Museums, History and the Intimate Experience of the Great War : Love and Sorrow

The Great War of 1914-1918 was fought on the battlefield, on the sea and in the air, and in the heart. Museums Victoria’s exhibition __World War I:__ __Love and Sorrow__ exposed not just the nature of that war, but its depth and duration in personal and familial lives. Hailed by eminent scholar Jay Winter as "one of the best which the centenary of the Great War has occasioned", the exhibition delved into the war’s continuing emotional claims on descendants and on those who encounter the war through museums today. Contributors to this volume, drawn largely from the exhibition’s curators and advisory panel, grapple with the complexities of recovering and presenting difficult histories of the war. In eleven essays the book presents a new, more sensitive and nuanced narrative of the Great War, in which families and individuals take centre stage. Together they uncover private reckonings with the costs of that experience, not only in the years immediately after the war, but in the century since. This book presents a new, more sensitive and nuanced narrative of the Great War, in which families and individuals take centre stage. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Figures 8 List of Contributors 14 Acknowledgements 18 Introduction: War, Emotion and the Museum 20 Part I: Emotions in Conflict: On the Battlefield and at Home 26 1 Emotions and Memory in the Soundscapes of World War I 28 2 Pompey Elliott, Australia’s Emotional General 47 3 For the Duration: Surviving World War I: at Home 67 Part II: Bearing the Wounds of War 84 4 A Familiar Face: Wartime Facial Wounds and William Kearsey 86 5 War Disability and the Centenary of Family Caregiving 107 Part III: Emotions in Histories of World War I 116 6 Searching for Hector Thomson: Telling Difficult Family War Histories 118 7 “Gonzo” Historians and the Emotional turn in Australian Military History 142 8 Distance, Intimacy and Identification : Reflections on Writing a History of Trauma 155 Part IV: World War I: In The Museum: Love and Sorrow at Museums Victoria 170 9 After One Hundred Years: Exhibiting World War I 172 10 “Sticky” Objects, Faces and Voices in the Museum: Love and Sorrow’s Use of Affective Interpretation Strategies to Challenge Masculinist Commemorations of World War I 190 11 “The Stories Are Like Magnets”: Love and Sorrow and the Engagement of On-Line Learning 209 Index 236 Battlefield;,Soundscapes;,War,Disability;,Australian,Military,History;,Family,Caregiving Battlefield,Soundscapes,War Disability,Australian Military History,Family Caregiving "The Great War of 1914-1918 was fought on the battlefield, on the sea and in the air, and in the heart. Museums Victoria's exhibition World War I: Love and Sorrow exposed not just the nature of that war, but its depth and duration in personal and familial lives. Hailed by eminent scholar Jay Winter as "one of the best which the centenary of the Great War has occasioned", the exhibition delved into the war's continuing emotional claims on descendants and on those who encounter the war through museums today. Contributors to this volume, drawn largely from the exhibition's curators and advisory panel, grapple with the complexities of recovering and presenting difficult histories of the war. In eleven essays the book presents a new, more sensitive and nuanced narrative of the Great War, in which families and individuals take centre stage. Together they uncover private reckonings with the costs of that experience, not only in the years immediately after the war, but in the century since"-- Provided by publisher This volume exposes at once the nature of World War I and its depth and duration in personal lives. Contributors, including historians, museum professionals and cultural heritage specialists, grapple with the complexities of interpreting and representing the private experience and costs of the war in museums and historical practice.