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Arts, Books, First World War, History

Book Review: ‘As We Were’

REVIEW

Devastating Accounts Of The Great War – Image: Imperial War Museum

Intro: In some of the most raw, shattering accounts of the Great War, soldiers, medics, and those left to grieve tell visceral stories in heartbreaking letters, diaries and memoirs

ONE

PRIVATE PEARSON of the Leeds Pals, a World War I battalion, recruited from the Yorkshire city, wrote: “We were two years in the making and ten minutes in the destroying.” He was referring to the horrors of July 1, 1916, the first day on the Somme.

“For some reason nothing seemed to happen to us at first,” recalled Private Slater who was from another “Pals” battalion, the 2nd Bradford. “We strolled along as though walking in a park.

“Then, suddenly, we were in the midst of a storm of machine-gun bullets, and I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways as they were hit.”

By the time both men went over the top and into a hail of German gunfire, the war had already lasted nearly two years.

Famously, men in Britain had thought it would all be over by December. The German Kaiser had been even more optimistic. “You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees,” he had told his troops. In reality, the war was to last until November 1918 – the most devastating conflict the world had yet seen.

Exactly 100 years after the Great War began, the historian David Hargreaves, with his researcher Margaret-Louise O’Keeffe, launched a series of weekly articles in an online magazine. Each one recounted the events of that week a century before, from all differing points of view.

They ran for four years until November 2018, marking the Centenary anniversary of the Armistice. Now they have been gathered together in this extraordinary work.

In four volumes covering more than 2,000 pages, Hargreaves chronicles the war in remarkable fine detail.

TWO

MUCH is told through the first-hand testimony – soldiers of all ranks and nationalities, nurses, politicians and civilians on the Home Front – from private letters, diaries and memoirs.

His testimonial witnesses responded to what they experienced in myriad different ways. Some were simply horrified. “I have been living through days that defy imagination,” a German soldier wrote home. “I should never have thought that men could stand it.”

By contrast the upper-class British officer Julian Grenfell admitted to rather relishing the war. “It is all the best fun,” he wrote. “I have never felt so well, or so happy, or enjoyed anything so much.”

There is no doubting the unbelievable suffering the war inflicted on individuals. Some of the accounts Hargreaves includes are almost too distressing to read. “Everywhere there were distended bodies that your feet sank into,” noted a French soldier at the Battle of Verdun, a ghastly horror show that lasted for much of 1916. “The stench of death hung over the jumble of decaying corpses like some hellish perfume.”

A German officer was nauseated by “the most gruesome devastation” around him. “Dead and wounded soldiers, dead and dying animals, horse cadavers, burnt-out houses, dug-up fields, cars, clothes… a real mess. I didn’t think the war would be like this.”

Some of the most hideous sights were inflicted on those tending the wounded. Mairi Chisholm, working as a nurse near Ypres, witnessed “men with their jaws blown off, arms and legs mutilated” and “horrified at the suffering”, wondered how she could bear to continue her work. Somehow medics had to accustom themselves to the horror. “One eats, one drinks beside the dead,” a French surgeon noted. “One sleeps in the midst of the dying, one laughs and one sings in the company of corpses.”

Meanwhile, means were found to increase the number of those corpses. Aircraft were used for the first time to terrify the enemy. “The air fills with a strange whistling,” a German infantryman wrote in September 1914, “followed by a violent explosion.” It was a French plane dropping bombs and no one knew how to deal with “this monster of the skies”.

Later bombing raids brought death to Britain, Zeppelins were seen over London. “Great booming sounds shake the city,” one man reported. Journalist Michael MacDonagh saw an airship shot down, “a gigantic pyramid of flames, red and orange, like a ruined star falling slowly to earth.”

In the trenches of the Western Front, gas became a new terror. Private Quinton witnessed its effects. “The men came tumbling out from the front line,” he wrote. “I’ve never seen men so terror-stricken; they were tearing at their throats and their eyes were glaring out.” Nurse Edith Appleton tended to some of the victims. “The poor things are blue and gasping, lungs full of fluid, and not able to cough it up.”

THREE

A COUPLE of years later, the tank made its debut. “It was marvellous,” according to one British soldier. “That tank went on rolling and bobbing and swaying in and out of shell-holes, climbing over trees as easy as kiss-your-hand! We were awed!”

Amid all the misery of war, Hargreaves highlights the occasional lighter moment. There was the “champion clog dancer of the world” who requested exemption from conscription so he could concentrate on his dancing. And the man who claimed such terrible “sexual starvation” that he just had to be given leave to visit the brothels of Paris.

Yet the suffering continued, month after month. “When will this grim butchery of unfledged boys, German and English, end?” an army chaplain asked despairingly in August 1918.

By that time, the end was in sight: German armies were in retreat, Germany was in chaos. On November 9, the Kaiser abdicated. Two days later the Armistice was signed. For some, the moment was almost anti-climactic.

“I had been out since 1914,” one British veteran wrote. “I should have been happy. I was sad. I thought of the slaughter, the hardships, the waste and the friends I had lost.” As Hargreaves wryly notes, civilians tended to celebrate more noisily than those in uniform.

With the fighting concluded, it was time to take stock. “It seems to me,” Vera Brittain wrote to her mother in 1916, “that the war will make a big division of ‘before’ and ‘after’ in the history of the world, almost if not quite as big as the BC and AD division.” It’s hard to argue she was exaggerating.

World War I still looms large in our imaginations today. These astonishing volumes place its reality before us with exceptional clarity. Few will choose to read them from cover to cover but, with careful examination week by week, they give new and moving insights into what was meant to be “the war to end all wars”.

‘As We Were’ by David Hargreaves and Margaret-Louise O’Keeffe is published by Whitefox, 2,288pp

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Arts, History, Philosophy

Philosophy: Seneca

VIRTUE AND REASON

“Virtue is nothing else than right reason.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC – AD 65)

SENECA THE YOUNGER was a Roman philosopher, statesman, playwright and orator, widely considered to be one of the Roman Empire’s most influential intellectuals of the Silver Age of Latin literature. Born into a wealthy family in Cordoba, Spain, Seneca travelled to Rome as a small boy with his aunt to be instructed in philosophy and rhetoric. Whilst in Rome, Seneca was introduced to the Hellenistic Stoic School of Philosophy preached by Attalus.

The Stoic School had been founded in Athens, Greece, three centuries prior to Seneca’s birth by Antisthenes, a student of Socrates. The Stoics’ many areas of philosophical inquiry centred on questions of ethics and virtue, logic and natural law. At the centre of Stoic teachings lies the principle that human goodness is contained within the soul, which is nurtured by knowledge, reason, wisdom and restraint. As virtue was considered to be the correct pathway to happiness, the virtuous could not be harmed by misfortune and were considered morally incorruptible. Therefore, “virtue is nothing else but right reason”. 

To reach a state of virtue and oneness with nature it was necessary to train the mind to become clear of destructive thoughts and feelings that cloud judgement. The four fundamental virtues of the Stoic philosophy are wisdom, courage, justice and temperance, a classical arrangement outlined in the works of Plato. In opposition to these virtues stand the “passions”, namely negative emotions such as hate, fear, pain, anger, envy and jealousy. For the Stoics, the universe and everything contained within it is governed by a natural law of universal reason (or Logos). Logos – or fate – acts upon passive matter in the universe, including the human soul, which was considered part of this passive matter and therefore subject to natural law. The path to a virtuous and righteous life, at one with nature, was to accept with calmness and self-control the perils and pitfalls that fate determines. Suffering is to be endured, accepted, and regarded as a test of an individual’s virtues.

Seneca himself certainly suffered a good deal of misfortune. Rising rapidly through the ranks of Rome’s volatile senate, Seneca was initially in favour as a council to the Emperor Caligula. However, following a sex scandal involving Caligula’s sister Julia, Seneca was banished to Corsica by Caligula’s successor, Claudius. During his time in exile, Seneca wrote his Consolations – a series of philosophical essays and letters outlining the principles of Stoicism. 

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Arts, Health, Life, Psychology

Understanding well-being

WELLBEING

Podcast: This entry is available on audio

THE phrase, “state of well-being” is often loosely bandied about, but what does this phrase actually mean? It is a rather nebulous phrase, which many interpret as synonymous with welfare or level of happiness, state of physical or mental health or degree of satisfaction with life.

Perhaps all these factors do form part of what we mean by this term, but not necessarily so. For example, let us speculate upon Andrea Bocelli, the renowned Italian tenor who became blind at the age of twelve. Must his level of positive well-being be significantly compromised because of his physical infirmity? There is every possibility that Bocelli might enjoy an extremely high level of positive well-being despite his lack of sight, since estimation of one’s well being is a highly subjective phenomenon.

As the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry perspicaciously implies in a 1943 story entitled, Le Petit Prince, it is what we think of ourselves that counts and determines our state of well-being. However, what we think of ourselves, for good or ill, can be greatly influenced by what others think of us:

I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself.

Objective measures of well-being

We can attempt to measure welfare or well-being in accordance with objective measures, such as where a person may be located on various scales – be they economic, social, psychological, physical or even spiritual – but none of these actually capture the reality of well-being as experienced by the individual.

Practitioners often come into contact with many people who ostensibly have no business not to enjoy high levels of positive well-being, status, good health, loving relationships, interesting careers and so much more. And yet, such people are known to suffer from depression, anger, addictions, eating disorders and anxiety, as well as other mental health afflictions. Clearly, then, objective measures alone do not provide an accurate assessment for an individual’s state of well-being.

Positive well-being is about meeting our expectations

It is generally accepted that being adequately fed, watered, housed and exercised, along with being gainfully employed and well-educated, as well as having good physical health, are all components that facilitate positive well-being, but they are far from the whole story.

Well-being is primarily concerned with the degree to which our expectations, dreams and aspirations are met, and these are totally unique to each individual. Many of our attitudes are a direct result of our “nurturing” and this, along with our own aptitudes and personality – our “nature” – mingle together to form ideals of what success looks like for each of us.

Culture influences our sense of well-being

Depending upon our cultural heritage we might favour a collective or individualistic approach to life (or maybe a combination of the two), and this will colour our estimation of personal well-being. In a strictly collectivist society, blending into the group and not drawing attention to oneself generates feelings of acceptance, belonging and comfort. Even if the price paid is conceding to a high degree of conformity to group expectations, this will still work towards affording a sense of positive well-being for the majority who have been socialised in this manner.

We are not all equally malleable in continuing to society’s conventions

There are mavericks in every society, where the personal imperative outstrips that of the social; these highly autonomous individuals buck the trend and follow their own course of action, often at their own peril. Not to follow their own star would lead to considerable inner conflict and result in a state of negative well-being. Many of this ilk find themselves “damned if they do and damned if they don’t” in subscribing to normative behaviour.

These people, by not conforming, invite society’s disapproval or, by conceding to society’s expectations, they feel that they have not been true to themselves and experience dissonance. Dissonance is a state of mental conflict when you experience contradictory emotions and beliefs. In the not-too-distant-past, working women who wished to pursue their career after having children faced this dilemma.

Individualistic society

In fiercely individualistic societies, being indistinguishable from the pack tends to promote negative well-being, since leadership, power and talent differentiate an individual from the herd, attracting kudos and admiration. Individualistic socialisation demands that we stand out from the crowd if we are to feel good about ourselves and enjoy positive well-being. This pressure can be seen in cultures that emphasise educational attainment, and prestigious institutions can foster individualism to an even higher level.

Collectivist vs. individualistic

The powerful impact of nurturing and socialisation, resulting in the inculcation of society’s expectations, mores and values, can be seen in the contrast between collectivist and individualistic societies. Public shame has a far greater negative impact on well-being in Japan, a collectivist society, than it has in contemporary Europe, which favours a more individualistic approach. One only has to look at the number of disgraced European officials who have bounced back into public life, subsequent to their humiliation and ruination. In contrast, a number of Japanese politicians and business leaders have accepted personal responsibility for their government’s or organisation’s shortcomings in the last decade, often resigning their positions. Today, in European society, people tolerate a variety of responses. Some applaud the manifestation of honour and integrity which resignation signals, while others praise the resilience of those who insist upon remaining in post.

The important thing to keep in mind is that societal attitudes are constantly changing and evolving. Many people do get stuck in a time warp and hold on to childish perceptions about themselves and feelings, such as shame, which negatively impact their well-being. It is advisable to constantly reassess your perceptions of experiences and work out if the view you are holding is in line with your current values and beliefs. Often when you go through this process you will recognise that you are carrying parental, peer or societal attitudes that are not in tune with your own moral compass, and which therefore need to be updated.

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