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The First World War Was Glamourised In Order To Recruit
It is a well known fact that propaganda was used to increase the number of enrollments for the Great War. Many of the victims, of the unnecessary lies, fought and died , which caused a spreading upset amongst many families, it also caused a population decrease, due to the fact that a big percentage of soldiers failed to survive.
Posters played a big part in the recruitment, as they were very persuasive, even though many containded little or no words. A specific poster was one by Fred Spear, which is a picture of a woman clutching on to her baby, while they drown, but the only word displayed on the poster was 'Enlist'. The reason this was so effective was because in May, 1915, the British liner Lusitania was sunk by s German U-boat off the Irish coast and 2000 people, including many children and women, were drowned. Which is why the poster was probably the most noteable.
Another way of getting young men to join, was through poetry. There were many war time poets, the most out-standing ones being female, such as Jessie Pope with her poem 'Who's For The Game?'. The poems were minly just calling men, who didn't enroll, cowards, for example a linee from 'Who's For The Game?':
"Who would much rather come back with a crutch,
than lie low and be out of the fun?"
She is basically telling men that it'd be better to fight and get hurt than just staying at home and missing out on the "fun". Poems were no longer persuading men after Wilfred Owen, a returning soldier, wrote a poem, called 'Dulce et Decorum', which is actually what the war was really like.
In the novel 'Private Peaceful' propaganda, in WW1, is expressed when a character, called Tommo, goes into the town and sees a parade saluting the war. After he glorious things, from a Sergant Major, about how great it is to be a hero, because the ladies love a soldier, Tommo is persuaded to enlist because an old lady starts tuanting him, so that he feels cowardly about not fighting.
So, as you can see, the first world war was hugely dramatised just so that they can get men too fight, even though many knew there was little chance of surviving. My personal thoughts are that the war shouldn't have been made out to great when it wasn't (propaganda) because men who truly wanted to fight for there country would have naturally joined without needing to be persauded.
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So do you think that propaganda was a good thing for WW1 or not?
If anything the majority of propaganda during the war (from the British perspective) was against the enemy in order to sustain public support.
Enough for you yet, oldtimer!
The sinking of the Lusitania was the main reason for the Americans getting involved in war due to so many Americans being killed. Hence why some believe it was an American rather than a British ship.
P.S I'm in Senior Honours of History you cheeky whippersnappers. I did a course on WW1 too so ner ner ner
I just don't think poetry (for example) can be said to be a main reason for so many signing up.
Besides, like I said
Sunflower wrote:
> it's an essay from school.
Oh, I also stop caring about this thread after I posted it!
> It was full of mostly Americans I think.
Too many movies, mate... the Americans didn't get involved until 1917, though admittedly in pretty big numbers, and at first really weren't up to much!
I don't think propaganda played that big a role in enlisting men to fight. At that time many of the young in Britain (as well as Germany) saw war as an adventure and a means to prove their worth or whatever. They all fought they'd go shoot a few people then be home by Christmas to receive all the glory.
Yeah, some of the ways they recruited men were little more than fraud, glamourised battle, were insulting to men yet to sign up et cetera (I once saw a movie called Oh! What a Lovely War which had a supposedly funny take on this on TV...); Conscription wasn't introduced until some way into the war, so they had to get men to join up, and the idea of helping King and Country didn't always kick it. But if you'd have told men that they were off to risk their lives against machine guns, poison gas, masses of barbed wire, mines, various mud and water-borne diseases and so on, they wouldn't have signed up.
And then there were oh-so-many tactical disasters which resulted in disgusting slaughter... I could go on for ages about how horrible it must have been. The government had two choices from the way I see it. Force men to join up, or persuade them with propoganda which was often little more than lies; with the latter, at least you'd get men enthusiastic to join up and would be better motivated. I'm not sure when they introduced conscription, though, so enough of this babbling!
*******************************************************
The First World War Was Glamourised In Order To Recruit
It is a well known fact that propaganda was used to increase the number of enrollments for the Great War. Many of the victims, of the unnecessary lies, fought and died , which caused a spreading upset amongst many families, it also caused a population decrease, due to the fact that a big percentage of soldiers failed to survive.
Posters played a big part in the recruitment, as they were very persuasive, even though many containded little or no words. A specific poster was one by Fred Spear, which is a picture of a woman clutching on to her baby, while they drown, but the only word displayed on the poster was 'Enlist'. The reason this was so effective was because in May, 1915, the British liner Lusitania was sunk by s German U-boat off the Irish coast and 2000 people, including many children and women, were drowned. Which is why the poster was probably the most noteable.
Another way of getting young men to join, was through poetry. There were many war time poets, the most out-standing ones being female, such as Jessie Pope with her poem 'Who's For The Game?'. The poems were minly just calling men, who didn't enroll, cowards, for example a linee from 'Who's For The Game?':
"Who would much rather come back with a crutch,
than lie low and be out of the fun?"
She is basically telling men that it'd be better to fight and get hurt than just staying at home and missing out on the "fun". Poems were no longer persuading men after Wilfred Owen, a returning soldier, wrote a poem, called 'Dulce et Decorum', which is actually what the war was really like.
In the novel 'Private Peaceful' propaganda, in WW1, is expressed when a character, called Tommo, goes into the town and sees a parade saluting the war. After he glorious things, from a Sergant Major, about how great it is to be a hero, because the ladies love a soldier, Tommo is persuaded to enlist because an old lady starts tuanting him, so that he feels cowardly about not fighting.
So, as you can see, the first world war was hugely dramatised just so that they can get men too fight, even though many knew there was little chance of surviving. My personal thoughts are that the war shouldn't have been made out to great when it wasn't (propaganda) because men who truly wanted to fight for there country would have naturally joined without needing to be persauded.
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So do you think that propaganda was a good thing for WW1 or not?