The Christmas Truce
The Christmas Truce

Author: Terri Blom Crocker

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2015-11-10

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0813166179

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In late December 1914, German and British soldiers on the western front initiated a series of impromptu, unofficial ceasefires. Enlisted men across No Man's Land abandoned their trenches and crossed enemy lines to sing carols, share food and cigarettes, and even play a little soccer. Collectively known as the Christmas Truce, these fleeting moments of peace occupy a mythical place in remembrances of World War I. Yet new accounts suggest that the heartwarming tale ingrained in the popular imagination bears little resemblance to the truth. In this detailed study, Terri Blom Crocker provides the first comprehensive analysis of both scholarly and popular portrayals of the Christmas Truce from 1914 to present. From books by influential historians to the Oscar-nominated French film Joyeux Noel (2006), this new examination shows how a variety of works have both explored and enshrined this outbreak of peace amid overwhelming violence. The vast majority of these accounts depict the soldiers as acting in defiance of their superiors. Crocker, however, analyzes official accounts as well as private letters that reveal widespread support among officers for the détentes. Furthermore, she finds that truce participants describe the temporary ceasefires not as rebellions by disaffected troops but as acts of humanity and survival by professional soldiers deeply committed to their respective causes. The Christmas Truce studies these ceasefires within the wider war, demonstrating how generations of scholars have promoted interpretations that ignored the nuanced perspectives of the many soldiers who fought. Crocker's groundbreaking, meticulously researched work challenges conventional analyses and sheds new light on the history and popular mythology of the War to End All Wars.

Rites of Spring
Rites of Spring

Author: Modris Eksteins

Publisher: Vintage Canada

Published: 2012-03-13

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 0307361772

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Named "One of the 100 best books ever published in Canada" (The Literary Review of Canada), Rites of Spring is a brilliant and captivating work of cultural history from the internationally acclaimed scholar and writer Modris Eksteins. Dazzling in its originality, witty and perceptive in unearthing patterns of behavior that history has erased, Rites of Spring probes the origins, the impact and the aftermath of World War I--from the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet Le Sacre du Printemps in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945. "The Great War," Eksteins writes, "was the psychological turning point...for modernism as a whole. The urge to create and the urge to destroy had changed places." In this extraordinary book, Eksteins goes on to chart the seismic shifts in human consciousness brought about by this great cataclysm through the lives and words of ordinary people, works of literature, and such events as Lindbergh's transatlantic flight and the publication of the first modern bestseller, All Quiet on the Western Front. Rites of Spring is a remarkable and rare work, a cultural history that redefines the way we look at our past and toward our future.

The Lost Legions of Fromelles
The Lost Legions of Fromelles

Author: Peter Barton

Publisher: Constable

Published: 2014-07-17

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1472119371

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Intended as a diversion from the Somme, Fromelles was was the worst-ever military disaster in Australian history, and is recognised as one of the bloodiest and most useless battles of the First World War. With the recent discovery of a mass grave and the disinterment of many diggers, it has now entered national consciousness in the same way as Gallipoli. In one night, British and Australian soldiers suffered casualties equivalent to the total toll of the Boer War, Korean War and Vietnam War combined. Barton's research has revealed that the Australian frontline troops gave away critical Allied secrets to the Germans... which not only led directly to the Fromelles slaughter - but also contributed to the failure of the Somme offensive as a whole. The Lost Legions of Fromelles is the most authoritative book on this staggering disaster, combining new scholarship on the battle with an account of recent events to dispel many myths in a rich and compelling history.

A Kingdom United
A Kingdom United

Author: Catriona Pennell

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2012-03

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0199590583

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In this, the first fully documented study of British and Irish popular reactions to the outbreak of the First World War, Catriona Pennell explores UK public opinion of the time and successfully challenges the myth of British 'war enthusiasm'. A Kingdom United explores what people felt, and how they acted, in response to an unanticipated and unprecedented crisis. It is a history of both ordinary people and elite figures in extraordinary times. Dr Pennell demonstrates that describing the reactions of over 40 million British and Irish people to the outbreak of war as either enthusiastic in the British case, or disengaged in the Irish, is over-simplified and inadequate. Emotional reactions to the war were ambiguous and complex, and changed over time. By the end of 1914 the populations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland had largely embraced the war, but the war had also embraced them and showed no signs of relinquishing its grip. The five months from August to December 1914 set the shape of much that was to follow. A Kingdom United describes and explains that twenty-week formative process. Pennell draws from a vast array of diaries, letters, journals, and newspaper accounts by the very people who experienced the war in its first dramatic five months. She outlines the variety of responses felt amongst both the ordinary people and elite figures from across the country.

The Truce
The Truce

Author: Chris Baker

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2014-09-15

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1445635119

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A fascinating new study of the events leading up to and during one of the most poignant events of the First World War, the Christmas Truce 1914.

Letters Written From The English Front In France Between September 1914 And March 1915
Letters Written From The English Front In France Between September 1914 And March 1915

Author: Captain Sir Edward Hamilton Westrow Hulse

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-06-13

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1782891927

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Captain Sir Edward Hamilton Westrow Hulse, now lying in Rue-David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, a fallen officer of the Scots Guards who died bravely trying to go to the rescue of his commanding officer during the battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915. Perhaps no further trace of him would now exist, bar family and friends, were it not for these most interesting letters that were collected and only printed for a select distribution; however, they attained a far greater readership due to their interesting and elegant style. The writer of these letters had a sense both of perspective and of humour,—without which all records are but as the dry bones of the events they chronicle. For example, the rapid and careless pen-sketches that describe the work of a night raid, the reception of a prisoner, the excitement of a sniping party, the confusion at Havre, and a dozen other incidents of that crowded half-year are every one of them admirable. But there is something else in these letters which is of even greater interest. Without hesitation it may be said that in the fourteen pages under the date December 28th we have the most keenly noted, vigorous and dramatic description that ever has or ever will be written of what from a psychological point of view has been the most extraordinary event of the war,—the Christmas Truce of 1914. In its mere literary aspect it is as perfect as anything written from the front: and as a human document it is of even greater value.