Frustrating the Collective and Generational War Experience “The generation of 1914” often refers to those who came of age during WWI, and because of the war were robbed of their youth. While this term is a useful expression of a collective experience of universal sacrifice and suffering during the war, the term “generation” fails to recognize the unique experiences of the different genders, races, and classes. Women, soldiers, both officers and enlisted, and colonial forces, like Senegalese soldiers, experienced and remembered the war differently from each other. Therefore, using a broad, general term like “ the generation of 1914,” discounts these individual and minority group experiences, which obscures a collective memory of WWI. Although there were many different individual and group experiences during and after the war, “the generation of 1914” may be used to collectively regard the suffering and sacrifice that all participants of this “generation” endured. Both Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth and Robert Graves’s Good-bye to All That express a common theme of suffering, sacrifice, and the betrayal of their generation. Brittain wrote extensively about her generation’s loss and endurance of so many physical and mental hardships. Parents sacrificed sons, wives sacrificed husbands, and soldiers sacrificed their lives. Much of Europe had to endure under a constant atmosphere of death, loss, and other hardships, like food shortages, and military occupations. This suffering was an important element in Brittain’s definition of her generation. She wrote that if her fiancé had been of the postwar generation she could not have married him, because “a gulf wider than any decade divides those who experienced the War as adults... ... middle of paper ... ...ence is usually not considered under “the generation of 1914’s” umbrella. The phrase, “generation of 1914,” does recognize that there was a universal suffering and sacrifice of those who experienced WWI. However, this overarching term fails to recognize individual and varying experiences of gender, class, and race. There are many similar experiences and common themes, but no one group or individual experienced or remembered the war in the same way. Men and women, middle and lower classes, and white and African soldiers each had distinctive and unique experiences. There are many more lenses one can use to study war experiences and memory in addition to gender, class, and race. Each lens paints a different and more complete picture of the war; differing accounts that cannot and should not be encapsulated by using such a general term as “the generation of 1914.”
In An American Soldier in World War I, David Snead examines account of George Browne, a civil engineer who fought as part of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I. Snead shares Browne’s account of the war through the letters he wrote to his fiancé Martha Ingersoll Johnson. Through Browne’s letters and research conducted of the AEF, Snead gives a concise, informative, and harrowing narrative of life as a soldier serving in the camps and front lines of the Great War. Snead attempts to give the reader an understanding of Browne’s service by focusing on his division, the 42nd Division, their training and preparation, combat on the front lines, and the effects of war on George and Martha’s relationship. As Snead describes, “Brownie’s letters offer a view of the experiences of an American soldier. He described the difficulties of training, transit to and from France, the dangers and excitement of combat, and the war’s impact on relationships.” (Browne 2006, 2) Furthermore, he describes that despite the war’s effect on their relationship, “their
Guy Sajer’s The Forgotten Soldier is a work notable not only for its vivid and uncompromising account of his experience as a member of the Wehrmacht in World War II, but also for its subtle and incisive commentary about the very nature of war itself. What is perhaps most intriguing about Sajer’s novel is his treatment of the supposedly “universal” virtues present within war such as professionalism, patriotism, camaraderie, and self-sacrifice. Sajer introduces a break between how war is thought about in the abstract and how it has actually been conducted historically.
Michael C. C. Adams' book, The Best War Ever: America and World War II, attempts to dispel the numerous misconceptions of the Second World War. As the title suggests, Americans came out of the war with a positive view of the preceding five turbulent years. This myth was born from several factors. Due to the overseas setting of both theaters of the war, intense government propaganda, Hollywood's glamorization, and widespread economic prosperity, Americans were largely sheltered form the brutal truth of World War II. Even to this day, the generation of World War II is viewed as being superior in morality and unity. The popular illusion held that 'there were no ethnic or gender problems, families were happy and united, and children worked hard in school and read a great number of books.' (115)
In the history of modern western civilization, there have been few incidents of war, famine, and other calamities that severely affected the modern European society. The First World War was one such incident which served as a reflection of modern European society in its industrial age, altering mankind’s perception of war into catastrophic levels of carnage and violence. As a transition to modern warfare, the experiences of the Great War were entirely new and unfamiliar. In this anomalous environment, a range of first hand accounts have emerged, detailing the events and experiences of the authors. For instance, both the works of Ernst Junger and Erich Maria Remarque emphasize the frightening and inhumane nature of war to some degree – more explicit in Jünger’s than in Remarque’s – but the sense of glorification, heroism, and nationalism in Jünger’s The Storm of Steel is absent in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, they are replaced by psychological damage caused by the war – the internalization of loss and pain, coupled with a sense of helplessness and disconnectedness with the past and the future. As such, the accounts of Jünger and Remarque reveal the similar experiences of extreme violence and danger of World War I shared by soldiers but draw from their experiences differing ideologies and perception of war.
In conclusion, “The Spirit of 1914” is a fundamental book for historians to read to understand how Germany and the German public honestly reacted to the oncoming, declaration, and the experience of war in 1914. To presume the entire country, or even the majority, of the German public felt the same would be presumptuous, and Verhey repeatedly reiterates the, “…generational, occupational, temporal, gender, and geographical differences in German public opinion…”(112) Verhey gives a new outlook on intentions of Germans before, during, and after World War 1 with extensive research and great respect showing a complexity of the German people from all walks of life.
When the war was over, the survivors went home and the world tried to return to normalcy. Unfortunately, settling down in peacetime proved more difficult than expected. During the war, the boys had fought against both the enemy and death in far away lands; the girls had bought into the patriotic fervor and aggressively entered the workforce. During the war, both the boys and the girls of this generation had broken out of society's structure; they found it very difficult to return.
World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.
“WW2 People’s War: An Archive of World War Two memories- written by the public, gathered by the BBC.” BBC. February 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar
Autobiographies, diaries, letters, official records, photographs and poems are examples of primary sources from World War One. The two primary sources analyzed in this essay are the poems, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen and “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae. Primary sources are often personal, written from the limited perspective of a single individual. It is very difficult for the author to capture their own personal experience, while incorporating the involvement and effects of other events happening at the same time. Each piece of writing studied describes the author’s perception of the war. Both of the poems intend to show to grave reality of war, which often was not realized until the soldiers reach the frontlines. The poems were both written at battle within two years of each other. However, the stark difference between the two poems is astonishing. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” gives a much different impression than “In Flanders Field” despite the fact that both authors were in the same war and similar circumstances. The first two lines in “In Flanders Fields” “…the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row.” are an image o...
...ings by then, whose memories, fears, and enthusiasms should not be remembered." Thus, unlike the title suggests, this remarkable war memoir is not about one soldier. Instead it refers to the entire German army who were defeated by the Allies. Although the German cause was very controversial, these gentlemen bravely fought for their country. Many men died, many were mutilated, and many more had to forever live with the atrocities they encountered. At war's end, however, they were merely "forgotten" for their failure of success. And although The Forgotten Soldier is an astonishing account of the horrors of infantry warfare, it serves a much greater purpose. It allows the historian to glance into the German experience and realize they too were young men fighting because their nation called upon them, and they deserve to be remembered for such a courageous act.
Soldiers’ influence on the decolonization process is prominent throughout the work. The soldiers’ viewpoint and experience supports Sanborn’s thesis because there is never a chapter that does not reference either the soldiers’ relationship to an aspect of the war or society generally. One of his best pieces of evidence on the effects of the war comes from a commander in 1914 named Aleksandr Uspenskii; Sanborn describes how this war changed soldiers’ perspectives of warfare. Hence he articulates how the horrors of war appear in the soldiers’ nightmares and “Uspenskii spent one awful night in a barn, watching his soldiers screaming and thrashing in their dreams as they slept, producing an unwelcome feeling that their lodging had become a mental hospital” (35). This “shock of combat,” that Sanborn articulates aids in understanding the mental constraints of soldiers fighting in a war that they already felt inadequate for. This inadequacy of the soldiers is from the incompetency of command and lack of arms which Sanborn demonstrates throughout his
Bracken, Patrick and Celia Petty (editors). Rethinking the Trauma of War. New York, NY: Save the Children Fund, Free Association Books, Ltd, 1998.
During World War II, governments were tried and tested, armies were defeated, and technology leaped forward. However, the effects of World War II extended further onto the American children. Death of fathers, collection of scraps, purchasing of ration stamps, the effects of propaganda, and the technicalities of rationing are all factors that influenced the children of that war. These conditions at work consequently caused the generation of children from World War II to grow into conscious patriots and avid supporters of the war cause. With the death of family members, the family situation on the home front has changed drastically.
The Great War, as World War I is often referred to, as promising a chance for young men to become, heroes. However, the reality of conflict harshly ruined this vision. Men were sent into muddy trenches where they anticipated death for weeks and months at a time. With the endless shelling saw even the most enduring soldiers worn down to insanity. The soldiers in Regeneration are characterized as being no different to the women with in the patriarchal society as men where reliant on orders from their leaders, soldiers therefore came to personify the submissive role that women had long been forced to oppress in patriarchal societies like that of early 20th century England. In Regeneration, Dr. Rivers connects war neuroses to the hysteria that often disturbed the women during this time; trenches diminished the men to be powerless, while strictly forbidden social roles have had the same effect on women. In both cases, these prolonged positions of involuntary obligation play a large role in triggering
“[B]oth sides had seen, in a sad scrawl of broken earth and murdered men, the answer to the question….Neither race had won, nor could win, the War. The War had won, and would go on winning.”1 These are the words of Edmund Blunden, a British soldier who survived the Battle of the Somme, who came to the realization that nobody could claim victory in the twentieth-century mass warfare, because both winners and losers paid a high price. The new type of warfare launched in the twentieth-century had a great impact on the modern world that went beyond the immediate cost of casualties.2 The psychological, social, economic and technological effect these wars had on those who survived earned this type of conflict a new name: total war, which encompassed all aspects of life. Before 1914, Western society believed in progress, peace, prosperity, reason, and the rights of the individual. During that time, people believed in the Enlightenment, and industrial developments and scientific breakthroughs were a daily reality apparent in the rising standard of living. But World War I crushed all hopes and dreams. It plunged society in an age of anxiety and uncertainty in almost every area of human life. The social impact of total war was also profound. The role of women changed dramatically as the war greatly expanded their activities and changed attitudes towards them. This change was brought about by the total national readjustment and the mobilization of the home front. In order to wage unrestrained warfare, belligerents had to intervene in the economies, diverting production from peacetime goods to the manufacture of munitions and military equipment. Technological advances also took place, which increased the number of “mechanical contrivances”3 such as heavy artilleries, tanks, submarines, and airplanes, which made war an “untrammeled, absolute manifestation of violence”4 as Carl von Causewitz so eloquently put it.