tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038500673287894406.post4955208398518551212..comments2024-02-18T14:02:44.989-05:00Comments on Our War: One woman's war and resurrectionMike Pridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03555611841701570103noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038500673287894406.post-9391136427484220762015-06-29T20:44:14.668-04:002015-06-29T20:44:14.668-04:00Ruth, the mother of one of our daughters-in-law, a...Ruth, the mother of one of our daughters-in-law, asks:"I read your blog post on Testament of Youth. . . . I was a pacifist before I read the book, but if I had not been one that book would have converted me. I wonder if the memories of the Civil War was what kept the US out of WWI for so long."<br /><br />Response: I cannot give you an expert’s answer to your excellent question, but I can share my thoughts.<br /><br />By the early 20th century, shock over the horrors of the Civil War had faded. Young people whose grandfathers had fought in it revered their connection to it. Civil War veterans were the Greatest Generation of their time. The postwar was about reunion of whites, not rights for African-Americans. The war was remembered for its shared hardships and its glory.<br /><br />The country retained a streak of bellicosity. Many young men longed for a chance to prove themselves, as gramps had. At the hint (even a false hint) of a threat to American interests, people were quick to resort to war. Remember the Maine.<br /><br />Manifest Destiny spawned the countervailing impulse in Americans’ feelings about foreign relations. Part of the sea-to-sea (and beyond if possible) logic of it was the security it implied. Two great oceans protected the United States from any need to engage disputes in East or West. Also, many immigrants had fled repeated wars in Europe and had no desire for their new country to involve itself abroad.<br /><br />Part of the isolationist impulse was political -- Wilson's campaign slogan of "He kept us out of war," his dovish secretary or state. But in time, mainly because of German brutality, real and perceived, this impulse died away, and America went to war.<br /><br />Judging by Brittain's comments about the arriving Americans, she was glad to see them. <br />Mike Pridehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03555611841701570103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038500673287894406.post-71473640307624484552015-06-29T08:16:07.461-04:002015-06-29T08:16:07.461-04:00Thanks for this. Coincidentally, I just ordered th...Thanks for this. Coincidentally, I just ordered the Bostridge along with Edmund Blunden's memoir. Have not read "Letters." So much to read! The new book on Soutine in Paris, the new biography of William Shirer . . . oh, yes, and then there's my job!.Mike Pridehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03555611841701570103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9038500673287894406.post-73854460174869773022015-06-29T04:23:48.167-04:002015-06-29T04:23:48.167-04:00Have you tried Letters from a Lost Generation by V...Have you tried Letters from a Lost Generation by Vera B?<br />Or Mark Bostridge's Vera Brittain and the FWW which shows how she exaggerated her wartime experiences for pacifist effect.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com