Why the First World War still matters—100 years later

Dr. Chandar S. Sundaram, a military historian and expert of the colonial and modern military history of India who teaches in UVic’s Division of Continuing Studies, and Dr. Matt Pollard, assistant teaching professor and academic program coordinator in UVic’s Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, are co-organizing an Oct. 2 evening lecture and Oct. 3 full-day conference on WWI. See details below.

Submitted by Chandar S. Sundaram and Matt Pollard

Having moved to Victoria from teaching and researching abroad in 2011, I was struck by the imposing sight of the Bay Street Armoury, with the date “1915” emblazoned on its wall. For a military historian, I believed that this would be a perfect venue for a conference on the Great War, whose centenary was approaching.

Having met Matt through a mutual friend over a year ago, I soon realized our common interest in the tumultuous history of the twentieth century. Matt went to a school whose founder, R.V. Harvey, died of his wounds at the front; his letter to the school was read every Remembrance Day. His friend’s grandfather remembers witnessing a piano being pushed off the roof of the Hotel Kaiserhof (now a youth hostel) during the anti-German riots following the sinking of the Lusitania.

Matt’s students study how the experience Western Front had a shattering effect on German artists and writers, and how 1914 saw an unprecedented use and abuse of the “mad” philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on both sides. My research examines the military history of the colonial Indian Army; with regard to the First World War, I am interested in how the Indian Corps arrived in the “nick of time” in France to prevent a German breakthrough at the first battle of Ypres in 1914.

The First World War not only redrew the borders of Europe and the Middle East, and killed millions of soldiers and civilians, it also affected everyone in one way or another. Such traces exist not only in local landmarks and memorials, but in family histories, heirlooms, letters, photos and other artifacts.

Do you want to know more about what life was like in Victoria during the war? Another topic will be the literary and cultural aspects (the mind of the war, if you like), focusing on W.B. Yeats’ war poetry and British and American imaginings of Nietzsche. And how did Canadian women negotiate the conflict between pacifism, women’s rights and patriotism?

The First World War was also a conflict which saw Sepoys from India fighting on the Western Front, Australians fighting in Gallipoli, a British officer leading Bedouin Arabs, British expatriates in Canada “flocking to the colours” and Ukrainians caught somewhere in the middle.

The conference wraps up with a roundtable discussion of some of the current debates surrounding the First World War—the “Great War to End All Wars” which some say never really ended—in which we will examine and discuss not just what is remembered about the war, but also how it is to be remembered.

The year 2014 is good timing to commemorate not only the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War, but also to shed light on its forgotten fronts as well as local stories which still need telling.

Event details

The two events are hosted by UVic’s Faculty of Humanities (Dept. of Germanic and Slavic Studies, Dept. of History), with sponsorship from UVic’s Centre for Global Studies and other partners, and are open and free to all:

• Lansdowne Lecture at UVic on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. by prolific scholar Dr. Michael S. Neiberg from Pennsylvania, USA entitled “New Looks at an Old Problem: Why 1914 Matters Today”
• Full-day conference at Bay Street Armoury on Oct. 3 called First World War: Transnational, Local and Interdisciplinary Perspectives to explore what the First World War means to us now, the global intersections of the war, what it was like to live in Victoria during the war, as well as various literary and cultural aspects of that time.

There is no charge for admission, but seating is limited so please plan to arrive early.

Event details: tinyurl.com/WorldWarOneUVic