The Christmas truce : myth, memory, and the First World War / Terri Blom Crocker ; foreword by Peter Grant.

By:

Crocker, Terri Blom [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2015]Copyright date: �2015Description: 1 online resourceContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780813166162
0813166160
9780813166179
0813166179
9780813166650
0813166659

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Electronic books.

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Christmas truceDDC classification:

940.4/21 23

LOC classification:

D530 .C76 2015eb

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

"A candle lit in the darkness": the Christmas truce and the First World War -- "Absolute hell": the Western Front in 1914 -- "A great day with our enemies": the Christmas truce -- "No war today": the Christmas truce as reported in official war diaries and regimental histories -- "One day of peace at the front": the Christmas truce and the British press -- "That unique and weird Christmas": the Christmas truce during the war -- "The curious Christmas truce": the First World War and the Christmas truce, 1920-1959 -- "The famous Christmas truce": the First World War and the Christmas truce, 1960-1969 -- "The legendary Christmas truce": the First World War, the Christmas truce, and social history, 1970-1989 -- "Memories of Christmas 1914 persist": orthodoxy, revisionism, and the Christmas truce, 1990-2014 -- "It was peace that won": the Christmas truce and the narrative of the First World War.

Summary: The 1914 Christmas truce, when enemy soldiers met, fraternized, and even played football in No Man's Land during the first year of the First World War, is commonly perceived as a manifestation of the anger that soldiers felt toward the meaningless war that they had been tricked into fighting. Contemporaneous sources, however, show that the truce was not an act of defiance; rather, it arose from the professionalism of the soldiers involved, the conditions of static trench warfare, foul weather on the Western Front, the absence of major battles, and memories of traditional celebrations of Christmas. The truce, in short, was caused by rain, mud, curiosity, lack of personal animosity toward the enemy, and homesickness, rather than by frustration and rebellion.

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Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

The 1914 Christmas truce, when enemy soldiers met, fraternized, and even played football in No Man's Land during the first year of the First World War, is commonly perceived as a manifestation of the anger that soldiers felt toward the meaningless war that they had been tricked into fighting. Contemporaneous sources, however, show that the truce was not an act of defiance; rather, it arose from the professionalism of the soldiers involved, the conditions of static trench warfare, foul weather on the Western Front, the absence of major battles, and memories of traditional celebrations of Christmas. The truce, in short, was caused by rain, mud, curiosity, lack of personal animosity toward the enemy, and homesickness, rather than by frustration and rebellion.

English.

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