The new edited collection, Reflections on the Commemoration of the First World War: Perspectives from the Former British Empire, edited by David Monger (History) and Sarah Murray (Canterbury Museum and History Adjunct) has been published by Routledge.
Featuring some of the papers delivered at a 2018 conference held at Tūranga in Christchurch by the Canterbury100 organisation to mark the end of the First World War’s centenary, the book includes contributions covering New Zealand, Australia, India, Britain and Canada, by a mix of experienced international scholars such as Santanu Das (Oxford) and Tim Cook (Canadian War Museum), and local and international heritage professionals and early-career researchers.
Book description
The First World War’s centenary generated a mass of commemorative activity worldwide. Officially and unofficially; individually, collectively and commercially; locally, nationally and internationally, efforts were made to respond to the legacies of this vast conflict.
This book explores some of these responses from areas previously tied to the British Empire, including Australia, Britain, Canada, India and New Zealand. Showcasing insights from historians of commemoration and heritage professionals it provides revealing insider and outsider perspectives of the centenary.
How far did commemoration become celebration, and how merited were such responses? To what extent did the centenary serve wider social and political functions? Was it a time for new knowledge and understanding of the events of a century ago, for recovery of lost or marginalised voices, or for confirming existing clichés?
And what can be learned from the experience of this centenary that might inform the approach to future commemorative activities?
The contributors to this book grapple with these questions, coming to different answers and demonstrating the connections and disconnections between those involved in building public knowledge of the ‘war to end all wars’.
