Clik here to view.
Staged Photography and Photography as a Stage
During the First World War there were three main categories of photographer: official, press, and amateur. The role of official photographers was to compile authorised material to document the conflict...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Combat Gnosticism and the Woman Poets
British Female Munitions Worker 1914-1918, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Archives on Flickr Commons James Campbell’s ‘Combat Gnosticism: The Ideology of First World War Poetry Criticism’ ranks...
View ArticleThe War, The Great War, The First World War
Whilst visiting Germany and talking to colleagues last year the topic of what we call the War arose in conversation. One of my German friends noted that in Britain we occasionally use the term ‘The...
View ArticleHow we remember them: the 1914-18 war today
The annual commemoration of the fallen in the world wars and small wars Britain has been involved in takes place on the nearest Sunday to “Remembrance Day”, 11 November. On that day in 1918, at 11...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is act of remembrance losing its original ‘never again’ sentiment?
At 11 am today, on the 11th day of this, the 11th month, much of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and beyond, will fall silent in a two-minute moment of reflection. But reflecting on what? This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
All Quiet on the Wikipedia Front?
Wikipedia is in a position of influence for how people learn about history, but how do the Battles of Arras (1914, 1917 and 1918) differ across the site? What do the edits and page changes tell us...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Commemoration and Conciliation during the Royal Visit to Ireland
‘The people are not only enchanted with the Queen and the gracious kindness of her manner, and the confidence she has shown in them, but they are pleased with themselves for their own good feelings and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Edward Thomas : The Journey to Arras
Edward Thomas was a War Poet in World War I, who died fighting in the Battle of Arras in 1917. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive has a large collection of his resources including letters and...
View ArticleAugust 1914: England’s Difficulty, Ireland’s Opportunity?
Retrospectively, the summer of 1914 was portrayed as the culmination of the long Edwardian idyll that stood in contrast to the rupture and disharmony brought by the outbreak of the First World War. In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Truth-telling versus literary allusion in David Jones’s ‘In Parenthesis’ (1937)
Portrait photograph of David Jones in uniform Criticism of the literature of the First World War sometimes finds a place both for realism – what we might call ‘truth-telling’ – and for fictionalised...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Under a green sea – experiences of gas warfare
This 3D simulation introduces you to the experiences of gas warfare in the trenches through interviews with veterans, contemporary photographs, and poetry. You will need to download the free Unity3D...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Medals of Arras
The medals of Harry Cator (Picture author's own) There is no easy way to compare medals across different armed forces – they remain distinct entities without comparison. Harry Cator won a VC and a...
View ArticleArras: The Forgotten Battlefield
During the late 1980s I interviewed several hundred British and Canadian veterans who had fought in the First World War. It will be no surprise that many of them served at Ypres or on the Somme, but a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ypres Salient: A global commitment to total war
On 7th October 1914, some 8,000 soldiers of the Imperial German Army proudly marched into Ypres. They represented the vanguard of a nation hell-bent on claiming its share of empire, and although the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Commonwealth Cemeteries of World War I
With the help of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) we have produced a set of resources to visualise the Commonwealth cemeteries, burial plots and memorials across the globe for those who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mapping the Impact of the Great War
[This post can be used in conjunction with the resources outlined in Commonwealth Cemeteries of World War I.] The Great War as it was known, the First World War or WWI as it is referred to today, was a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Forgetting the French
One of the ongoing discussions (or controversies depending on your viewpoint) regarding the First World War focuses on its global nature. Specifically regarding the dominant view of the Western Front...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What makes a ‘World’ War?
This is a slight continuation from my previous post regarding the dominant British views of the war to the exclusion of other nations. The term ‘First World War’ or indeed ‘World War One’ trips off the...
View ArticleContinuations or New Beginnings? Changing attitudes to the First World War
“I adore war. It’s like a big picnic without the objectlessness of a picnic. I have never been so well or so happy . . . Here we are in the burning centre of it all, and I would not be anywhere else...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poppies and the politics of remembrance.
With the 100th anniversary of the war drawing ever closer now and having entered November I wanted to use this post to discuss the modern memorial process of the war. To be clear from the start this...
View Article
