History 1040
The Great War
The Silent Sentinels
Langemarck German Cemetery - Belgium
September 29:
Today's class will build off last class and begin to deal with the development of Total War in the 20th Century.
Highly Recommended for next Thursday:
Ernst Junger - This is an interesting site in that, like Hitler, Junger saw the Great War as the defining point of his life and, in effect, he never really left the trenches.
Go to, listen to and view:
Images and newsreel - Real Audio from the BBC and the Imperial War Museum - Very moving video.
Archive radio interviews - "There was nothing but brown earth, shell holes and death"
Watch:
Go to YouTube and type in "The Battle of the Somme" and watch through some of the videos there.
October 1:
Today we will deal with 1916 - 1917 and in particular the slaughter that takes place on both the Eastern and Western Fronts.
Readings for next Tuesday:
94-107 in Fero
Download PowerPoint from Courseweb - "The Front Line Experience and the Artistic Response." This will set up the next two full classes.
You don't need this PowerPoint for class, but it is a helpful tool with images and the last few slides which set up the artistic response to the slaughter of the period we are studying.
What I want you to do is go through all of the following sites for next Tuesday and get a sense of how individuals process the Front Line experience at the time and then after the war, in retrospect. We will then deal with the accepted wisdom concerning the Great War next Tuesday and then discuss the impact of the Front on individuals in all the combatant nations.
The Human Experience - BBC - use this site to also look for the Front Line Experience
Excerpts from letters about life on the Front Line
Going "Over the Top" on the Somme
From the BBC
Go to BBC History Website to view Short Videos capturing live testimony, video and poetry dealing with the different periods of the war.
A WARNING-SOME OF THESE WILL BE VERY DISTURBING.
Access to diaries and memoirs from the Great War.
172 Page Memoir from a survivor of the Great War taken directly from his letters.
For more help on this view these YouTube clips and links:
Shell Shock - short report by Robert Graves
