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Questions and Answers
What is the usual perception of the Great War in Britain?
What does David Reynolds describe as a strange paradox about the Great War?
What does David Reynolds want to explore regarding the Great War?
What percentage of the British population over the age of 18 supported Britain's continued membership of the League of Nations?
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What was the pressing problem for the British Foreign Office in 1935?
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Who was known as 'Slippery Sam' and was skeptical about the League of Nations?
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Who was the new man at the Foreign Office and a champion of the League of Nations?
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Who held talks with Hitler in Berlin in 1936 and had a shared memory of the war with the most notorious veteran on the German side?
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What event showed the frightening power of aerial bombing in the 1930s?
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Who made a face-to-face deal with Hitler at Munich in 1938?
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What was the outcome of Chamberlain's gamble at Munich in 1938?
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What dashed the hopes of peace in 1939?
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What did the civil war in Spain demonstrate about the future war?
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Who was the new man at the Foreign Office and a champion of the League of Nations?
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What was the significance of the renaming of WWI as the 'First World War'?
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How did post-war British movies portray the evil of the Nazis?
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What led to the abandonment of Armistice Day in favor of Remembrance Sunday?
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How did the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 impact public perception of WWI?
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What did Fritz Fisher argue about Germany's role in causing WWI?
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How did most British people come to see WWI?
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What forced Germans to rethink WWI as an immoral war?
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How did the 1960s impact the public memory of WWI?
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What characterized the difference between WWII and WWI for Britain?
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What did the existence of concentration camps symbolize?
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What did the pioneer of the peace ballot, Charles Bormann, do on the day war broke out?
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What was the significant memorial for the British people to remember the war in their own way?
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What play brought the hellish reality of the war to the forefront and was interpreted as a plea for peace?
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Who championed the League of Nations, aiming to prevent states from going to war?
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What inspired the nationwide peace ballot in the 1930s, believing that peace would be the most sincere way to remember the dead of the Great War?
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What did Hitler's spin on the memory of the war strike a chord with many ordinary Germans lead to?
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What was the focus of Germany's different memory and understanding of the Great War?
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What did the British state refuse to do regarding the dead soldiers of the Great War?
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What was the aim of the League of Nations?
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What was the play 'Journey's End' interpreted as?
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What did the League of Nations Union believe would be the most sincere way to remember the dead of the Great War?
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What did the British entomb the unknown horrors of the war in?
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What characterized the British state's treatment of the dead soldiers of the Great War?
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Study Notes
Reinterpretation of World War I
- Charles Bormann, pioneer of the peace ballot, resigned as editor of the Ilford Recorder on the day war broke out
- World War II was different from WWI as Britain faced heavy bombing and global conflict with Commonwealth forces
- Post-war British movies celebrated the heroism of WWII, portraying the evil of the Nazis as unprecedented
- The Nazis' depravity was highlighted by the existence of concentration camps, symbolizing the utter barbarity of Nazi rule
- The renaming of WWI as the "First World War" officially highlighted the sense of failure and ineffectual sacrifice
- Armistice Day was abandoned in favor of Remembrance Sunday for the dead of both world wars
- In the 1960s, world events and a new generation reinvented the public memory of WWI
- The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 brought home the horrors of the nuclear age, drawing parallels to the miscalculations that led to WWI
- The 1960s saw a new generation discovering WWI through the lens of WWII and questioning the attitudes of their predecessors
- In the 1960s, an obscure leftist professor, Fritz Fisher, argued that Germany was the aggressor in causing WWI
- Fisher's claims sparked a debate in Germany, forcing Germans to rethink WWI as an immoral war caused by their own country's aggression
- While Germans were forced to think about 1914 as an immoral war, most British people came to see it as a war with no clear cause, moral justification, or achievement
The Great War's Legacy and Memory
- The memory of the Great War has shifted over time and is remembered differently in different countries.
- In Britain, the memory of the war contrasts with that in Germany, and this mattered in the years following the war.
- The enormity of the Great War was hard to comprehend, despite the massive casualties and wounds.
- The British entombed the unknown horrors of the war in grand monuments, cloaked in remembrance.
- The Cenotaph, designed by Edwin Lutyens, became a significant memorial for the British people to remember the war in their own way.
- The British state took control of the dead, refusing to bring soldiers' bodies back and creating rituals to remember and sanitize the war.
- In the 1920s, there was a push to forget the Great War, but private grief began to enter public debate, fueled by new books, memoirs, and a play called Journey's End.
- Journey's End, a play by R.C. Sheriff, brought the hellish reality of the war to the forefront and was interpreted as a plea for peace.
- The League of Nations, championed by Robert Cecil, aimed to prevent states from going to war and was seen as a positive sign that the Great War wouldn't happen again.
- In Germany, a different memory and understanding of the Great War took hold, with a focus on the year of humiliating defeat in 1918.
- Hitler's spin on the memory of the war struck a chord with many ordinary Germans, and his rise to power in 1933 led to re-armament and the start of an arms race.
- The League of Nations Union launched a nationwide peace ballot in the 1930s, inspired by the belief that peace would be the most sincere way to remember the dead of the Great War.
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Description
"World War I and Its Legacy" Quiz Test your knowledge of the reinterpretation and memory of World War I with this quiz. Explore the shifting perspectives on the war's causes, impact, and legacy in different countries, as well as the cultural and political influences that shaped its memory.
