Word of the Day
Cockade (n., kah-CADE)
A knot of ribbons typically worn on a hat. Often seen on old military hats.
Gif of the Day
FlowersPoppiesTight focusHillsidesFlanders Fields?
Link of the Day
A hundred years after the Armistice
At last, the high command in Spa radioed its approval, and, early on the morning of November 11, 1918, the delegates signed the agreement known as the Armistice. There were no handshakes. The Armistice took effect at 11 a.m. At that moment, the Times correspondent Edwin L. James wrote from the front, “four years’ killing and massacre stopped, as if God had swept His omnipotent finger across the scene of world carnage and cried, ‘Enough!’ ”
World War I ended 100 years ago yesterday. It's a war we struggle to wrestle with. It lacks the scope and dynamism of World War II's moving chess pieces, the clear "response to atrocity" that we look to with the Holocaust, and it didn't end with a victory as much as an exhausted surrender. Months of battling over the same feet and inches. Horrors of chemical warfare. Alliances leading to standoffs. A hundred years later, we can see it clearly, but do we know what to do with it?
I don't quite know what to put here this year. A couple years ago, we featured a beautiful art installation of poppies; that would've been ideal for us. Instead, we're going to post a number of links to pieces that touch on the war. You don't have to read them all. Read a couple, then think about them.
First, a note about this photo: it appears to be Photoshopped to show the scale of the war, not a re-posed photograph.
"This has got to be one of the most powerful photographs I have ever seen. Above is a battalion of the Cameron Highlanders in 1914, prior to being despatched to the front line; below is the same battalion upon their return in 1918 after the armistice. "
— DDS. (@hampson_d) November 11, 2018
Gerry Burns fb page. pic.twitter.com/1aL6ZdD4ug
The New Yorker covers A Hundred Years After The Armistice.
A MetaFilter thread catalogs the ways the War didn't end or that its effects stretched far, far into the future.
The Wall Street Journal covered 100 Legacies from World War I. Some interesting items in there.
The FirstWorldWar.com site has a number of diaries. Edwin Jones' diary is a good place to start.
Back in 1998, the BBC did a terrific World War I tribute site. The five letters home from the soldiers are especially good.
Finally, at In Focus, Alan Taylor looks at the battlefields years later.
WarWorld War IArmistice DayFrom the frontlinesFar from homeGone, but not forgotten?