Look, I, like you, heard about how terrible the aftermath of WWI was, and how broke people were right after, and how they were moving to cities and living in tenements. It wasn’t until I was reading a book about the between the war period in England that I realized they were telling me TWO stories which couldn’t both have happened. In the part about the common folk, they were telling me how much poorer they were than before the war. In the part about the great families, they were telling me how the huge rise of the middle class and the building of suburbs had hurt them, and how the newly rich common folk no longer wanted to be servants.
That was one of those “wait a minute.” Sure I was taught both things in school, but you know you write down the bullet point for the test, and that’s it. Now I was going “Who the heck wrote these narratives and why doesn’t anyone question them?”
The truth, btw, from going to primary sources is closer to the second. And the people who wrote the narrative were the unseated noblemen, who did not like all these nouveau riche but who wanted to justify their disgust by showing how it hurt the poor. (It did increase the underclass somewhat, not because of economic conditions, but because a lot of men don’t integrate well after war, and well, WWI was something special by way of trauma.)
There are tons of these when you start poking. For instance the idea that the industrial revolution was unremittingly bad for the poor/people. Looking at China and India and such places right now, all I can do is roll my eyes.
Yeah, sure, the conditions of the early industrial revolution were appalling. And yet people crowded to the cities to take these jobs. What the historians never ask themselves is “How much worse was what they were escaping from?” We know that in India and China and other recently industrialized countries.
Sure the countryside has relatively clean air and more open space, but there are still real famines, and the work was unremitting and brutal and yes, little children worked too (says the daughter of middle class in a rural community whose first “job” was weeding the onion patch at five. And I was a pampered moppet. Kids my age from farming families had what we’d call full time jobs. Factory jobs at least had a stopping time.)
The idea that the industrial revolution was awful comes from upper class historians who could see the little kids twisted by working in the mills but who never consorted closely enough with the rural poor to see the misery behind raising baah lambs and the pretty pretty flowers.
Yeah. So the past isn’t written in stone. And it’s not a conspiracy. Not precisely a conspiracy. Yeah, sure, the Marxists influenced a lot of modern history with their ideas, but that is not necessarily conspiring. They view the world a certain way and it influences how they view the past too.
Sarah Hoyt, “How Do You Know?”, According to Hoyt, 2016-08-24.
May 9, 2018
QotD: The “you can’t get good help” period after WW1
May 8, 2018
The Western Front Awakens – Peace In The East I THE GREAT WAR Summary Part 13
The Great War
Published on 7 May 2018The spring of 1918 brought huge shifts to the fronts of World War 1. The Eastern Front went quiet after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the Western Front returned to a war of movement with the German Spring Offensive 1918.
May 6, 2018
Our Trip To Turkey Recap I THE GREAT WAR
The Great War
Published on 5 May 2018Indy and Flo give you a small recap of our amazing trip to Turkey. Cool special episodes coming soon.
May 4, 2018
Pershing Under Pressure – The End Of La Lys I THE GREAT WAR Week 197
The Great War
Published on 3 May 2018Even though the German spring offensive is not able to gain any ground in Flanders, the allied casualties are mounting. This increases the pressure on John J. Pershing and the American troops in Europe to finally join the battle.
May 1, 2018
The Finnish Jägers In World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR On The Road
The Great War
Published on 30 Apr 2018Visit the Museum: http://hohenlockstedt-museum.de/
During World War 1 Finnish volunteers were trained in Northern Germany. The 27th Jäger Battalion is an important part of Finnish history and we explored their beginnings in Hohenlockstedt or Lockstedter Lager as it was called in 1915.
April 29, 2018
Tank Crew Training – More German Tank Prototypes I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
The Great War
Published on 28 Apr 2018Chair of Wisdom Time!
April 27, 2018
The First Tank-on-Tank Battle in History – The Zeebrugge Raid I THE GREAT WAR Week 196
The Great War
Published on 26 Apr 2018At Villers-Bretonneux, German and British tanks clash marking the first tank-on-tank battle in history. In the same week, the most successful flying ace of World War 1 is shot down over France: Manfred von Richthofen dies after scoring 80 victories. Meanwhile, the British Navy attempts to eliminate the German U-Boat threat with a daring raid on Zeebrugge and Ostende.
April 25, 2018
Tank vs. Tank: Villers-Bretonneux, April 1918 | The Tank Museum
The Tank Museum
Published on 20 Apr 2018100 years ago, during the First World War, tank fought tank for the first time in history, at Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 1918.
It was an engagement that foreshadowed one hundred years of tanks fighting tanks on the battlefield, stories told by The Tank Museum.
April 22, 2018
Hunting – Dreyfuss Affair – Equipment Modifications I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
The Great War
Published on 21 Apr 2018Chair of Wisdom Time!
April 20, 2018
Disease, War and The Lost Generation I Between 2 Wars I 1918 Part 2 of 2
TimeGhost
Published on 19 Apr 2018As World War One ends the dying takes on new proportions when the Spanish Flu ravages the world. A whole generation of young people that should be starting their adult life is instead decimated at a devastating rate. The suffering at the end of 1918 will have consequences that last until this day.
Join us on https://timeghost.tv
or on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistoryHosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Spartacus Olsson and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Spartacus Olsson
Produced by: Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus OlssonA TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH
Additional information from TimeGhost:
In the new episode of Between 2 Wars we look at death and suffering in 1918 from another source than the World War: the Spanish Flu and its effects on the young adults of the time. This is the first, but not the last episode in the Between 2 Wars series that focuses on non-military and non-geopolitical events.
To understand these decades we will look occasionally at fashion, technology, design, arts, culture and civil life in general. After all the 1920s and the 1930s is very much the time period when the world became modern in the true sense of the word.
Much of what we still consider contemporary (both things and thoughts) was created in the 20s and 30s. Already the next episode will also focus on civil life as we look at the birth of civil aviation and the radio. After that we dive right back into war with the Russian Civil War!
Knocking Out The Hejaz Railway I THE GREAT WAR Week 195
The Great War
Published on 19 Apr 2018While the Germans are still advancing in Flanders (Operation Georgette), the other fronts are not always quiet. In Palestine, the British forces and the Arab Revolt are taking the initiative again. T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the Arab Revolt are attacking the vital Hejaz Railway, a major transport factor for the Ottoman Empire.
April 17, 2018
Storm of Steel – Author And Officer Ernst Jünger I WHO DID WHAT IN WW1?
The Great War
Published on 16 Apr 2018Storm of Steel (In Stahlgewittern) by Ernst Jünger is one of the most harrowing German accounts of World War 1. The author was an officer on the Western Front and fought with the assault troops and stormtroopers until summer 1918.
April 15, 2018
Stalin in WW1 – Quebec – Scottish Home Rule I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
The Great War
Published on 14 Apr 2018Chair of Wisdom Time!
April 13, 2018
The Battle of La Lys – Operation Georgette I THE GREAT WAR Week 194
The Great War
Published on 12 Apr 2018A year after the US entry into the war, the German Spring Offensive 1918 continues with operations Archangel and Georgette. The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps has to pay the price while the British manage to orderly retreat.
April 10, 2018
France Before WW1 – La Belle Époque? I THE GREAT WAR Special
The Great War
Published on 9 Apr 2018The time between the French defeat against Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War and the outbreak of the First World War is often described as the Belle Époque. But it certainly was a turbulent time for one of the major world powers too.
