The Great War in Modern Memory

[Guest woodyudet]

oh dear ... this book was one of the inspirations behind the rather dreadful 1914-1918 documentary series on the BBC narrated by Judi Dench.

[andigger]

As part of a continual search for my perfect Christmas list I thought I would bring this back up. Actually there is also another good point to make, I was thinking about Modern Memory the other night in the book store, but decided to see what was said about it on Forum first. As it turns out, it sounds like this is not really a book I would get into. Nothing against the book, just not my kind, the Forum helped Santa make a wise buying decision.

Andy

[Paul Nixon]

As part of a continual search for my perfect Christmas list I thought I would bring this back up.  Actually there is also another good point to make, I was thinking about Modern Memory the other night in the book store, but decided to see what was said about it on Forum first.  As it turns out, it sounds like this is not really a book I would get into.  Nothing against the book, just not my kind, the Forum helped Santa make a wise buying decision.

Andy

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I don't know your tastes Andy, and as you say, it doesn't sound like the book for you. However, to add my two penn'orth, I obtained my copy of The Great and War Modern Memory close to twenty five years ago now, at a time when I was just starting to become seriously interested in the First World War. I found Fussell's insights illuminating and sympathetic and I personally felt that he dealt with officers and men with an equal hand. The book still remains a firm favourite and I have pretty much hoovered up every Fussell book since then. He can do little wrong for me. As an added bonus, his bibliography of WW1 memoirs in TGWAMM virtually became my "wants' list" and having finished it I then went out looking for Coppard, Binding, Junger and many of the other authors he had tantalisingly quoted from in his work. Fussell ended up costing me a small fortune!

I would really urge you to give it a chance - if only by borrowing a beaten up old dog-eared copy from the library.

Paul

[KF Kelly]

I agree with the last comments. I, too, found The Great War in Modern Memory to be instrumental in widening my reading to a whole new range of authors. I appreciate that there are strong views out there on Paul Fussell's work but I would recommend anyone who has not done so to read the book and even if you end up disagreeing with it you will gain much insight from the effort. The author had an amazing career, infantryman in France in 1944/45, literary critic and historian. You might not like his opinions but I think Fussell has a real sympathy for the British soldier and given his own experiences perhaps this is not surprising.

Kevin

[andigger]

The reason I don't think this would be the style of book I would otherwise read is that it appears to deal more in the philosophical impact of the war in society as expressed through literature. This is just not something that keeps me turning the page. I am much more of a this happened then, this corps took this ridge, and this is what it meant in the bigger picture of the battle. In military affairs I am more fact based than cerebral.

Although as pointed out, it doesn't hurt to check the book out of the library. Andy

Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory is not a book about the conflict per se, but about the way in which it was retrospectively perceived in literature. It goes on to examine the bearing this literature had on subsequent understandings of the war. In effect, the literature became to an extent the history.

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This book is about the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918 and some of the literary means by which it has been remembered, conventionalized and mythologized.

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It is not even remotely a book about the military aspects of WW1.

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[Jock Bruce]

I would also recommend 'The Price of Pity' by Martin Stephen:

As would I. It is an overlooked classic which I picked up in Hay-on-Wye a couple of years ago.

Like a previous poster I first read Fussel some 25 years ago, I have found him less convincing on each subsequent reading - a mixture of my own growing knowledge and my changing attitude to various things with increasing age (the two are related).

JB

[AndyHollinger]

This book is important in that it does give a philisophical approach to the war that is unparalleled - or so I believe - it is a very different sort of "military" history, but one, if you're a literary type ... that is very important.

The History of the Book is interesting as well. PF is quite the academic ... the book made him ... divorced ... several other failed books ... his WWII memoirs are so depressing it's hard to read them ... A great Hit can ruin a life, I guess.

[Guest]

Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory is not a book about the conflict per se, but about the way in which it was retrospectively perceived in literature. It goes on to examine the bearing this literature had on subsequent understandings of the war. In effect, the literature became to an extent the history. The viewpoint is expressly that of the British experience on the Western Front.

It is a magnificent book of epic scholarship. For those interested in the cultural impact of the war, it is simply indispensable.

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In other words, it has a good deal more to say about historiography than it does about history.

My advice if you plan to read it is read some serious proper history first.

[StuartAB]

I would also recommend 'The Price of Pity' by Martin Stephen:

pages 230 to 237 Chapter 8 'Debunking the Myth'

'Fussell's is a very great book, and is seriously and gloriously wrong in some of the claims it makes. I feel rather like a child when it reaches the awful moment of realising its parents are not perfect. My reason for daring rather more than a slapped wrist is that Fussell's book, for all that is a masterpiece and a great destroyer of myths is now in the situation of contrbuting to some myths that surely should be laid to rest:

'In the Great War 8 million people were destroyed because two persons, the Archduke and his consort had been shot.'

Fussell finds it astonshing that a sergeant could write:

'In humble, reverent spirit I dedicate these pages to the memory of the lads who served with me in the 'Sacrifice Battery' , and who gave their lives that those behind might live.' (page 23)

Such comments can be found in their thousands in any archive of the war and they do not reflect, as Fussell seems to think, a fatous ignorance of the war or a mindless jingoism. They represent instead the love that men feel for each other in the midst of appalling hate, and as such they desreve to be respected and not patronised.'

I think that is one of the sentiments that needs to be remembered on the the eve of the 11th November, the comradeship of the men who fought. I think throughout Fussell's book there is a general tone of dismissiveness as regards the common man.

Just picked this book up for 99p on eBay. It really is a quite courageous attack on aspects of Fussel's work, and on the basis of my research, fully agree that the language of self-conscious sacrifice on the part of many combatants wasn't forced on them, but was quite sincere and genuine.

Stuart

[Marilyne]

To be honest, I was so keen on finding it, went to great lenghts, only to be quite dissapointed by it !! And not only because as a non-native speaker, I found it at places completely indigestable.

Daniel Todman, in his "The Great War - Myth and Memory" (2005) expresses his idea on p.158 : it is seriously flawed [...] Rather then conducting wide research, he expressed his own prejudice and then selected the texts he needed to support his case. He therefore blinded himself to the variety of different literary reactions to the war.

If you want a good reference on modern memory, try Todman or Gary SHEFFIELD's "Forgotten Victory" .

MM.

[WhiteStarLine]

I've just finished reading this and it is a wonderful insight into how the Great War has impacted on every subsequent generation, including our own.

[Petroc]

Hmm..important as a (then) groundbreaking piece of work but now probably more important as an historiographical example, to be referenced for it's 'wrongs' rather than it's 'rights'