1919

Articles from 1919

Life in a Trench (What the Boys Did Over There, 1919)

Corporal Frank Sears of the American Expeditionary Force put pen to paper and explained for all posterity the unsanitary conditions of <b.living in a W.W. I trench in France:

Life in the trenches is made up of cooties, rats, mud and gas masks…
We became so used to mud up in the lines that if our chow did not have some mud, or muddy water in it we could not digest it. It was just a case of mud all over: eat, drink, sleep and wash in mud.

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The Versailles Treaty and the German Colonies (Leslie’s Weekly, 1919)

Half way through the year of 1919, editorials like this one began to appear in many places which served to inform the English-speaking world that the Germans were peacefully handing over their African colonies (as they were obliged to do in article 119 of the Versailles Treaty):

Germany renounces in favor of the principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over her overseas possessions.

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The New Objectivity (Current Opinion, 1919)

A review of the paintings and sculptures from the Weimer Republic and the manner in which that new art served to reflect the social upheaval that was taking place in Germany at that time. The article concerns itself primarily with one art exhibit in particular, the Spring Exhibition of the Berlin Secession (1919) and the two art factions who participated: there were the artists of Der Sturm a movement that existed prior to the war and a newer, post-war tribe; the November Group. Also displayed were the works of two painters who served in the Kaiser’s army and did not return; Franz Marc (1880-1916) and August Macke (1887-1914).

It is hoped by the German Expressionists and the artists of the New Objectivity that their art will serve as a tool for the destruction of Germany’s old order.


Click here to see a few trench war images by German Expressionist Otto Dix.

Click here to read about Expressionist woodcuts.


The New Objectivity held up a mirror to the political crises that was playing out all over Germany, click here to read about it…

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A French Village Welcomes the Ninety-Second Division (The Crises, 1919)

This is a lovely piece, originally written in French for a village paper, in which a journalist describes the collective excitement of the townsfolk in welcoming the Americans to their sleepy hamlet during the First World War, and how astonished they were to find that the arriving Doughboys were all of African descent!


Read an Article About American intervention in W.W. I and the Gratitude of France.

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The Evolution of the Tank (NY Times, 1919)

A three page article concerning the development of tanks during the First World War. While they were being created on the drawing boards of Britain’s W. Foster Company, the code name for these land dreadnoughts was water tanks; hence the name.

The first armored battle cars, or tanks were a British invention developed from an American automobile tractor used for agricultural purposes on the Western prairies. They made their initial appearance at the battle of the Somme (Flers), September 15, 1916.


However, it should be known that they were first used to greatest effect in the Battle of Cambrai (November 20 through December 7, 1917).


Click here to see a diagram of the W.W. I French Renault tank.


Read about the Patton tank in Korea…

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W.E.B. Du Boise and the Documents of U.S. Army Prejudice (The Crises, 1919

This historic article first appeared in a 1919 issue of The Crisis and served to document the official discrimination against African-Americans who served both in the ranks and as officers in the American Army during the First World War. The article includes the communications from high-ranking American officers to the French military authorities, conveying their suggestions as to how America’s black Doughboys were to be treated.

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In the War’s Aftermath Came Spiritual Disillusion (Current Opinion Magazine, 1919)

At the thirty-fifth annual Church Congress of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1919), clergy members seemed to agree that Christian leaders were needlessly complicitstyle=border:none concerning their support for the First World War and were guilty of substituting Christian principles for patriotism:


Christianity has betrayed itself body and soul.


If you would like to read about the spirit of disillusion that permeated post-war literature, click here.

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Victory and Paris Fashion (Vogue Magazine, 1919)

The Paris Victory Parade celebrating the end of the 1914 – 1918 war was a long awaited and much anticipated fashion event and Mme. Parisienne was not going to miss it for all the crepe de Chin in China. This VOGUE correspondent contrasted the Paris that existed a short time earlier, the gray, deserted Paris with the Paris of the 1919 Victory Parade and notes how eager the natives were to recreate that mirthful, light-hearted Paris of 1913 that they all remembered so well. There is a great sense of joie de vivre throughout the article, but it very rapidly becomes a laundry list concerning who-wore-what-where.

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