The First World War

Submitted by Will Boogert on Mon, 01/21/2013 - 23:34

After reading much of the short introduction to the First World War, the aspect of it that is most surprising to me (or maybe not surprising) is the extent to which the belligerent countries put the good of their nation, and the good of Europe as a whole, above the lives of the citizens they were sending to fight their war. It's true that people can make their own decision to sacrifice themselves to their country, but this war and the second World War are good examples of how nationalism and patriotism can be destructive forces. German militarism, for example, became a sort of religion to some of the German people, and like the author writes, their generals were elevated to the rank of demigods. This attitude, while it does improve the economy and the status of countries like Germany in the world, seems unhealthy.

I think this attitude of putting the country before oneself could be a symptom of modernity in the literature we will read this semester. Not every soldier is fighting for the same reasons, and so the ones who have been roped into the conflict might begin to feel alienated by the nationalism around them. This alienation is a keystone of Modernism, and I assume we'll be reading some instances of that during the semester.

Comments

Jeff Drouin

Tue, 01/22/2013 - 08:58

Modernism was the salient artistic and intellectual movement of the 20th century, founded largely upon the plight of the individual in a set of conditions (modernity) that convene to erase that individuality. The nature of industrial labor, in which workers simply operate machinery rather than making goods, and the pressures of a mass commercial economy were among the central causes that erasure. Not all modernists were egoists. But the modern anti-hero -- the individual who "wins" by opting out of mainstream conventions -- is an expression of the mistrust of "national" narratives that began well before the war, became elevated during the conflict, and increased during responses for a couple of decades afterward. I think you'll find it's one of the central themes of the course, and of the Twentieth Century at large.

Kristyn Baker

Thu, 01/24/2013 - 10:54

I agree that this was an interesting part of the war.  It seems that people lives were seen as expendable for the sake of the nation.  Nationalism is still a tool used today to solicit emotion from the people.  At first, this can prove effective but eventually people become disallusioned to it and this seems to have been the case during the first World War.  Soldiers were simply tools used toward a senseless goal and so people began to see past the propaganda nationalism and instead see the dehumaization and tragedy the war was creating.