1The Open University Engagement with the Past: The Lives and Works of the World War II Generation of Historians WilliamPalmer Lexington, KY/LondonKentucky U.P. 2001xvii + 372$32
The Great War was the war of a thousand legacies. in novels and paintings it is fairly easy to discern the impact of the war on their content and philosophy; establishing transformations, if any, in style and language is less straight-forward. In studying Le Feu by Henri Barbusse and the wartime paintings (principally La Partie de cartes) by Fernand Leger, we have the invaluable assistance of letters written by both men during their war service, the notes scribbled by Barbusse, and the drawings made by Lege. If we include, as we must, the massive postwar paintings of Leger, we can see that out of this was experiences he developed his experimental pre-war Cubism into a confident complex Modernism (analogous transformations took place among other leading artists), while Barbusse created the new genre of the novel of total war.
Journal Article Meanings of Modernity: Britain from the Late‐Victorian Era to World War II Get access Arthur Marwick Arthur Marwick Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume 117, Issue 473, September 2002, Pages 1040–1041, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/117.473.1040 Published: 01 September 2002
1The Open University Les Années 1968: Le temps de la contestation GenevièveDreyfus‐Armand BrusselsÉditions Complexe 2000525F 189
Matthew Hilton. Smoking in British Popular Culture 1800–2000: Perfect Pleasures. (Studies in Popular Culture.) Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist. by Palgrave, New York, N.Y. 2000. Pp. xvi, 284. $74.95. ISBN 0-7190-5256-4. - Volume 34 Issue 2
1The Open University Dynamische Zeiten: Die 60er Jahre in den beiden Deutschen Gesellschaften AxelSchildtDetlefSiegfriedKarl ChristianLammers HamburgChristians 2000831€ 42
Knowledge is not, as Marxisant post-modernists insist, mere ideology or expression of bourgeois power. The high standards enjoyed in the developed countries are fundamentally due to the expansion in human knowledge over the centuries. Decent living conditions, freedom and empowerment for the deprived millions everywhere depend upon the continuing expansion, and, above all, diffusion of knowledge. History is but one domain of knowledge among many, with its own autonomous methods and principles; though very different in detail, these are in spirit similar to those governing the natural sciences. There is a fundamental distinction between the domains of knowledge and the creative arts. 'Language' has a number of significations. In the most fundamental one, it is a human faculty which enables us to communicate, but which raises many problems for historians; none the less language does not control us: we can control language. Usages in foreign languages can often be revealing, while scientists have to master a special language, mathematics. Historians should be aware of other disciplines, and ready to borrow from them. There are many fascinating interdisciplinary problems to which historians can contribute, but these do not call for abstruse cultural theory; what they do call for is an extra-cool application of historical methodology. a case in point is that of the possible relationship between total war and the arts. Does total war affect artistic language or just content and philosophy?
