Postcards From The Great War

Original Postcards from the family archive of Edinburgh's Lord Provost Donald Wilson.

This special online exhibition has been produced by the Gorgie War Memorial Hall to mark the 99th anniversary of the start of World War One on 4th August 2013.

http://www.gorgiemem.org/postcard/

If you plan to visit, Edinburgh might still be in the UK, or not.

I suspect that there are lots more museums et al putting on postcards-from-the-trenches exhibits right about now.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

You *do* realize "Great War" was a militarist propaganda device in order to generate volunteers for the greatest social atrocity up to that time? I never use the expression.

CanadaStamp: please reference where you saw that the term "Great War" was a militarist propaganda device?

War is a terrible thing regardless of what one names any particular conflict. "The Great War" term likely caught on because it dwarfed previous conflicts. The only other one that would have been close in European history was The Thirty Years War (1618-48), but that was nearly 300 years earlier, so it was out of living memory by then. Regardless of how the term orginated, it became commonplace use until at least the start of WWII.

Churchill himself refers to WWI with this term.









even if, as he wrote: "When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and these were of doubtful utility."

Austrian postcard







NOTE CANCELLATION error: 926 feb. 7. It was posted from somewhere in Russia in 1916.
The postcard is from 1915 (Nr.2363. C.H.W. VIII/2. 1915)

G Estus. I do not have recollection of source of 75% of what I know. If interested in the issue, you will have to research.

For what it's worth, I came across this commentary:




More here:

http://www.macleans.ca/authors/patr...e-great-war/

Goodness, CanadaStamp!

In July, I posted about self-defeating Nazi racist buffoonery, and you found it 'somewhat offensive'.

Q/ Did you ever read the referenced newspaper article?

https://goscf.com/t/38377#328694

And, here I use the term 'The Great War', for many years the common name of that war, and I am propagating a 'militarist propaganda device'.

(The reason, BTW, is that I eschew 'WW1' & 'WW2', as I decline to recognize that much a disconnect between them.)

(I also prefer the archaic usage, being a little archaic, myself.)

The iconic American recruiting poster/slogan was 'I WANT YOU FOR U.S. ARMY', not 'I WANT YOU FOR THE GREAT WAR', even though the posters were printed 3 years into the war, and almost 3 years after the Macleans article (above).

In any case, I did not use the term to offend, and remain innocent of its use to promote the 'social atrocity'.

Lastly, a gift for those who've read so far:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/econ...ist-explains Why the first world war wasn't really

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Re: "The Great War"

I recently stumbled upon an auction lot that included a booklet that used the phrase-of-interest in its title:

https://www.regencystamps.com/LotDe...oryid=331508

The publisher was clearly charged with 'explaining' the war, and generating public support for the war:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commit..._Information

http://www.propagandacritic.com/art...ww1.cpi.html

However, their use of the phrase 'The Great War' seems entirely as a proper noun, to wit:

https://archive.org/details/1117663upenn

You can read more of their booklets by searching google books for 'the committee on public information war information series'.

Lastly, here is some explicitly propaganda art, none of which uses the phrase 'The Great War':

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson...posters.html

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I used to own that book and remember looking through it as a youngster..scared me to death! I didn't exactly know what war they was referring to way back then but I remember the line engraved pictures and glossy inserts of the battle scenes all hand watercolored. I wish I was keen enough to keep it but I was way too young when all that went away I guess? -Jeff

I love to watch informational programming on WWI and love to collect war covers fre franks and stuff. I had Family in the Great War Namely Anson Willits- K.I.A. sadly.