When I do my annual bulletin for the NAS/NMDA, I'll be including quite a bit about the start of The Great War. Poland only became free again after Versailles (11/11 is still celebrated as Independence Day there).
I wish this was a far that was more covered in school. We barely covered it in high school since it came at the end of the year and I only had one or so classes touch on it it as a history major in college.
The ending of Blackadder Goes Forth gets me every time...
We sadly don't have a memorial to that war on the Mall. Korea? Vietnam? World War II? Yup to all three. The Great War? Nope. I think part of it is that it was followed so quickly by a greater war.
There is one actually. It's tiny, and it's specifically to those of the District who gave their lives, but, with my experiences in Belgium and Britain, that seems to me to be the right way to commemorate that war.
It truly is a forgotten war, which is ironic, since -- as you point out -- it caused so much that happened later.
One of the reasons I dislike Downton Abbey is because they really missed the chance to show the effect of the war and the horrific casualties on 1920's England. They mention it a couple of times, but it might as well not have happened as far as Julian Fellowes is concerned.
Tuchman's The Guns of August is also a classic, and her The Proud Tower is an interesting look at pre-WWI culture.
Michael Gove sounds like a twit. Seriously, England was not fighting for freedom in WWI, considering it was an empire allied to another empire (Czarist Russia) fighting against two more empires, Germany and Austro-Hungary.
Twit is the least of what Gove is about. He really has no comprehension of what that war did to his country, the people in it, and the class system he clings to.
I haven't read "The Proud Tower." I'll add it to my reading list.
Gove is clearly a Blackadder character in a poor disguise.
Of course Blackadder bloody belittles Britain as it was a century ago. It was the hideous results of the policy of promoting officers for accomplishments on the field of primogeniture that made both World Wars last long enough for America to step in. The British Empire was potentially capable of outproducing Germany's pillage-based economy without breaking a sweat.
When I drove across country (US) a few years ago, I had a moment of disjointedness when I realized I was more than 50 miles from the sea. It was weird for me. Only once in my life had I ever lived that far from the sea. Britain is an island. No matter where you are, you are within reach of the sea. It has many people, great engineers, and, at the time of the first World War, a comparatively high level of industrialization, but it is still an island with all the mental, emotional, and physical issues that involves
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"When I drove across country (US) a few years ago, I had a moment of disjointedness when I realized I was more than 50 miles from the sea. It was weird for me."
It's always a treat to me when we go out to one of the coasts for a vacation. I do live in what's often called the third coast (The Great Lakes are basically gigantic freshwater seas), but there's something about the ocean and the smell of salt in the air.
It's funny, I don't go to the beach much. I went more when I lived in Quincy, MA, but I'm just not a beach person. Yet there was still a moment of almost claustrophobia from realizing that I would be over a thousand miles from the sea for several days.
I adore the great lakes and definitely would consider them acceptable substitutes.
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I wish this was a far that was more covered in school. We barely covered it in high school since it came at the end of the year and I only had one or so classes touch on it it as a history major in college.
The ending of Blackadder Goes Forth gets me every time...
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One of the reasons I dislike Downton Abbey is because they really missed the chance to show the effect of the war and the horrific casualties on 1920's England. They mention it a couple of times, but it might as well not have happened as far as Julian Fellowes is concerned.
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Michael Gove sounds like a twit. Seriously, England was not fighting for freedom in WWI, considering it was an empire allied to another empire (Czarist Russia) fighting against two more empires, Germany and Austro-Hungary.
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I haven't read "The Proud Tower." I'll add it to my reading list.
Reply
Of course Blackadder bloody belittles Britain as it was a century ago. It was the hideous results of the policy of promoting officers for accomplishments on the field of primogeniture that made both World Wars last long enough for America to step in. The British Empire was potentially capable of outproducing Germany's pillage-based economy without breaking a sweat.
Reply
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It's always a treat to me when we go out to one of the coasts for a vacation. I do live in what's often called the third coast (The Great Lakes are basically gigantic freshwater seas), but there's something about the ocean and the smell of salt in the air.
Reply
I adore the great lakes and definitely would consider them acceptable substitutes.
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