Shooting at the Stars: the Christmas Truce of 1914 NCSS Lesson Plan

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-311
Author(s):  
Janie Hubbard ◽  
Adam Caldwell ◽  
Paige Moses Bahr ◽  
Ben Reed ◽  
Kristen Slade Watts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Class Discussion ◽  
Oral Histories ◽  
National Council ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a true World War One event, the Christmas Truce of 1914. The paper is inspired by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) award winning book, Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914 by John Hendrix, which narrates the truce through a fictitious letter from a British soldier. On Christmas Eve, German soldiers on the western front line, specifically near the Belgium border, ceased fire and invited British soldiers to celebrate Christmas. Descriptions of events derive from oral histories and photos collected from actual soldiers who experienced this unusual historic event. Design/methodology/approach This lesson engages students in inquiry centers focused on events, location, soldiers, remembrance, and primary sources to answer the question: Why did the First World War Christmas Truce of 1914 occur? Practical implications World War One (AKA the First World War and The Great War) classroom history studies typically focus on tragic components of, what many call, a needless war. Many lessons examine military technologies, political power struggles, horrors of trench warfare, disease and casualties. In essence, “World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people – soldiers and civilians alike – were dead” (history.com Staff, 2009). This lesson reveals a spontaneous, impactful, emotionally charged event occurring during the worst of times. The Christmas Truce of 1914 moves students from thinking about the ravages of war into thinking deeply about what it truly means to be enemies, friends or even to mend relationships. Who are soldiers – what do they feel, need, believe and miss? During the truce, the longing for peace and human interaction superseded political ideologies, for a while. This lesson starts with students participating in a class discussion to uncover prior knowledge of the famous event. Students examine their real-life feelings regarding personal truces, answer guiding questions while rotating through classroom research centers, and collectively create a generalized response to answer the compelling question: Why did the First World War Truce of 1914 occur? Students will apply their understandings of the event, location, and feelings associated with the truce by taking a soldier’s persona and writing a letter home. Illustrations and maps further engage students’ creativity. Social implications This true story about the Christmas Truce of 1914 reminds us that countries may have differing ideologies and political beliefs which cause conflicts, yet people, as individuals, find commonalities making them seek peaceful connections with one another. Originality/value “The soldiers of 1914 remind us of the choice we all can make: we can see others as humans who matter like we matter – even when they’re our enemies. They also show us what can happen when we make that choice: enemies can become friends and, at least for a moment, there is peace” (Arbinger Institute, 2017, Section 3). This quote embodies the lesson’s value, because it brings understanding to a personal level – soldiers on the field. First World War soldiers were typically powerless. For instance, as many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 served in the British army during the First World War. Patriotic fervor, escape from poor conditions or hopes for adventure were motives for joining. Birth certificates were uncommon; war recruiters received money for each sign-on, so boys as young as 14 went to war. In this lesson, students examine First World War background information; analyze the truce’s events, geography, soldiers and memorials. Students are immersed in large numbers of resources including videos, music, photographs, maps, books, articles, newspapers, historians’ perspectives, oral histories, museum archives and the First World War soldiers’ original letters that help reveal the story and help students understand underlying feelings of soldiers and their families.

The “knowledge front”, women, war and peace

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Horne
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Medical Researcher ◽  
First World

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the idea of the “knowledge front” alongside ideas of “home” and “war” front as a way of understanding the expertise of university-educated women in an examination of the First World War and its aftermath. The paper explores the professional lives of two women, the medical researcher, Elsie Dalyell, and the teacher, feminist and unionist, Lucy Woodcock. The paper examines their professional lives and acquisition and use of university expertise both on the war and home fronts, and shows how women’s intellectual and scientific activity established during the war continued long after as a way to repair what many believed to be a society damaged by war. It argues that the idea of “knowledge front” reveals a continuity of intellectual and scientific activity from war to peace, and offers “space” to examine the professional lives of university-educated women in this period. Design/methodology/approach The paper is structured as an analytical narrative interweaving the professional lives of two women, medical researcher Elsie Dalyell and teacher/unionist Lucy Woodcock to illuminate the contributions of university-educated women’s expertise from 1914 to the outbreak of the Second World War. Findings The emergence of university-educated women in the First World War and the interwar years participated in the civic structure of Australian society in innovative and important ways that challenged the “soldier citizen” ethos of this era. The paper offers a way to examine university-educated women’s professional lives as they unfolded during the course of war and peace that focuses on what they did with their expertise. Thus, the “knowledge front” provides more ways to examine these lives than the more narrowly articulated ideas of “home” and “war” front. Research limitations/implications The idea of the “knowledge front” applied to women in this paper also has implications for how to analyse the meaning of the First World War-focused university expertise more generally both during war and peace. Practical implications The usual view of women’s participation in war is as nurses in field hospitals. This paper broadens the notion of war to see war as having many interconnected fronts including the battle front and home front (Beaumont, 2013). By doing so, not only can we see a much larger involvement of women in the war, but we also see the involvement of university-educated women. Social implications The paper shows that while the guns may have ceased on 11 November 1918, women’s lives continued as they grappled with their war experience and aimed to reassert their professional lives in Australian society in the 1920s and 1930s. Originality/value The paper contains original biographical research of the lives of two women. It also conceptualises the idea of “knowledge front” in terms of war/home front to examine how the expertise of university-educated career women contributed to the social fabric of a nation recovering from war.

British Air Force slang. Influence of the First World War

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
Peter J. Mitchell ◽  
Andrey A. Andrakhanov ◽  
Egor V. Trusov
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
First World War ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
World War ◽  
Huge Number ◽  
World War One ◽  
Linguistic Support ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

World War One had an impact not only the development of international relations throughout the 20th century, but also led to the creation of air forces of different countries. More than 30 countries participated in the First World War. The British Empire, which fought on the side of the Entente, was one of them. During the First World War, the importance of the Air Force increased. It played a decisive role in gaining dominance amidst the aerospace. Aviation, which tasks included aerial reconnaissance and bomb attacks, evolved significantly. A huge number of new experimental military equipment have appeared. All of this produced a huge number of military slang terms. In this study, we will examine the slang terms that appeared in the slang of the British Air Force during the First World War, classify them and make a conclusion about the influence of the First World War on the development of military slang terms. During the training of specialists in the linguistic support of military activity, the topic of military slang remains understudied, which is why interpreters have difficulties in translating slang units. Therefore, the studying of this phenomenon can improve the skills of military interpreters and allow them to avoid major mistakes in their professional activity.

scholarly journals Universities, war and the professionalization of dentistry

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamson Pietsch
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
First World War ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
World War ◽  
Content Type ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The University ◽  
First World

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to bring together the history of war, the universities and the professions. It examines the case of dentistry in New South Wales, detailing its divided pre-war politics, the role of the university, the formation and work of the Dental Corps during the First World War, and the process of professionalization in the 1920s. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on documentary and archival sources including those of the University of Sydney, contemporary newspapers, annual reports and publication of various dental associations, and on secondary sources. Findings The paper argues that both the war and the university were central to the professionalization of dentistry in New South Wales. The war transformed the expertise of dentists, shifted their social status and cemented their relationship with the university. Originality/value This study is the first to examine dentistry in the context of the histories of war, universities and professionalization. It highlights the need to re-evaluate the changing place of the professions in interwar Australia in the light both of the First World War and of the university’s involvement in it.

100 Years Ago: A Bibliographical Calendar of Diplomacy and International Law: In the Years 1914 and 1915

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Schwietzke ◽  
Peter Macalister-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

This Bibliographical Calendar focuses on a general armed conflict within Europe that spread to most parts of the world. It started during the second decade of the twentieth century. In this context the present Calendar offers an overview of the chronology leading up to the First World War. It is also a documented survey of official transactions relating to the World War with particular attention to the sources of record. The main focus of the work is on diplomatic acts of the belligerent and neutral parties that accompanied the military dimension of the conflict.The Calendar assumes the form of a compilation of related kinds of information situated between a bibliography and a repertory, with the aim of elucidating the course of World War One from the perspectives of international law and diplomacy.

Australian and New Zealand women teachers in the First World War

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
Kay Morris Matthews ◽  
Kay Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
First World War ◽  
Women Teachers ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
World War ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The First World War ◽  
War Effort ◽  
First World ◽  
At Home

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the contributions of women teachers to the war effort at home in Australia and New Zealand and in Egypt and Europe between 1914 and 1918. Design/methodology/approach Framed as a feminist transnational history, this research paper drew upon extensive primary and secondary source material in order to identify the women teachers. It provides comparative analyses using a thematic approach providing examples of women teachers war work at home and abroad. Findings Insights are offered into the opportunities provided by the First World War for channelling the abilities and leadership skills of women teachers at home and abroad. Canvassed also are the tensions for German heritage teachers; ideological differences concerning patriotism and pacifism and issues arising from government attitudes on both sides of the Tasman towards women’s war service. Originality/value This is likely the only research offering combined Australian–New Zealand analyses of women teacher’s war service, either in support at home in Australia and New Zealand or working as volunteers abroad. To date, the efforts of Australian and New Zealand women teachers have largely gone unrecognised.

scholarly journals Nationalism, the First World War, and sites of international memory

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenda Sluga
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
First World ◽  
Role Of Men

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to restore the history of internationalism to our understanding of the legacy of the First World War, and the role of universities in that past. It begins by emphasising the war’s twin legacy, namely, the twin principles of the peace: national self-determination and the League of Nations. Design/methodology/approach It focuses on the intersecting significance and meaning attributed to the related terms patriotism and humanity, nationalism and internationalism, during the war and after. A key focus is the memorialization of Edith Cavell, and the role of men and women in supporting a League of Nations. Findings The author finds that contrary to conventional historical opinion, internationalism was as significant as nationalism during the war and after, thanks to the influence and ideas of men and women connected through university networks. Research limitations/implications The author’s argument is based on an examination of British imperial sources in particular. Originality/value The implications of this argument are that historians need to recover the international past in histories of nationalism.

scholarly journals The Imperial German Navy, 1897 - 1918: Negotiating the nation

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Jesse Bachmann
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
World War One ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
The First World War ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
German Navy ◽  
First World

<p class="p1">This article seeks to analyze the linkages between the Imperial German Navy and Germany’s domestic sphere from the years 1897 to 1918. Prior scholarship has suggested that the expansion of the Imperial German Navy, beginning in 1897, was strongly caused by internal domestic factors. This article disagrees with this assertion, pointing out how international concerns were the main motivating factor. Nonetheless, the paper does accept the general premise that the navy played a strong role in Germany’s domestic sphere. To this end, this article analyzes how, prior to World War One, the navy was built into a national symbol aimed at overcoming the German empire’s regional particularities. This article then bridges a gap in existing scholarship by linking the pre-war symbolic importance of the navy to its experience during the war and the naval revolts that occurred in 1918. In particular, this article argues that the national idea codified in the navy prior to the war was then challenged by the navy’s generally poor experience during the First World War. This contributed to the naval revolts of 1918 which caused a reevaluation of the German nation and toppled the empire.</p>

Australian universities and the commemoration of the First World War

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Darian-Smith ◽  
James Waghorne
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Content Type ◽  
War Memorials ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The University ◽  
War Commemoration ◽  
First World ◽  
Australian Universities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how Australian universities commemorated the First World War, with a focus on the University of Melbourne as an institution with a particularly rich history of wartime participation and of diverse forms of memorialisation. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach is taken, with an overview of the range of war memorials at the University of Melbourne. These include memorials which acknowledged the wartime role of individuals or groups associated with the University, and took the form of architectural features, and named scholarships or academic positions. Three cross-campus war memorials are examined in depth. Findings This paper demonstrates that there was a range of war memorials at Australian universities, indicating the range of views about the First World War, and its legacies, within university communities of students, graduates and staff. Originality/value University war commemoration in Australia has not been well documented. This study examines the way in which the particular character of the community at the University of Melbourne was to influence the forms of First World War commemoration.

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