Navigating the Heartache WWI Brings
Historical events are captured, recorded, and interpreted in numerous ways. Primarily remembered in academic fields, history is emanated through popular culture as well. Films, TV shows, plays, books, and artwork tell the story behind some of history’s most significant events and people. (This post was written by guest blogger Thomas Richardson.) For World War I, …
Robert Graves was born July 24, 1895, in Wimbledon, England. Graves was the eighth of his father’s 10 children. His father, Alfred Graves, married twice and was a scholar and poet. His mother was German, and his birth name, Robert von Ranke Graves, caused problems in the years before, during and after World War I. …
Erich Maria Remarque was born June 22, 1898, in Osnabruck, Germany. His birth name was Erich Paul Remark. He changed his name for the 1929 publication of his novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque was descended from French ancestors who fled after the French Revolution. The third of four children, the family was working class …
Ernest Hemingway is considered a literary genius who established a writing style that bears his name. He also was a noncombatant during World War I whose experiences inspired his early work. Hemingway was born July 21, 1899 in a Chicago suburb and lived a privileged life throughout childhood. As a high school student, he participated …
“Wilfred Owen is widely recognised as one of the greatest voices of the First World War,” the association that bares his name says. Indeed, he is perhaps the best known poet to come out of the conflict. The majority of Owen’s poems, however, were published after his death, including his most famous — Dulce et Decorum …
Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been scaring readers since 1897. Hidden among the chilly text is a multitude of symbolism and social commentary. The work is a favorite of scholars and literary critics who enjoy dissecting the novel’s hidden meanings. Here are four examples: Sexuality Feminine virtue is at stake in Dracula. The characters of Mina …
“In Flanders Fields,” written by a doctor during the Second Battle of Ypres, is perhaps the best known poem to come out of World War I. Canadian military physician Major John McCrae was serving as brigade doctor when his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed. The chaplain was engaged elsewhere, so McCrae was asked to …
Once upon a time in America, a large number of people lived in abject poverty, out of sight and out of mind. Photojournalist Jacob Riis’s 1890 book How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York revealed this hidden community to the affluent and middle class. His book was an expose on tenement …
The Jungle might very well be the most influential novel you probably don’t know. Written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, the novel was intended to show the horrible conditions in America’s slums. Instead, Sinclair exposed the unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants. The novel first appeared as a serial (a common occurrence in the 19th century) …