Postcards from the Western Front: Pilgrims, Veterans, and Tourists after the Great War

Postcards from the Western Front explores the many ways in which British people perceived and commemorated the battlefields of France and Belgium during the First World War and the twenty years following the Armistice, drawing from a vast archive to examine the influence of different sub-communities and the interactions between visitors and the people living in these former fighting zones. It offers a groundbreaking perspective on landscapes that rarely left anyone unmoved, with extensive illustrations of black and white photographs.

Format: Paperback / softback
Publication date: 15 September 2022
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press

Visitors to the battlefields of France and Belgium experienced a range of emotions, including pain, anguish, pride, nostalgia, and wonder. Postcards from the Western Front chronicles the various ways in which these sites were perceived and commemorated by British people during the First World War and in the twenty years following the Armistice. Mark Connelly's definitive and engaging study of the former Western Front examines how different and distinctive sub-communities, including regional, ethnic, and religious groups, civilian and armed forces, influenced the depth and strength of the visiting public's relationship with the battlefields. Connelly draws from a vast archive to explore interlocking themes such as the lingering presence of the battlefields in the British domestic imagination, the often fraught experience of visiting the battlefields, memorials and cemeteries functioning as part of a historical testimony to wartime realities, and the interactions between visitors and the people living in these former fighting zones. Focusing on French and Belgian sites, Connelly nevertheless provides insight into other major battlefields fought over by troops from the British Empire. Extensively illustrated with black and white photographs, Postcards from the Western Front offers a groundbreaking perspective on landscapes that rarely left anyone unmoved.

Weight: 710g
Dimension: 154 x 229 x 40 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780228011903