Propaganda in the First World War

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Propaganda in the First World War

(History Coursework)

Q1. Which source is the more useful to an historian studying the use of propaganda for recruitment in the First World War?

In the First World War Britain started with only a small scale army, however as reality soared in, the government realized that more soldiers needed to be recruited at a very fast pace therefore, propaganda was the method introduced in order to achieve this.

Source A is a novel that was written in 1961.Firstly the fact that it is a novel, proves that the source could've easily been elaborated according to the choice of the novelist.However, the date shows how by 1961 there would be a wide array of information available in order for the novelist to compose a book with and therefore, the source could be reliable. The source is also reliable in the sense that in 1914, the war was still at its early stages so; propaganda would be at its peak by this stage. I feel that the point of this extract is to simply show that by simply singing a national anthem or by expressing great gratitude and evoking content towards the ones off to war could really boost the morale of young men and to give them the inner strength and courage to want to be a part of all this victory.

Source B is a newspaper article printed in early 1915 and clearly looks like first hand evidence. The article features five brothers and their brother in law all from the same town going to war together. From my knowledge, I know that in times of war, many young men from the same family or from the same town would all sign up together. Therefore there is a high probability that this is a reliable source.

However to a historian studying propaganda, I feel that both sources are full of detail and are both useful in their different senses. Source A, is on a more personal basis as it is concentrating on one character alone who is emotionally encountering the joys and the eagerness of giving help to his country. Whereas in source B, the article is showing the historian a real piece of evidence that would've been directed at other young men to be encouraged to follow these men's examples.Hower on a realistic level, I think that to a historian perhaps Source B could be better in a sense because of its nature of having been extracted from a real life newspaper of which the local people living in the town of bath would've experienced. Still although Source A meets one on a fictional level, it is unfair to say that it is totally unreliable and would be totally useless to an historian because it really does make the reader try to share the experience of these real life volunteers.So, still it is very both difficult and unfair as to state which source is the more useful but is a lot easier to say how they complement each other and are both full of very informative facts.

Study sources C and D.
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Q2.Why do they differ about attitudes in Britain at the start of the war?

Source C,was taken from the British magazine, "Punch" in August 1914.This magazine is said to have been written for the middle classes so,therefore,this cartoon was sure to have been directed at the middle class in order to persuade them to join the army as at the moment,the majority of recruits seemed to be made up of the poor working classes.The cartoon is very anti-German so,it portrays the Germans to be very cruel and ruthless barbarians.However,being an anti-German cartoon it is sure to have ...

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