Discuss_the_View_That_the_First_World_War_'Politcs_of_Hate_Was_Mass_Politics

The politics of hate was mass politics. From the moment the First World War began, it was different from pervious wars. Wars which had taking place in the years before hand usually comprised of a king versus king, with professional armies. However the Great War was not professional, the majority of its armies were made up of lay men volunteers. This called for a mass publishing phenomenon in order to replenish the armies and to create enthusiasm amongst the lay people to recruit to the army. This ‘mass publishing’ became commonly known as propaganda. An example of propaganda is advertisements or posters stating that if your family had an able bodied man who didn’t go to war , then your family was personally pre-longing the war and was a burden to the their community and country. An obvious distortion of the facts, made up of exaggeration and lies. Also at the very beginning of the war all parties involved began publishing their own accounts of how the conflict had been caused. They did this because the issue of responsibility for the war was a major element in the propaganda battle, as neutral opinion had to be won over. For example in the early days of the Great War countries such as Bulgaria and Romania had not yet committed themselves to be allies, a search that was preoccupying the chancellors of both sides at this point and well into 1916. State propaganda during wartime however is only part of the story. As Jay Winter states “the propaganda efforts of both sides stretched from atrocity stories to barbaric caricatures to children’s tales to outright lies”. In a New York article on toys they explore the fact that the sale of toy guns and soldiers had increased from 3-5million and had become best sellers, as a result of the war. Young boys in particular found great delight in acting out their desires for the war. However, propaganda was in every home during the war, as much visual as verbal and children were very much exposed to this. And it was effective. Children watched their brave fathers go off to war and maybe not come back. They played with their little pop guns and soldier figures. They saw posters and heard sermons of how evil the opposing party was and how we have to stop them. So as the true realities of war became apparent, their enthusiasm for war quickly dwindled. Soon small innocent minds became filled with hatred for the enemy and they waited “for the time when they could wreak vengeance on the enemy”. In all combatant countries during the war propaganda was used to build up stereotypes of opposing countries. It also implanted in the public’s mind certain emotions towards different nations. The powers of above then played on their people’s emotions of hatred and envy to bring on and moralise the war. Examples of such stereotyping are the “images of the bloated ‘Prussian Ogre’...The beastly Hun, busily crucifying soldiers, violating women and looting churches”. These images were continually brought to mind by allied propagandists during the war. The stereotype of the animal like Hun in Britain and the French stereotype of the Boche soon became the perception the public had of the enemy. It is so, because the allied propagandists had firmly implanted these images and opinions in to the public’s mind. This is evident in a ‘Letter from a French girl’ even in her tender youth she is able to tell us of the “ferocious enemy” invading her town. And vice versa, the German invader refers to the French as “assassins” and says that they “ought to be satisfied “as it was them (the French) who had brought on the war. This shows how both adults and children had been brain-washed with these stereotypes. These images and opinions quickly became settled into daily life as a normal set of thoughts or events. The French scholars called it the banalization of war. Another example of allied propaganda being successful comes in the form of the ‘Chant of Hate’ by Ernest Lissauer, a simple German writer who was convinced that the war was England’s fault. Due to propaganda surrounding him, in his house and in his town, continually telling him England are to blame. Ernest was so full of hate for England he wrote and published a hate chant, to contribute towards the war effort. The chorus sang “we have one foe only and one alone - England”. However the propaganda efforts didn’t always work, which is evident in the child’s view from ‘the peace movement between the wars’ as a German man refers to Lissauers chant as “un-Christian”. His daughter also takes on his point of view, as she shows concern towards her little Belgium friend, to who see writes by saying England “can’t be all bad”... if they entered the war to help little Belgium”. Only as the war continued did the government start to extend its grip on propaganda and the public's opinion and on many other aspects of society. It soon became very clear that the government created the majority of the public’s opinion. Propaganda during the war effort was very much political, and driven from the powers of above. However it worked as they drew on posters, postcards and broadcasts from below (the general public) in search of consent and support. And they got it. As Jay Winter explains, “The Great War spawned the most spectacular advertising campaign to date. Its product was the justification of war”. -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Winter in Strachan, First World War, p.218. [ 2 ]. Winter in Strachan, First World War, p.219. [ 3 ]. M.L Sanders & Philip M. Taylor, British propaganda during the First World War, pp.138 -163 [ 4 ]. Coetzee & Shevin – Coetzee (eds.), World War One. A history in documents, pp. 53 - 55 [ 5 ]. Coetzee & Shevin – Coetzee (eds.), World War One. A history in documents, pp. 53 - 55 [ 6 ]. Coetzee & Shevin – Coetzee (eds.), World War One. A history in documents, pp. 53 - 55 [ 7 ]. Coetzee & Shevin – Coetzee (eds.), World War One and European society. [ 8 ]. Solzbacher, Peace Movements Between the wars, pp.16 -17. [ 9 ]. Solzbacher, Peace Movements Between the wars, pp.16 – 17. [ 10 ]. Winter in Strachan, First World War, p216.