02.20.07
Posted in UIS at 12:16 am by Stephanie
The first part of Sr. Seminar was based on Modris Ecksteins’ Rites of Spring. While we are not completely done with the book as I write this, we did turn in the first of our papers for this semester.
The assignment was to answer this question:
According to Eksteins, what was the significance of the Christmas cease fire in December 1914? Why does he argue that it could never happen again during the Great War? Do you find his argument(s) convincing? Why or why not?
As mentioned in the book review, this is a dense and chewy book, provoking lots of thoughts, not all of them congruent. In essence, I found the significance of the truce as a call to some of the “old fixities.”
Britain’s Edwardian and Victorian social mores called for a following of sportsmanlike behaviour and believed that even though soldiers were on the field to kill each other, it still had to be done in a sporting manner.
Germany, on the other hand, had become a unified country not so long before the war and was in the throes of birth pangs, so to speak. The Germans believed in the internal, metaphysical search for meaning. It was almost tone deaf in the ways it dealt with the rest of Europe and clearly didn’t understand why its actions caused such an uproar. Germany believed its ways were superior and wanted to be a major actor on the European stage.
At Christmas, 1914 the war was only 4 months old. Everyone concerned still believed it would be a short war. With Britain’s call to mannerliness and Germany’s almost adolescent belief in its place in the world, the truce sprung up spontaneously. Many, many books have been written about World War I, and the significance of the Christmas Truce.
One of the things I find significant about it is that it was the last of its kind, and the potential for a major impact on the rest of the world and the future history.
My friend C put it this way, “everyone still had money so they were inundated with packages from the government and from home that were treasured but overwhelming.” Add to this plethora of riches, the prevailing Christmas spirit, the newness of the way and the belief it was only a matter of time before it was over and a change in the weather that lifted spirits because the mud was frozen over enough to walk on which meant trench repair could be effected.
In my mind, it was the last time in any war that the tension between old and modern created an atmosphere where such behaviour was accepted by the men fighting the war. The truce was not officially condoned but happened nonetheless.
After the New Year things returned to “normal” but new technologies that wracked the sense of mannerliness were put to use. The Germans introduced mustard gas, those in power made the war one of attrition and ground down the morale of the soldiers. It was a one-time event and the a grand puzzle that is debated almost 100 years later.
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02.19.07
Posted in UIS, Books at 11:55 pm by Stephanie
Cross-posted from Logs of the Written Word
Finished Reading: Completed 12 Feb, 2007
Status: Remains in Library
Book Name: Rites of Spring
Author: Modris Eksteins
ISBN: 0395937582
LOC: N/A
Publisher: Mariner Books - a division of Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY)
Plot:
Dazzling in its originality, witty and perceptive in unearthing patterns of behavior that history has erased, Rites of Spring probes the origins, the impact, and the aftermath of World War I — from the premiere of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945. “The Great War,” as Modris Eksteins writes, “was the psychological turning point . . . for modernism as a whole. The urge to create and the urge to destroy had changed places.” In this “bold and fertile book” (Atlantic Monthly), Eksteins goes on to chart the seismic shifts in human consciousness brought about by this great cataclysm through the lives and words of ordinary people, works of literature, and such events as Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight and the publication of the first modern bestseller, All Quiet on the Western Front. Rites of Spring is a remarkable and rare work, a cultural history that redefines the way we look at our past and toward our future.
From: Houghton Mifflin Company
UIS Spring 2007 Sr. Seminar assigned reading.
If you’re looking for a general history about World War I, this isn’t the book for you. Rich, dense and complex, Ecksteins explores the cultural ramifications of modernity and its affect on the soldiers on the Western Front. Using Stravinsky’s The Rites of Spring as its framework, this book goes beyond a “simple” chronology of events as they unfold. What effect on the war did modernity have, and what effect did the war have on modernity? A case can be made for the seeds of Nazism arising from the seeds of modernity as portrayed in the premiere of the Russes Ballet’s production of Stravinsky’s (produced by Diaghilev) The Rites of Spring as choreographed by Nijinsky. The production which so affronted many of those in the audience that it engendered a riot.
Rich in anecdotal stories with quotes from war-time poets, Ecksteins presents a unique way to interpret the war.
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02.17.07
Posted in Herodotus' Children at 7:38 pm by Stephanie
I received email at my home email address from someone named George Thomas Kurian inviting me to join something called The Forum on History and Literature. The attachment he sent is unreadable and a Google search turns up no biographical information about him or the forum; only a list of compilations he has had something to do with.
Has anyone else received similar email or ever heard of him? I don’t know whether to treat this email as spam or as an honest inquiry.
Thanks.
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02.15.07
Posted in UIS at 2:42 pm by Stephanie
A friend and I were discussing World War I over breakfast last week. World War I because that’s what the first few weeks of Sr. Seminar have been about. I was trying to remember the name of the German that modified the Schlieffen Plan, quite possibly changing the outcome of the war.
“Did they shoot that guy?” my friend asked. Because, as we further discussed this point, we began to feel that perhaps if the Schlieffen Plan had succeeded, Hitler would have remained in the Army, become a painter of modest means and maybe, just maybe World War II wouldn’t have come about.
That guy who began to have doubts about the efficacy of the Schlieffen Plan was Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. Further, Moltke gave Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria some latitude in how the Sixth Army would approach the French.
Historians still argue over Moltke’s actions and how much impact his wavering attitude had on the outcome of the war.
The answer to my friend’s question is, “No. They didn’t shoot that guy. Moltke’s health gave way in 1914 and he died in 1916.”
NOTE: I highly recommend Modris Ecksteins’ Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age for a different look at the war. Ecksteins book is a look at the cultural history and the tension of modernity vs. established values using the Ballet Russes’ presentation of Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring as a framework. It is a complex and chewy read, but worth the time if you’re interested in a different view of the war.
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