Depictions and Images of War in Edwardian Newspapers, 1899-1914 [Hardcover]

Through a detailed examination of newspaper coverage from 1899-1914, this book seeks to understand the vicarious experience of warfare held by Edwardians at the outset of the First World War. The attitudes towards and perceptions of war held by those who participated in it or encouraged others to do so, are crucial to our understanding of the origins of the First World War. Taking into account media history, cultural studies and military history, Wilkinson argues that the press depicted war as distant and safe; beneficial and desirable and even as some kind of sport or game. We are cautioned to avoid the same misconceptions of war in our own contemporary discussions of armed conflict.List of Figures Preface Acknowledgements They Were Taught To Howl: Introduction Uncouth, Unkempt Barbarians: The Depiction of Belligerents The Woof and Warp of the Web of Life: The Depiction of the Use of Force The Great Game of War: The Image of War as Sport and Hunting This Wonderfully Lovely Theatre of War: The Imagery of Stage and Spectacle A Withering Fire that Mowed Them Down in Heaps: Images of Death and Wounding Conclusion: The Blessings of War Index

'[It] explores the images of soldiers and of warfare prevalent in British newspapers before the First World War. It is a sobering account of a society blind to the chaotic waste and suffering of military conflict, which is rendered more poignant by current events, and by Glenn R. Wilkinson's observation that today we too possess a woefully unrealistic image of warfare...How did this blindness come about? Wilkinson is too sophisticated to regard it as forced upon Edwardian society, rejecting notions of propaganda, and observing that commercial mass-circulation newspapers cannot achieve such results without the willing consent of readers...This monograph - conceived in the aftermath of the Gulf War, and completed in the shadow of the September 11 attacks - suggests instead that the Edwardians gazed too long at war and considerlÌ