https://dx.doi.org/10.32912/bulletin/21/7
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.
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- Mud, Blood and Not So Much Poppycock: ‘Myth’ Formation and the British Army in Late 1917
- 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.
- Last updated on: 19 Jan 2021 | File Size: 1.7 MB
Citation
Mayhew, Alex. 2020. Mud, blood and not so much poppycock: 'Myth' formation and the British Army in late 1917. Bulletin of the Auckland Museum. 21: 39–44. https://dx.doi.org/10.32912/bulletin/21/7
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The narrative of 1917 and its legacy is characterised by a multitude of perspectives, practices, cultures, histories, locations, and expressions. It is the richness and diversity associated with this year that inspired a significant international symposium in 2017 during the centenary of the First World War, The Myriad Faces of War: 1917 and its Legacy.
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Read moreIn 1917, English artist and actor Ernest Thesiger wrote to the Ministry of Pensions with what must have seemed a somewhat eccentric proposal that they establish an embroidery workshop to provide training and employment for disabled combatants returning from the war. Thesiger suggested the men could initially ‘copy and mend old needlework’ but eventually they should make and sell their own designs.
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Read moreIn late 1916 Germany stood at the crossroads. Though it had withstood heavy attacks by the Allies and won an unexpected victory over a new enemy, Romania, it was clear that Germany could not win a war without end. As a result, Germany offered a compromise peace. Whether this offer was genuine is still debated by historians.
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Read moreThe treatment of conscientious objectors is one of the biggest blots on New Zealand’s First World War record. Many of these individuals were imprisoned and deprived of their civil rights, some were brutalised while confined in domestic army camps, and a few were even forcibly transported to the western front. Historians have identified the nine military service boards, established to determine appeals for exemption from conscription, as playing a significant enabling role in this persecution. Labelled as over-zealous and ignorant jingoists, the boards’ members are said to have been far more concerned with ridiculing conscientious objectors’ beliefs than with properly assessing their claims. This article evaluates such assertions by reference to the exemption hearings that took place during 1917.
Read moreThis article will examine New Zealand laws that were introduced during the First World War, and which evolved out of a need to bring order to society at a time of world-wide chaos. It will consider the introduction of laws that dealt with sedition and ‘intoxicating liquor’, issues that challenged the government’s ability to maintain law and order, and the leading legal cases of 1917 arising out of those new laws. These cases helped determine the legality of New Zealand’s role in the Great War, and the extent of the Government’s right to make laws committing New Zealand to conflicts outside its three-mile limits. Also considered will be the ongoing legacies of those laws, how long they continued to be used as a means to control society after the First World War had ended, and whether there are aspects of those laws that have continued to have effect in law and on society up to the present day.
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