The presentation will be live and online.
One of the most commonplace assumptions about the outbreak of the First World War is that the people of Britain greeted it with a feverishly patriotic enthusiasm that drove males of military age to ‘rush to the colours’ and volunteer in the British Army. The story goes that there was no need for conscription because men were like lemmings engaged in a collective rendezvous with death, beating down the doors of recruitment offices to fight in the ‘war to end all wars’.
This webinar, by Professor Catriona Pennell, will examine the chronology and experience of recruitment in the opening months of the war to reveal a more complex, nuanced, and human response to war. Making use of unpublished letters and diaries and private recollections, this session will go beyond sterile recruitment statistics to explore individual and community experiences that drove men to join up and thus challenge the mythology of ‘war enthusiasm’ that has built up over the past 110 years.
Members wishing to participate will need to register: details of how to register will be circulated via The Western Front Association's newsletter 'Trench Lines'. If you are not a subscriber to 'Trench Lines' please subscribe now.
To subscribe to Trench Lines, go to the home page of The Western Front Association web site and complete your details in the 'Newsletter sign up' box.
It is also possible to register by clicking this link: The Rush to Arms
The talk will be undertaken using the 'Zoom' software which is freely available. It may not be necessary to load the software to your PC / iPad etc: but we would recommend doing so if you wish to participate in this event.