. ▲11 I want you to do 1b to pass this AMONG THE FARMERS. Some Kansas experiment· show an in- The following extract from λ lettei Auctioneer, DON'T HURRY OR WORRY of and went borne to aopper, ex- the mean and dirty thing that can here note." Lictjnsed crease after a crop of clover was turned 'rom Mrs. Benj. H. Fiab of Santa Bar relief, — who ate theirs world—that's «"»«· At Meals Follows. TH* cept tbe election board, the best man In the "Colonel Tod hunter," replied tlie »IU>. Dyspepsia "SPKED PLOW." under. The yield of corn was Increased >ara, Calif., may be of interest bott whip âû0TH and oat of pail· and boxes, and afterwards Thurs." "the Indorsement and the col- Moderate- 20 bushel· an acre, oats 10 bushels, rom the temperance and tbe suffrage Colonel the trouble. banker, Tera» I went to A serene mental condition and time began counting votes. aleep other man's mon- a Correspondence on practical agricultural topics potatoes 30 bushel*. itand point. "Ifs generally the lateral make this note good, and it's to chow your food is more la bearing them count. thoroughly aollcHed.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Music and Remembrance: Britain and the First World War'
    City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Grant, P. and Hanna, E. (2014). Music and Remembrance. In: Lowe, D. and Joel, T. (Eds.), Remembering the First World War. (pp. 110-126). Routledge/Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9780415856287 This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/16364/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] ‘Music and Remembrance: Britain and the First World War’ Dr Peter Grant (City University, UK) & Dr Emma Hanna (U. of Greenwich, UK) Introduction In his research using a Mass Observation study, John Sloboda found that the most valued outcome people place on listening to music is the remembrance of past events.1 While music has been a relatively neglected area in our understanding of the cultural history and legacy of 1914-18, a number of historians are now examining the significance of the music produced both during and after the war.2 This chapter analyses the scope and variety of musical responses to the war, from the time of the war itself to the present, with reference to both ‘high’ and ‘popular’ music in Britain’s remembrance of the Great War.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Art of a Second Order': the First World War from the British Home Front Perspective
    ‘ART OF A SECOND ORDER’ The First World War From The British Home Front Perspective by RICHENDA M. ROBERTS A Thesis Submitted to The University of Birmingham For The Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Art History, Film and Visual Studies School of Languages, Art History and Music College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham September 2012 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Little art-historical scholarship has been dedicated to fine art responding to the British home front during the First World War. Within pre-war British society concepts of sexual difference functioned to promote masculine authority. Nevertheless in Britain during wartime enlarged female employment alongside the presence of injured servicemen suggested feminine authority and masculine weakness, thereby temporarily destabilizing pre-war values. Adopting a socio-historical perspective, this thesis argues that artworks engaging with the home front have been largely excluded from art history because of partiality shown towards masculine authority within the matrices of British society. Furthermore, this situation has been supported by the writing of art history, which has, arguably, followed similar premise.
    [Show full text]
  • Mud Blood and Futility RUAE
    PASSAGE 1 The passage is taken from the introduction to Peter Parker’s book “The Last Veteran”, published in 2009. The book tells the life story of Harry Patch, who fought in the First World War, and eventually became the last surviving soldier to have fought in the trenches. He died in 2009, aged 111. Mud, Blood and Futility At 11 a.m. on Monday 11 November 1918, after four and quarter years in which howitzers boomed, shells screamed, machine guns rattled, rifles cracked, and the cries of the wounded and dying echoed across the battlefields of France and Belgium, everything suddenly fell quiet. A thick fog had descended that 5 morning and in the muffled landscape the stillness seemed almost palpable. For those left alive at the Front – a desolate landscape in which once bustling towns and villages had been reduced to piles of smoking rubble, and acre upon acre of woodland reduced to splintered and blackened stumps – there was little cause for rejoicing. The longed-for day had finally arrived but most 10 combatants were too enervated to enjoy it. In the great silence, some men were able to remember and reflect on what they had been through. Others simply felt lost. The war had swallowed them up: it occupied their every waking moment, just as it was to haunt their dreams in the future. There have been other wars since 1918 and in all of them combatants have 15 had to endure privation, discomfort, misery, the loss of comrades and appalling injuries. Even so, the First World War continues to exert a powerful grip upon our collective imagination.
    [Show full text]
  • World War I Photography As Historical Record Kimberly Holifield University of Southern Mississippi
    SLIS Connecting Volume 7 Article 9 Issue 1 SLIS Connecting Special Issue: British Studies 2018 Through the Lens: World War I Photography as Historical Record Kimberly Holifield University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/slisconnecting Part of the Archival Science Commons, Collection Development and Management Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons, and the Scholarly Publishing Commons Recommended Citation Holifield, Kimberly (2018) "Through the Lens: World War I Photography as Historical Record," SLIS Connecting: Vol. 7 : Iss. 1 , Article 9. DOI: 10.18785/slis.0701.09 Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/slisconnecting/vol7/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in SLIS Connecting by an authorized editor of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Through the Lens: World War I Photography as Historical Record By Kimberly Holifield British Studies Research Paper July 2016 Readers: Dr. Matthew Griffis Dr. Teresa Welsh Figure 1. Unidentified German Official Photographer in a Shallow Trench, June 1917 (Imperial War Museum Collection, www.iwm.org.uk) Figure 2. First World War Exhibit, Imperial War Museum (Holifield, 2016) “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”—Dorothea Lange Introduction However, a shift toward photography as historical Quotations fill vacant spaces along the walls of the record has slowly begun to make its way through the First World War exhibit at the Imperial War Museum world of scholarship. In their 2009 article, Tucker and of London.
    [Show full text]
  • A Christmas Truce-Themed Assembly 53
    TEACHING THE 1914 CHRISTMAS TRUCES Lesson, assembly and carol service plans to help RESOURCE PACK teachers commemorate the 1914 Christmas Truces for the centenary of World War 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Activity Plans Key Stage 3/4 31 How to use these resources 4 Creating Truce Images to the track of ‘Silent Night’ 32 Art / Music Introduction: A hopeful bit of history 6 Interrupting the War 34 The Martin Luther King Peace Committee 8 English / Creative Writing Christmas Truces Powerpoint: Information for Teachers 11 Christmas Truce Street Graffiti 37 Section 1: The War 12 Art Section 2: Opposing the War 13 Section 3: Combat and Trench Warfare 13 Research Local Participants via Letters to Newspapers 38 Section 4: The December 1914 Christmas Truces 14 History Activity Plans Key Stage 2/3 17 What’s the Point of Christmas Today? 40 Introduction to the Christmas Truces 18 RE / Ethics / PSE History / Moral Reflection Court Martial 41 Writing a Letter Home 20 History / Ethics / PSE English / History Overcoming Barbed Wire 44 Christmas Truces Game 22 Art P. E. Perceptions and Images of the Enemy 45 The Handshake 23 Art / PSE / History Art / Literacy Truce Words: Dominic McGill 46 Multi-session: Christmas Truce Re-enactment 24 Art History / P. E. / Ethics / Music / Languages / Drama Shared Elements of the Truces 47 Christmas Cakes for the Truces 26 Modern Languages Cookery Christianity and World War 1 48 Learning about Countries in 1914 28 RE / History / Ethics Geography The Christmas Gift 30 Fighting or Football 51 Art / Literacy History 2 A Christmas Truce-Themed Assembly 53 A School Carol Service 55 Appendices 60 Appendix 1: Images 60 Appendix 2: Eyewitness Testimonies 62 Appendix 3: Further Resources for Teachers 64 Appendix 4: Multi - Lingual Resources 65 3 HOW TO USE THESE RESOURCES The purpose of this pack is to provide teachers with concrete lesson plans as well as pointers and ideas for developing their own ways of bringing elements of the 1914 Christmas Truces to their schools’ programme between 2014 and 2018.
    [Show full text]
  • Oh What a Lovely War Program
    OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR by Theatre Workshop, Charles Chilton and the members of the original cast Oh What a Lovely War was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London on 19 March 1963. The idea for a chronicle of the First World War, told through the songs and documents of the time, was given flesh and blood in Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, where every produc- tion was the fruit of close co-operation between writer, actor and director. The whole team participated in detailed research into the period and in the creative task of bringing their material to life in theatrical terms. There is one intermission of 15 minutes THE ‘SHARPSTERS’ COMPANY Kevin Bartz Anthony Vessels Bryan “Boots” Connolly Sean M. Cummings Willa Bograd Jeff Garland Sophia M. Guerrero-Murphy Dustin Harvey Kaitlyn Jaffke Will Lehnertz Holly Marks Roger Miller Kelly Oury Bryan C. Nydegger Leihoku Pedersen Jeff Schreiner Phoebe Piper Scott Sharp Meredith Salimbeni SONGS - ACT I Row, Row, Row – Company We Don’t Want To Lose You – Women Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser – Willa Bograd (& Kevin Bartz, Jeff Garland, Roger Miller) Are We Downhearted? – Kevin Bartz, Bryan “Boots” Connolly, Jeff Schreiner, Tony Vessels Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy – Women I’ll Make A Man Of You – Leihoku Pedersen & Women We’re ‘ere Because We’re ‘ere – Kevin Bartz, Bryan “Boots” Connolly, Holly Marks, Roger Miller, Will Lehnertz, Jeff Schreiner, Anthony Vessels Pack Up Your Troubles – Kevin Bartz, Bryan “Boots” Connolly, Roger Miller, Will Lehnertz, Jeff Schreiner, Anthony Vessels Hitchy Koo – Kelly Oury & Jeff Schreiner (Dancer) Heilige Nacht – Kevin Bartz, Sean M.
    [Show full text]
  • Researching Your Bristolian Ancestors in the First World War a Guide
    RESEARCHING YOUR BRISTOLIAN ANCESTORS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR A GUIDE BRISTOL 2014 IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRISTOL & AVON FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY WWW.BRISTOL2014.COM This guide to researching family history has been published as part of Bristol 2014, an extensive programme of activity marking the centenary of the start of the First World War. CONTENTS It has been researched and written by Eugene Byrne with the assistance of Geoff Gardiner of Bristol & Avon Family History Society. It is also available as a downloadable PDF from the Bristol 2014 website (www.bristol2014.com) along with a large-print version. Bristol 2014 is coordinated by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership. INTRODUCTION 5 The guide is provided free of charge thanks to the support of: THE BACKGROUND 6 Society of The First World War 6 Merchant Venturers Bristol’s Part in the War 8 The British Army in the First World War 10 Bristol’s Soldiers and Sailors 14 PREPARING TO RESEARCH 18 Rule 1: Find Out What You Already Have! 18 Thanks to Rebecca Clay, Ruth Hecht, Melanie Kelly, Amy O’Beirne, Sue Shephard, Zoe Steadman- Ideally You Need… 22 Milne and Glenys Wynne-Jones for proof-reading and commenting on drafts. What Am I Looking For? 23 Bristol 2014 is a partner in the First World War Partnership Programme (www.1914.org) RESEARCHING ONLINE 24 Starting Points 24 Genealogical Sites 24 War Diaries 25 Regimental Histories 26 Newspapers 26 Please note that Bristol 2014, Bristol Cultural Development Partnership and Bristol & Avon Family Women at War 27 History Society are not responsible for the content of external websites.
    [Show full text]
  • Britains Last Tommies Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    BRITAINS LAST TOMMIES PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Richard Van Emden | 384 pages | 29 Jun 2006 | Little, Brown Book Group | 9780349120126 | English | London, United Kingdom Britains Last Tommies PDF Book The book also features an outstanding collection of photographs taken of the veterans as soldiers during the war, together with recent images of almost all of them, taken at home, back on the Western Front or at the final veterans' reunion. The main theme from Schindler's List was used as the series' background score. Latest Releases Coming Soon Blog. You know the saying: There's no time like the present World War One Centenary. Wartime Memories Project One of the most profound books I have ever read -- it brought me to tears several times. Marlon Pytlovanciw rated it it was amazing Mar 05, Want to Read saving…. Community Reviews. Alex rated it really liked it Feb 16, Nicholas rated it really liked it Jan 18, Harrowing memories from the last of the surviving soldiers of the first world war. Settings Sign out. Rick rated it really liked it Dec 19, Search term:. British Broadcasting Corporation Home. Wonderful old men, the embers of a generation - like Harry Patch and Alfred Anderson, who was there for the famous Christmas ceasefire of - remember the fear, horror, the buddies who never came home, the biscuits and the bully beef. Original Title. It provides as a good a texture of the war and its conditions as one could ever hope for. Add to Basket. Tom Forsyth rated it it was amazing Dec 13, You don't want to look away in case, when you look back, it's gone.
    [Show full text]
  • Forgotten Voices of the Great War
    Forgotten Voices of the Great War Personal accounts of the First World War by those who were there ‘When we did read the newspapers it made us angry, especially if you had done a big raid... Then you’d read in the papers ‘No action on the Western Front’. It didn’t seem to warrant, where you’d lost probably fifty men killed and an equal number wounded, a mention. It wasn’t big enough... It used to annoy everybody terribly, ‘Very little action on the Western Front.’ Lieutenant Ulrich Burke (2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment) All the following accounts were recorded from interviews made with the subjects in the 1970’s. I have grouped them according to theme or content, each showing aspects of the war as seen and experienced by those fighting at ‘the front’. They are not in chronological order. Choose an excerpt, read it, and be prepared to relate it, and your own feelings about it, to the rest of the class. Choose one excerpt only; but by all means read the others too. Excerpt 1: Joining Up Kitty Eckersley (British), mill worker I worked in the mill1, I was a ring-spinner, and we worked six days a week, from six oʼclock in the morning until half-past five at night, and I got the large sum of fifteen and six a week. Anyway, I had a nice friend, and we used to go out at night - and we met these two young men, and I liked mine very much and he liked me. So eventually we started courting..
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond Genre: Black Elements in Radiohead's "Bloom" Or Black Music/White Music, What's the Difference?
    Sociology and Anthropology 5(2): 139-145, 2017 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/sa.2017.050204 Beyond Genre: Black Elements in Radiohead's "Bloom" or Black Music/White Music, What's the Difference? Kela Nnarka Francis University of Trinidad and Tobago, John S Donaldson Campus, Trinidad Copyright©2017 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract Today’s music scene, perpetuates segregation leaned over and asked me, one black person to another, in music. However, such marketing belies the more “Don’t you have any Caribbean music or just black music permeable boundaries between genres or that elements of instead of all this white stuff?” I half expected that question, “black” music still exist in rock or that “white” elements so I replied calmly “This is black music. We invented it. The exist in hip hop. One example of black musical elements in a very term ‘Rock and Roll’ is African American slang.” He “rock” song is Radiohead’s “Bloom” the first track from The rolled his eyes “Aw Man, why you gotta go back to origins?” King of Limbs (TKOL) released in 2011. Any Radiohead fan and led his girlfriend out of the bar. I have experienced such can assert that part of the band’s popular and critical appeal is exchanges far too frequently in the US, and each encounter their ability to layer sound, creating textured musical highlights two concerns. The first relates to the underlying experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Newsletter 22
    No. 562 w/c Mon 25 September 2017 will be Week B “One man’s faith is another man’s delusion.” Anthony Storr Dear Parents/Carers Harry Patch Day Today is Harry Patch Day, and the 100th anniversary of Harry’s personal day of remembrance from the Battle of Passchendaele. Mrs Padden’s commitment to preserving his memory and inspirational idea of creating a peace garden has attracted a great deal of media interest locally, so keep your eyes and ears open today! Educationally, focusing on one individual means that it is easier for students to conceptualise the First World War; therefore, Harry’s messages about remembering the bravery of his comrades, and the importance of peace rather than conflict feel much more personal and relevant. The garden will be opened at the end of the College day today (Friday). Open Evening This year’s Open Evening on Tuesday was stunning, the best I can ever remember. Around 150 students were involved with departments or as tour guides, and I cannot praise them highly enough or stress how proud of them we all are. Our students were enthusiastic, honest, loyal, spoke and listened well, and parent after parent commented on this. There was the same kind of buzz that one associates with a school production. So, many, many thanks to parents/carers for loaning us your children for the evening, and for providing the inevitable taxi service. We are offering daytime tours of the College at 10.00 a.m. from October 2nd – 6th. If you are a Year 6 parent/carer yourself, or know someone who may be interested in seeing us on a typical day, please contact Claire Phillips on 01392- 463919 or email [email protected].
    [Show full text]