World War One: The Cultural Front

Sep 22, 2024 7:27 AM

Author:Francine Stock,Francine Stock,Various

Francine Stock explores how the Great War shaped culture and society between 1914 and 1918

The First World War was the great military and political event of its time. But it was also an imaginative event: one that profoundly altered the ways in which men and women thought about the world, and about culture and its expressions. In this compelling five-series programme, journalist and presenter Francine Stock scrutinises the diverse responses of artists and entertainers to the bitter realities of war, and reveals how their new perspectives entered the public consciousness.

Each series focuses on a specific year of the conflict, beginning with 1914, as the written word was mobilised; the music industry embraced both patriotism and escapism; and painters including Kandinsky created some of their most powerful work. Stock shows how the aftershocks of war sparked the rise of modernism and the avant-garde in 1915, and looks at how trauma was addressed in the works of Freud and the compositions of Debussy. Moving on to the following year, she demonstrates how the carnage at Verdun and the Somme inspired Dadaism, galvanised creators from Picasso to Apollinaire - and made the tank into an unlikely icon on the home front.

Looking at 1917, Stock tells the story of the Harlem Hellfighters and how jazz conquered France; finds out about the popular cross-dressing theatre troupes who were taking the Front Line by storm; and listens as the first meeting between poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen is celebrated in a landmark violin performance using instruments made in memory of the duo. She concludes by examining the war's final deadly year, as US troops arrive on the Western Front, Charlie Chaplin makes a film about a private with dreams of becoming a war hero; the Austro-Hungarian Empire falls; and Elgar, Stanley Spencer and Rebecca West anticipate the end of the hostilities and the soldiers' return.

Production credits

Presented by Francine Stock

Produced by Tom Alban, Mark Burman, Caitlin Smith, Mark Rickards, Clare Walker, Georgia Catt, Sarah Shebbeare, Elizabeth Duffy

Production Coordinator: Anne Smith

Editors: John Goudie, Philip Sellars

Readers: Clive Hayward, Heather Craney, Sean Baker, Susan Jameson, Sam Rix, Sargon Yelda, Brian Protheroe, Nicola Ferguson, Nick Underwood, Lucy Doyle, Sean Murray, Ryan Whittle, Liam Fernandez, Cameron Percival and other members of the Radio Drama Company

Singer: Eloise Irving

Pianist: Simon Townley

First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:

Series 1

Words for Battle 8 March 2014

With Catriona Pennell, Samuel Hynes, Tim Kendall, Sophie De Schaepdrijver, Mark Derez, Jan Van Impe, Gerhard Hirschfeld

Arf a Mo, Kaiser: Popular Culture on All Fronts 15 March 2014

With Eloise Irving, Simon Townley, John Mullan, Susan Scott, Rachel Moore, Gerhard Hirschfeld, Stefan Goebel, Hubertus Jahn, Anita O'Brien

Kandinsky, Khaki and Kisses 22 March 2014

With Jane Potter, David Boyd Haycock, Richard Cork, Stacy Gillis, Stefan Goebel

Series 2

Glimpses of a Modern World 18 April 2015

With Genevieve Bell, Pat Mills, Samuel Hynes, Guillaume de Syon, Richard Slocombe, Stewart Kelly, Bryony Dixon, Mark Wollaeger

A Cubist War 25 April 2015

With James Taylor, Nicholas Rankin, Susan Harrow, Santanu Das, Peter Stanley, Christian Liebl

War on the Mind 2 May 2015

With David Code, Anna Farthing, Edgar Jones, John Forrester, Dorothy Price, Matthew Hollis

Series 3

Bleeding France 9 April 2016

With Jay Winter, Alice Kelly, Linda Robertson, Sylvie Leray-Burimi

The Tank and the Home Fires 16 April 2016

With Cathy Haill, Helen Brooks, Kimberley Reynolds, Diana Thompson, Vincent Thompson, Richard Slocombe, David Wiley, Alistair Fraser

Dada and Defiance 23 April 2016

With Toby Thacker, Alan Dein, Jed Rasula, Jan Rueger, Emily Finer, Boris Dralyuk

Series 4

The Jazz Kings Go to War 12 August 2017

With Max Brooks, Reid Badger, Adriane Lentz-Smith, Noble Sissle Jr

Reality and Reconstruction 19 August 2017

With Steve Burnett, Catherine Walker, Boris Dralyuk, Richard Cork, Sylvain Bellanger, Suzannah Biernoff, James Partridge, Sarah Crellin

An Intimate War 26 August 2017

With Jason Crouthamel, Anke Vetter, Kevin Clarke, Jay Winters, Laraine Porter, Simon Rothon

Series 5

1918: Chaplin Goes to War 8 September 2018

With David Luben, Claggett Wilson Read, Lucie Dutton, Ailsa Grant Ferguson

1918: Vienna and the Fall of an Empire 15 September 2018

With Michael Haas, Marcus Patka, Ivan Ristic, Nicolai Guteman

The Return of the Soldier 22 September 2018

With Boris Dralyuk, Martin Sorrell, Toby Thacker, Jane Potter, David Haycock, Ann Danks

Reviews

Absorbing ... Simms and Laderman give us a visceral sense of these events as they unfolded, in real time, with historical actors not always quite sure what was happening - a dimension of history that is both crucial and fiendishly difficult to recover.

—— New York Times Book Review

This is history at its scintillating best. The fate of the world tilted on the decisions made in those few days - hours even - in December 1941, and Simms and Laderman brilliantly strip away the many myths surrounding them in this hard-hitting, revelatory and superbly researched work.

—— Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

An extraordinary reconstruction of the fateful week following Pearl Harbor.

—— Adam Tooze , Guardian

A very important book ... Truly eye-opening, myth-busting history.

—— Aspects of History

In Hitler's American Gamble, Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman grippingly retell the story of five days that not only shook but also shaped the world... All students of both World War II and the Holocaust will learn, as I did, from their careful use of neglected documents and their attention to 'counterfactuals' that, for contemporaries, were at least as likely as what actually happened.

—— Niall Ferguson

Offers fine, well-researched insights into the psyches of leaders who made decisions that changed the course of world history ... For readers seeking a deeper understanding of the realpolitik that drove Germany to war against America, Hitler's American Gamble offers an outstanding narrative.

—— Jonathan W. Jordan , World War 2 Magazine

A rare achievement: a microhistory that's global in scope. Filled with fresh insights, excitingly written, and meticulously documented, Hitler's American Gamble is sure to become an instant classic.

—— John Lewis Gaddis

Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman show how Hitler's mad decision to declare war on the United States on December 11, 1941 proved suicidal for the Axis, ensured a global catastrophe, and would radically redefine how World War II would end. And yet was Hitler really as unhinged and reckless as it has seemed? ... Hitler's American Gamble is revisionist, but in the best sense of sound research, rare originality, singular analysis, and riveting prose.

—— Victor Davis Hanson

The authors effectively prove their thesis in a key volume for World War II history collections.

—— Michael Farrell , Library Journal

Out of war's most awful wounds, out of gore and terror and pain, Lindsey Fitzharris has - like Sir Harold Gillies himself - crafted something inspiring and downright miraculous. I cannot imagine the sweat and sleuthing and doggedness that went into gathering the details and building the narratives of these men's struggles. This book is riveting. It is gruesome but it is also uplifting. For as much as there is blood and bone and pus in these pages, there is heart. As Fitzharris shows us, the scalpel is mightier than the grenade, and the pen is mightiest of all. What a triumph this book is

—— Mary Roach

Like Harold Gillies himself, Lindsey Fitzharris has taken something we might think of as grim and transformed it into something beautiful. Gillies will be an unsung hero no more

—— Sam Kean

Wow, what a book. Enthralling. Harrowing. Heartbreaking. And utterly redemptive. Lindsey Fitzharris hit this one out of the park

—— Erik Larson, author of THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE

Here is that rare thing: a little-known story of the Great War, featuring a pioneering surgeon every bit as daring as the soldiers he saved. Beautifully written, illuminating, and bursting with fascinating detail, The Facemaker is a groundbreaking work that deserves its own genre: medical noir. You won't be able to put it down

—— Karen Abbott, author of THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK

I was an admirer of Fitzharris's award-winning first book, The Butchering Art, about Joseph Lister. This is her absorbing account of another surgeon: Harold Gillies, who established one of the world's first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction

—— Editor's pick , The Bookseller

Equal parts devastating and inspiring. The horrors of war are laid bare here, but the stories of each of the soldiers, doctors, nurses, and artists are incredibly poignant and fascinating. I couldn't put it down

—— Jenny Lawson

An extraordinary story about a remarkable man whose work, determination and skill changed countless lives

—— Peter Frankopan, author of THE SILK ROADS

Graphic yet inspiring, engaging... [Fitzharris] delivers a consistently vivid account... An excellent biography of a genuine miracle worker

—— Starred review , Kirkus

Wonderful... It was written with a clarity that I loved - although the book is packed with fascinating information, it read as easily as a novel... It is really inspiring and beautifully written

—— Lucy Nathan , Bookbrunch

A fascinating portrait of pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies and the soldiers whose faces he rebuilt during WWI... Meticulously researched and compulsively readable, this exceptional history showcases how compassion and innovation can help mitigate the terrible wounds of war

—— Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

Sometimes, you just know. From the moment I read The Facemaker's excellent prologue, I knew I had a book on my hands... Fitzharris is a gifted storyteller and delights in just about the right amount of detail

—— Matthew Shipsey , Irish Times

Informative... A powerful portrait of a gifted man

—— Oliver-James Campbell , New Scientist

The Facemaker conveys the emotional, physical and psychical effects of having an injured and altered face, directly from those who had to deal with them... Powerful

—— Sharrona Pearl , Washington Post

In The Facemaker, Fitzharris rescues another vital yet largely forgotten figure from history. Blending scrupulous research with a novelist's eye, the author charts Gillies's extraordinary contribution to reconstructive surgery and weaves in touching accounts of the soldiers he treated. Stark and occasionally unsettling, the book reveals Gillies as both a craftsman and an artist, and underlines how by restoring the faces of the maimed Gillies was also restoring their lives and identities

—— Brendan Daly , Business Post

Vividly thrilling

—— Nature

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