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The Work Of Brown And Seaton

Decent Essays

The work of Brown and Seaton is considered the first ‘accurate’ cultural history on the Christmas truce, using personal accounts to put together ‘the best book on the subject,’ which, along with the work of Ashworth and Ekstein, is seen as the top starting point in analysing the truce. Terraine says the book is ‘an excellent account, placing the truce in its proper context and collecting eyewitness impressions skilfully from both sides.’ This view differs drastically from his past criticism of Oh What a Lovely War, suggesting that historians were still critical of the validity of popular culture. The book represents the growth of cultural history in the 1980s, which bridges the gap between academics and the public and accordingly it is taken seriously by historians. The 2014 hardback edition’s sale ranking reached 672,949 and all three editions have been cited by most books on the truce in 1914. The book succeeds in ‘let[ting] soldiers speak for themselves as to what the truce meant from a contemporary […] standpoint and this objectivity gives the book added weight. An excellent reminder of the truce humanity that is within us all’. However, the ‘contemporary standpoint’ is influenced by the context, thus affecting its supposed objectivity. Modris Ekstein further develops the cultural history of the truce further by placing it in its context and assessing its contemporary significance. The First World War was a ‘pivotal moment in modern history of consciousness’ and

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