The Great War and Medieval Memory: War, Remembrance and Medievalism in Britain and Germany, 1914–1940

by Stefan Goebel

• ISBN13: 9780521854153
• ISBN10: 0521854156
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-03-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

A genuinely comparative study of the cultural impact of the Great War on British and German societies in the first half of the twentieth century. Taking public commemorations as its focus, this book unravels the search of Britons and Germans for historical continuity and meaning in the shadow of an unprecedented human catastrophe. In both countries, the survivors of the Great War pictured the conflict as the 'Last Crusade' and sought consolation in imagery that connected the soldiers of the age of total war with the knights of the Middle Ages. Stefan Goebel shows that medievalism as a mode of war commemoration transcended national and cultural boundaries. This is an invaluable contribution to the burgeoning study of cultural memory and collective remembrance which will appeal to researchers and students in the history of the First World War, social and cultural history of warfare and medieval studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Catastrophe and continuity: the place of the war dead in history

2. Mission and defence: the nature of the conflict

3. Destruction and endurance: the war experience

4. Chivalry and cruelty: the soldiers' character and conduct

5. Regeneration and salvation: the prospects for the living and the dead

Conclusion.