Thread by @BrookeSalesLee

Hello, my name is Brooke, I am a historian of the 20th century, my great-great grandfather served in WWI, and I am enraged by WWI and you should be, too.

Now to be perfectly clear, I am a pacifist. I don't like war or using violence to resolve problems of any kind, but I will allow for there being causes in which military action is not a wholly bad idea (see: Nazis invading everywhere trying to kill/enslave everyone)

But seriously now, what kind of freedom EXACTLY were people fighting for in the Great War? Go on, I'll wait.

Answer: NOTHING. The war wasn't about freedom. It was more about ego and pride than rights and freedoms.

Aforementioned great-great grandfather didn’t die in the war. He died a decade later at about the age of 50 leaving his 15 year old daughter to struggle well into adulthood as the pension for a veteran and his family was a pittance.

My great-great grandfather lost a LUNG and a knee in the war, and he wasn't given enough to live on after the war. He was buried on his daughter's birthday, a year later pension payments ceased, and she had to go to work.

But enough about the ongoing tradition of treating veterans like so much rubbish. Let's talk about the war.

It lasted from August 1914 until November 1918. 40 MILLION people died. 8 million civilians, 6 million of those from famine and disease.

Again, over pride and ego.

I know some of you will go "but wasn't it fighting Germany...?"

Yeah, it was. But Germany was a standard-for-the-time monarchy. The royals were all cousins, most of them closely related to the recently deceased Queen Victoria.

People are still taught that "Germany started it," 104 years on, but that's frankly a total abdication of responsibility by "our side" (in the anglophone world). A lot of the going-to-war process was rushed, done in the heat of the moment, while a lot of folks were on vacation.

I'm not even kidding about the "on vacation" bit. Have you SEEN Europe in August?

All these royal cousins and their nobles were literally heated over having their honour besmirched and like "HOW DARE HE NOT RESPOND IN A TIMELY MANNER" in August in Europe.

40 million people died

And yeah, we often learn about the initial enthusiasm for the war. It was a great adventure! More chance for young men to prove their worth, earn fame and fortune!

Except this wasn't the wars of the 19th century. There were all kinds of new technologies to kill and maim people.

People responded to the war, pretty much across the board, as though it was war as they had always known. Men on horseback, charging into battle!

This was not that kind of war. The men on the fronts knew this pretty fast. The people in charge, not so much.

So here's the OTHER thing that pisses me off. The generals and whatnot were mostly wealthy, mostly not on the front lines. The monarchs were doing their thing from safety. And no one was going to listen to someone so below them in rank, both militarily and in social class.

So you wind up with men like my great-great grandfather losing lungs to gas and bullets. Shell shock, what we now know is PTSD, because endemic. And there is no rational response or change in tactic to make it stop because... who listens to an enlisted bricklayer?

Oh, also, again, honour and pride and ego. You can't surrender willy nilly! Be a man!

WWI is a great case study of toxic masculinity. You have to go throw yourself in front of a tank OR send millions of young men to throw themselves in front of tanks because you're a MAN!

Imagine a duel, where like one guy is offended another guy said something saucy to the first man's wife, so they have to meet at dawn and try to shoot each other. But now replace "each other" with "every man in their country between 17 and 40."

That's WWI.

For years when I went to WWI exhibits I would have to leave early, crying. WWI movies and books also made me cry. I was the age or older than the men killed. MILLIONS of them killed. My entire class killed around me. It was a massive waste of life for the pride of a few.

But let's see what the people who were there have to say. You all know In Flanders Fields, I am sure. poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in…

I am willing to guess you are less familiar with this response from 1918 to In Flanders Fields... poetryfoundation.org/poems/57293/go…

Here is a woman's take from 1914 on the start of the war: poetryfoundation.org/poems/57291/jo…

Aaaand here's another woman's take from 1914 on the start of the war: poetryfoundation.org/poems/57299/au…

Early in the war, Thomas Hardy felt that "victory crowns the just." poetryfoundation.org/poems/57195/me…

After four years of fighting, Hardy was singing a different tune:
"The Sinister Spirit sneered: 'It had to be!'
"And again the Spirit of Pity whispered, 'Why?'"
poetryfoundation.org/poems/57336/an…

I could keep doing comparisons, but you can also do them yourself. Look at the difference between the poetry of the early war vs. that of 1918.
poetryfoundation.org/articles/70139…

And once you've read the war poems of 100 years ago, remember why exactly Remembrance Day or Veteran's Day is November 11 and what exactly we are commemorating. And be ANGRY. And be glad it over. And be mournful it was such a waste. And stop it happening over and over again.

Okay, final word goes to the late, great Agnes Lee, writing the CRA in 1965, already a grandmother herself, and having NONE of their shit.

Agnes lost her husband in 1988, and by all accounts he was active to the last. She died in 2010 at the age of 98, with 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. She was buried in Port Loring, not so very far from her father, James.