Remembering Flashcards
What does whigism mean?
Point of view that suggests we are constantly moving forward in life
Who is Harry Leslie smith?
British writer and political commentator,served during ww2, advocate for saving the nhs, written four books about Britain during Great Depression, ww2 and post war austerity.
What can harry Leslie smith gave a sense of personal/intimate costs of?
Austerity and poverty
What has happened to depictions of 20s30s over time?
Changed significantly depending on climate it’s written it, distance of the event
What does Alison lights forever England argue?
Intend to unpick literary works to find the everyday world of 20s and 30s, the private sphere, talks about emasculation of men, and lives of women.
What kind of Englishness does Alison light put forward?
Conservative modernity, stuck between past and present
Englishness as home - feminised/not masculine anymore
How was pugh’s danced all night (2008) revisionist?
Suggests interwar a period of good times not hardship, reclaims a positive account
In contrast to Pugh, what does richard overy present in The Morbid Age?
Focus is on the 30s hence reason for sad title, uses contemporary reactions to give a sense of the mood of despair
What does overy argue in the morbid age (2010) happened after the war ended?
A mental war began
Name 3 things that often stay the same in accounts of 20s30s?
The reference to the war, dates of it, general facts, knowledge that it was a period of great change, upper class v rich
What happened in the 90s that changed the way 20s30s remembered?
Feminist history, history of emotion makes it look very different
What does the mention of a decade often evoke?
Powerful shared or sometimes contested images and meanings
What does James Vernon argue the hungry thirties started?
The story of British social democracy and the poor law
How does the past become history? And what effect does this have?
Through the stories we tell about it and means it is a construct, constantly shifting
When did the Cannock war memorial meeting take place?
1921
What did Honourable Secretary William jukes say about the fact Cannock did not have a war memorial?
That it was a disgrace and a blot on the good name of the town
What went wrong with the Cannock war memorial?
In such a rush to put it up they put the wrong name on a statue
Why were war memorials so important to 1920s 30s families?
They weren’t able to get to graves unless they could afford to go on a pilgrimage so this gave them a way to mourn/somewhere to pay their respects
Why is Basingstoke’s war memorial different?
It was celebratory not sombre had an olive branch and victory Angel, a celebration of peacetime.
Did many people come to war memorials in 20s?
Yeah lots and lots of people
What do we have to be careful of with memorials?
They can be paid for by the poor but often made by architects and the architect decides what’s on the memorial
What does Samuel Haynes say about memorials giving?
Give dignity to undignified death
When was the Birmingham hall of memory built?
1923
What did prince of Wales say hall of memory would symbolise?
“Symbolise to generations to come that brim stood firm during a period of great national crisis.”
Who built the hall of memory? And who paid for it?
Brum craftsmen built it and cost 60,000 from public donation
What do the 3 reliefs in the hall of memory show?
A desolate sad image
What does the little boy on the reliefs symbolise?
Generational memory, he is the next generation, goes with the inscription “not suffered and died in vain”
How are the dead and disabled represented in the third relief?
Dead shown by the layered graves and disabled in the front, unusual to have recognition of the disabled
In the hall of memory relief how is the image of the battlefield depicted?
Men as vulnerable, mass of people. Can’t make out any faces all identical
In the 20s what was the hall of memory part of?
Bigger park area, a place for meeting for contemplation mourning and remembrance of a public nature - near the factories and industrial area
What is the empty crypt in the middle for in the hall of memory?
Acts as a grave for those who have been lost. At start of the war decision made not to fly back bodies from the war even for the rich meant there was no normal way to mourn no funeral etc. Graves are all abroad allowed people somewhere like a grave to visit
Why does the hall of memory have a classic architectural feel?
Going back to the past for comfort and familiarity in a time that was so uncertain and confusing
What does Sam Haynes call memorials?
“Poems in stone and marble”
Was the old lie a popular way to remember the war?
Only later on, bitter way of looking at
