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Articles on WWI

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Cover of the menu for the AIF Christmas Dinner, Hotel Cecil, London, in 1916. Illustration by Fred Leist. Museums Victoria collection, donated by Jean Bourke

What Australian soldiers ate for Christmas in WWI

For Australians serving overseas in WWI, Christmas was particularly difficult. Menus reveal how soldiers tried to maintain the traditions of home.
A scholar takes a pilgrimage of the Western Front to try to comprehend the loss of lives of the First World War. Here British soldiers in a battlefield trench, c. 1915-1918. Shutterstock

An infinity of waste – the brutal reality of the First World War

From the Swiss border to the English channel, a scholar describes his pilgrimage of the Western Front as a tribute to fallen soldiers and to learn more about the devastating loss of life.
Understanding the first world war is an exercise in comprehending the depth of human commitment to destruction, violence and resilience at a scale never experienced before 1914. BNF France

World politics explainer: The Great War (WWI)

More than 16 million people lost their lives in world war one. Over a century later, we are still asking – for what?
The Blyth Spartans team of 1917, including Bella Reay (front row, centre) who scored a hat-trick in the Munitionettes Cup. Yvonne Crawford

The Great War’s hidden stories reveal heroism and tragedy in equal measure

A top class female footballer and tragic young soldier who was shot for ‘desertion’ despite fighting in some of WW1’s bloodiest battle fields are two hidden stories of The Great War.
Poppies at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. katatrix/shuttershock.com

Flowers, remembrance and the art of war

The wildflowers that WWI soldiers encountered in Europe become symbols of remembrance and the fragility of life. The red poppy in particular is a powerful motif in Australian war art and photography.
The Navy converted to oil from coal a few years before the U.S. entered World War I, helping to solidify petroleum’s strategic status. Naval History and Heritage Command

How World War I ushered in the century of oil

Before World War I, petroleum had few practical uses, but it emerged from the war as a strategic global asset necessary for national stability and security.
Some soldiers’ wounds in WWI were more mental than physical. George Metcalf Archival Collection

From shell-shock to PTSD, a century of invisible war trauma

Mental health trauma has always been a part of war. Treatments have come a long way over the last century, but we still don’t understand why the responses change for different people and times.
Modern high school students are learning two very different approaches to World War I. Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com

How should World War I be taught in American schools?

High school students in America learn two very different perspectives on World War I in their U.S. and world history classes. But which of these competing viewpoints should take center stage?

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