Abstract
The association of the term ‘The Great War’ with World War One, if it began 100 years ago, could be seen as telling, not only about attitudes at the time (and whether it meant ‘jolly big’ or ‘jolly good’), but about our retrospective attitudes to those who were involved. Through an examination of propaganda, periodicals, political statements and specific pre-war literature, an assumption that as a phrase it is indicative of **goistic and bellicose hysteria generated by influential politicians for the gullible citizens of whichever participant nation, can be shown as a misleading simplification. Instead, with a concentration on Britain, a study of its use by statesmen such as Asquith and Lloyd George, the very particular circumstances under which it appeared in Punch magazine, and the overt zeal some advocates of war with Germany displayed from several years before 1914, is revealing of very different public standpoints among supporters of the war.
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Notes
- 1.
Esther MacCallum-Stewart has written an interesting analysis of the magazine, including that the editor, Owen Seaman, frequently had to guess whether or not his readers’ opinions had changed:
For this reason, Punch is a dominant text in our understanding of the war, exemplifying and misinterpreting public sentiment from a civilian viewpoint. When the war began, Punch was violently pro-war, articles and cartoons often recounting little more than propaganda with very little comedic undertones. However, this attitude discreetly wanes as the war dragged on and the civilian population became increasingly discontented and disillusioned. It was impossible to ignore the effects the fighting was starting to have, and as Punch moves into the latter stages of 1917–18, this awareness becomes gradually visible. (MacCallum-Stewart, 2009)
I have chosen to refer to the month and year a quotation appeared in Punch rather than the volume number because I think it is often relevant at which point in the war it was published.
- 2.
However, as seen below, there were earlier examples.
- 3.
Herbert Henry Asquith, first earl of Oxford and Asquith (1852–1928), was awarded first class honours in literae humaniores at Balliol College Oxford, he married Helen Melland in 1877, became the Liberal M.P. for East Fife in 1886, his wife died of typhoid in 1891, he was home secretary from 1892–1895, married Margot Tennant in 1894, was chancellor of the exchequer from 1905–1908, prime-minister from 1908–1916 (initially, at least, seen as a progressive, with Lloyd George as chancellor, though the war prevented, for example, reform of the House of Lords), and he accepted an earldom from the king in 1925 (Matthew, 2004).
- 4.
David Lloyd George, first Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (1863–1945), was brought up under a strong Liberal influence, he qualified with honours for the Law Society in 1884, by 1886 he had a reputation as a brilliant speaker and had wavered over Irish Home rule (whether or not to support Gladstone). He became M. P. for Caernafon Boroughs in 1890, fiercely opposed the Boer War at considerable personal risk, became chancellor in 1908, introduced the Welfare State (National Insurance Act) in 1911, was minister of munitions from 1915–1916 then secretary of state for war for a few months, and prime-minister from 1916–1922 when he publicly clashed with his generals. In his seventies he took to fruit farming in Surrey, but remained an M. P. until 1945, when he received an earldom (Morgan, 2004).
- 5.
Lloyd George: “Haig does not care how many men he loses. He just squanders the lives of these boys. I mean to save some of them in the future. He seems to think they are his property”, January 15th 1917 (Taylor, 1971, p. 139).
- 6.
One definition of “vmb” is “Virgin Mary boy”, to mean a boy or young man lacking in sexual experience, and although this may sound an unlikely explanation it is congruent with the implicitly self-deprecating depiction in the poem. (Urban).
- 7.
Among the 53 signatories alongside H. G. Wells were J. M. Barrie, G. K. Chesterton, Thomas Hardy, John Masefield and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Milne).
- 8.
William Tuffnel Le Queux (1864–1927) was born in London to an English mother and French father. He made unreliable claims about his education in Europe. From the 1890s he wrote fiction, short stories and novels (which averaged over five a year) and articles. Much of his fiction was set overseas, and involved the wealthy in crime (usually as the victims) or espionage. By 1898 he was being paid at the same rate as Thomas Hardy and H. G. Wells, but when his second wife sued him after their separation in 1910 he was declared bankrupt, probably due to a profligate lifestyle and failed business ventures. During World War One he wrote anti-German fiction as fact. In an obituary he was described as “a modern variant of Baron Münchausen” (Stearn, 2004).
- 9.
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe (1865–1922), became a reporter at 15 and founded his own newspaper firm in 1888 which became Amalgamated Press Company. He wanted his newspapers to be more accessible, so they had less text, more pictures and striking headlines. He founded the Daily Mail in 1896 and the Daily Mirror, with an all-female staff, in 1903. He expressed unabashedly patriotic views and the value of a strong military through his newspapers, and he had significant political influence. Having warned of the German threat before 1914, he exposed British tactical and armament shortcomings, and funded a postal service so that soldiers could send letters home. He believed that in peace Germany should be punished financially (Boyce, 2004).
- 10.
Maps were included with the serialization so that readers could have a more accurate idea of their proximity to the threat (Panek 8).
- 11.
Herbert Wrigley Wilson (1866–1940) was considered an authority on the navy and wrote on the subject so that the British people would want the Royal Navy to remain dominant. He worked as a journalist, wrote several books on the military and became attached to Northcliffe and his media empire, employed in various positions. Before World War One he warned of the German increase in armaments (Morris, 2004).
- 12.
From images of the covers Wilson was often credited as sole editor, but had been assisted by John Alexander Hammerton, acknowledged later.
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Melia, P. (2018). The Phrase “The Great War” in British Discourse During World War One. In: Barker, A., Pereira, M., Cortez, M., Pereira, P., Martins, O. (eds) Personal Narratives, Peripheral Theatres: Essays on the Great War (1914–18). Second Language Learning and Teaching(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66851-2_18
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