WWI history book – “Peace at Last” (Yale University Press, 2018) – Guy Cuthbertson interview

 

 

Dr. Guy Cuthbertson is an Associate Professor in English Literature and Head of the English Department at Liverpool Hope University. He’s studied at St Andrews University and at The Queen’s College, Oxford University.  We spoke about his latest book on the end of WWI.

0:57 – Guy talks about how he got into writing on study.  He started in English and moved into biography. 

2:05 – Guy talks about the book and WWI.

 6:28 – The book focuses on the human aspect of the last dayof WWI. Festivities and religion are two aspects he looks at.  He always tries to look at areas beyond London.

12:59 – Guy talks about the changes in society between the beginning and the end of the war.

 15:40 – Guy talks about the idea that the war broke down class distinctions and social mores.

 21:58 – Guy talks about the resources he used for his research.

26:21 – Guy talks about Gladstone’s library and other archives he went to.

54:44 – Guy has a website GuyCuthbertson.com

Links of interest

https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300233384

http://guycuthbertson.com/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Guy Cuthbertson

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict,war, interview, non-fiction book, WWI, world war one, faulkner, disney, fitzgerald, wilfred owen

WWI history book – “The Myriad Legacies of 1917 – A Year of War and Revolution” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) -Maartje Abbenhuis interview

Maartje Abbenhuis is a historian of of neutrality and internationalism, especially in regards to Europe from 1815 to 1919. She’s written numerous articles and books on the subject and teaches at the University of Auckland. We talk about her most recent work, a collection of essays on WWI in 1917 that she co-edited.

1:05 – Maartje talks about how she got into editing a book on WWI.

6:17 – We discuss the parallel between Lord of the Rings and WWI.

9:09 – Maartje talks about the essays in the book.

10:54 – Maartje talks about security and civil rights during WWI.

13:15 – Maartje talks about how the book reflects the New Zealand symposium that it was meant to accompany.

18:06 – Maartje talks about India’s involvement in WWI and also about Indian resistane to the British at this time.

25:12 – Maartje talks about New Zealand and WWI.

30:15 – Maartje talks about some of the research that went into the essays and what the collection goals were. She mentions that two of the essays were written by museum curators and directors.

33:18 – Maartje talks about German memories of WWI.

43:17 – Maartje talks about the global effects of WWI.

56:55 – Maartje talks about New Zealand and how its foundation myths connect to WWI.

1:00:26 – Maartje is on twitter @maartjeabb.

Links of interest

https://twitter.com/maartjeabb?lang=en

https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319736846

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Maartje Abbenhuis

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, India, Britian, WWII, Germany, New Zealand, WWI, Empire, Ottoman, Maori, Australia, United States, California, latin America, globalization, industrial warfare

WWII history book – “No Forgotten Fronts” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Lisa Shapiro interview

 

Professor Lisa Shapiro holds masters degrees in literature and management and teaches at San Diego Mesa College. She has previously taught creative writing. She’s written a book based on thousands of archived letters sent by San Diego State students who were in WWII to their professor Dr. Post. I interviewed Professor Shapiro about the book titled “No Forgotten Fronts.”
1:54 – Professor Shapiro talks about her first historical project. It dealt with European medieval historical fiction. Her interest in WWII came out of her work with community college students in San Diego.
3:57 – She began studying war literature and got a second degree in that subject. In the school archives she found letters written to a professor during WWII.
5:46 – Professor Shapiro explains the basis and details of the book. It’s a collection of student letters written to their professor, Dr. Post. He turned the letters into a regular newsletter. He did this through the entire war.
10:16 – Several hundred students participated in writing to Dr. Post. This includes men and women and many wrote repeatedly. People also provided funds to support him. The original documents are in the San Diego State college archives.
12:16 – Professor Shapiro discusses how the US military censors worked with Dr. Post. He took care to keep out sensitive information out of his newsletters.
16:35 – Sometimes students wrote things only for Dr. Post and not the newsletter.
17:16 – Dr. Post was also able to connect two brothers, one of whom was a prisoner of war during the war. Dr. Post even visited their mother to provide reassurance about her sons. One student who was at Anzio wrote that he had lost his marbles and Dr. Post knew he needed some mental comfort. Dr. Post notified a nearby chaplain in Europe from San Diego State to visit this soldier and also gave comfort to the student’s father.
22:54 – Professor Shapiro explains how Dr. Post got information on killed or injured students and how he dealt with that information. Dr. Post would also update information he had published.
27:57 – Dr. Post didn’t have any children. Professor Shapiro discusses how Dr. Post met his wife in college. But both were active in the lives of their students. He also did trick roping and performed for his students. His wife was a singer. Dr. Post did have a nephew in the Marines who would write to Dr. Post.
30:36 – There don’t seem to have been any other people who collected letters from specific groups during WWII. Others have created letter collections after wars.
34:43 – The students loved getting the newsletters.
36:07 – Professor Shapiro focused on the letters that captivated her. The emotion of the letters touched her. She was able to track the stories of specific individuals.
40:28 – Professor Shapiro reads a letter from Herman Adelson who nicknamed himself Little Geronimo since he was a paratrooper. He and the others really believed in what they were fighting for. For good, freedom and democracy.
43:22 – A letter arrived for Dr. Post saying that Herman had died during D-Day and included a eulogy for him. San Diego State lost three members of their championship basketball team during the war. But the community found comfort in knowing what their loved ones had been doing.
48:29 – Professor Shapiro did a lot of reading to brush up on her knowledge of WWII and current events at the time the letters were written. She used Anthony Deevers’ history. She also read a lot of San Diego history. San Diego had a lot of women participate in the war. A lot of San Diego State students became pilots.
53:40 – Professor Shapiro had few problems getting the book published. She had to shorten the book since it was very long at first.
55:02 – Grif Williams was one of the students and was famous for being on the Doolittle Raid. He was taken prisoner eventually and he was eventually a cellmate with another San Diego State student who had been captured in Germany.
59:26 – The website for the book is NoForgottenFronts.com.

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Lisa Shapiro
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: war, military, WWII, WWII history, san diego, san diego state, pacific war, d-day, north africa, europe, germany, doolittle raid, anzio