Review Of Susan Grayzel's The First World War

The men and women who served in the First World War endured some of the most brutal forms of warfare ever known. Millions were sent to fight away from home for months, even years at a time, and underwent a series of terrible physical and emotional experiences. The new technologies available to First World War armies combined with the huge number of men mobilized made the battlefields of 1914-18 horrific, deadly and terrifying places.

“After the War”, a book written by Carol Matas, is a captivating story about a group of Jewish people who illegally immigrate to Palestine. Throughout this story, we learn about the many struggles that the Jewish people had after WW2 ended. They had to find many ways to fight for their right to live. Some of these survival techniques include lying, stealing, and hiding.

All quiet On the Western Front, a book written by Erich Maria Remarque tells of the harrowing experiences of the First World War as seen through the eyes of a young German soldier. I think that this novel is a classic anti-war novel that provides an extremely realistic portrayal of war. The novel focuses on a group of German soldier and follows their experiences.

In 1975 the Oxford University Press published the first edition of The Great War and Modern Memory written by Paul Fussell. As Fussell states in the opening line, “this book is about the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918.” In this paper I will argue, that despite the numerous literary awards this book has won, it contains historical inaccuracies and shortcomings in relation to the accurate information provided that takes away from the prestige of the book. Despite the numerous negative aspects of the book, this paper will also briefly highlight the few positive areas of the book, therefore providing an in-depth analysis of the book.

It was an “arms race.” Because Britain had a large navy, Germany wanted a large navy too. Germany and France competed to build larger armies. Many of the competing nations introduced “universal conscription” (the draft), even in times of peace. For reasons of prestige and self-defense, the more one nation had decided to built up its army and navy, the more other nations felt they had to do the same (Document 8). The expense of the “arms race” fell on civilian populations in the form of high taxes. (Document 9) Between 1870 and 1914, all of the major powers except Great Britain and the United States, doubled the size of their armies (Document 7). Prior to the WWI, Great Britain was the most dominant colonial possession which included Australia, India, part of Africa, and etc. which would help them fight in the war.One of Germany’s greatest goals was to surpass Britain in bot their Army and Navy, which caused tension between the countries. (Document

Days earlier, I remember when the German soldiers rounded us all up. They shouted and demanded us to follow them; once we turned the corner, I saw them. The cattle cars that would lead me to my death. A few minutes pass and and all 80 of us are piled into the cattle cars. Slowly the train moans as it gradually starts to move and the farther we go; the farther we travel away from the only place I called home. I decided to close my eyes and envision this wasn’t happening, but I was awoken from my daydream by an ear piercing howl. My eyes shoot open and I spot a lady screaming, “Fire! Fire!” (Wiesel 23). While her little boy sits there bawling his little eyes out. My father walked up to her trying to explain we’d be there very soon, and after

Wars have always been events that I enjoy learning about, reading about and just discovering what went on. So when this project rolled around I had no problem choosing the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which was written by Erich Maria Remarque. Erich had been a German soldier towards the end of WWI and had, first hand experienced the pure terror that is war. I had heard of this book through my father who is also a major war enthusiast. Him and I have had numerous conversations about both World War I and II, as he was the one that originally suggested I read this book. I have to say that it was a tremendous suggestion in that this novel to me seems to be one of the finest pieces of anti-war literature ever penned. The way the novel is able to portray the mindset of a soldier was beautifully done and shows the complete deterioration that occurs over time.

For example, in an account of conditions during this time period, Kathleen Brockington, an innocent English civilian, writes, “I can remember my mother-in-law bursting into tears and putting her gas mask on that first day; In 1940 the air raids started up proper” (Document A). The citizens of England were being exposed to war weaponry, and being put into danger by air raids perpetrated by other countries opposing their own. This is a strong example of how during this war, ordinary people, rather than solely the soldiers who were meant to fight for said ordinary people, were targeted as a wartime practice. Yet the most prominent example of human targets during a war is that of the Nazis targeting a vast multitude of minority groups, which, of course, also occurred during World War Two.

In the book Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich by Alison Owings, we are provided with plenty of women who describe their lives before, during and after Hitler received power. This book provides us with different views of the time era and as well as how the impact of Hitler affected every woman differently through social class, age, marital status and etc. This paper will explore the lives of three German women who seem to be in the Grey area during the over control of Hitler but mostly with the killings of the Jews. This paper will further explore the complicity and the different levels of resistance that these three women had during this time era which is 1933-1945. The three women that will be discussed in this paper are Margarete (Margrit) Fischer, Ellen Frey, and Christine (Tini) Weihs. When looking into the lives of all three women these women it seems as though women didn’t have much of a responsibility for the events that were happening around them. Although these women seemed to be complaint to a certain degree with the events there were going on around them. These women would have been complaint due to the fear of what happened to Germans when they stood against the events that took part.

6 p.m. on a wednesday i hear the sound of the attack planes above my head as i try to sleep. Adolf has been bombing us conti for the past seven days. The soldiers in my squad are tired and we are barely holding on to any hope of making it out of this situation alive. We have been experiencing terrible sights seeing my best friend blown up in front of my eyes from the bombs above. I continue to try and keep my soldiers in a positive mindset and encourage them that although we are starving and terrified, because of the bombs that seem to never end and the constant sound of the tanks roaring across the ground.

By reading both “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Testament of Youth”, we learn that World War 1 had a tremendous effect, not only on the men in the trenches; but essentially on everyone; of all genders throughout Europe and the World. Vera Brittains, “Testament of Youth” tells the tale of her experiences working as a V.A.D (Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurse) in many areas, however in chapters five and six, she is stationed in London. She describes, in vivid details the struggles of working as a nurse in London during the war. In Remarques’ novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front” we follow the life of a soldier, Paul Baumer who essentially enlists in the Army and is later deployed to the western front. Baumer experiences the horrors of war in many ways, due to this; he undergoes severe physical and psychological stress and he feels as if he will never be able to recover and become an ordinary civilian.

Fear, the feeling of dread, apprehension or impending danger, it is a powerful emotion that most, if not all, feel. As a child fear may be of the dark, or as an elder it may be of death and the unknown after. A fear of something can come at any moment in time. It is easy to become afraid, but the hard part is learning to overcome it. As the main characters of the summer reading novels are put into fearful situations, they must learn to cope with it in order to help them survive their hardships.

Many people don’t comprehend how traumatic the life of a young fighter in World War I was. In my opinion, this book will especially help you understand this. The descriptive language describing the wounds and unpleasant content made me feel queasy at times, but also forced me to feel compassionate for the military troops. In this book, limbs are lost, animals such as horses are killed, starving soldiers dig through garbage for food, the troops are destroyed by poison gas, munitions, and bombs. The conditions the fighters went through in the war was dangerous and disturbing which makes me realize how fortunate my life is and causes me to feel compassion for the fighters because of what they had to struggle with.

Militarism was one of the key major factors of the war. Soon after Britain created their battleship, Germany revealed their 60 ships from a man named Alfred Von Tirpitz . A naval battle arose between the two and their relationship weakened immensely. Both Germany and Britain wanted to have the better army, and taking up naval weapons was the beginning of the hate and jealousy each country had for one another. Germany’s past ideology that they should not anger Britain because Britain was dangerous was an ideology that was now put aside. Part of being a powerful empire meant having strong, effective military willing to go to battle at any time for their people. In a book written by Ruth Henig titled The Origins of the First World War, Henig says, “The Kaiser and

A. Attention step: the change in the context and trend of war in terms of ferocity of the weapons and the increase in human/nations participation was occasioned by the industrial revolution and the French revolution.