Was the public misled about conditions in the Trenches?

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HISTORY COURCEWORK

ASSIGNMENT B: OBJECTIVE 3.

WAS THE PUBLIC MISLED ABOUT CONDITIONS IN

TRENCHES?

Q1. First of all source A and B was obviously published before 1916, because conscription was put into action in 1916. So these posters would not have been needed if conscription were introduced. Conscription was a law brought out in 1916 and it was a law which made healthy men between 18 – 41 have to join up to the army even if they didn’t want to. I could also back up my answer to say sources A and B were published before 1916 Because as you can see clearly see source C is an American recruiting poster .The poster shows a gorilla representing Germany (as you can tell from the German war hat it is wearing) steeling the statue of Liberty. This basically shows that Germany is at war with America and America only joined the war in 1917. So the poster in source C wouldn’t have been needed before 1917 because America weren’t at war with anyone.  

Q2. First of all sources A and B are similar because they are both making men imparticular join the army. Both the posters are doing this by toying with your emotions. For example source A shows an image of an old lady which looks like your average image of your Grandma or Granny with the words,

GO!  “It’s your duty lad” JOIN TO-DAY.

Notice how the words are aimed at you as an individual, this is to put pressure on you and put you on the spot. I think this is toying with your emotions by it makes you feel as if you should be out fighting, protecting your family, in this case your Grandma. Another reason why it could be toying with your emotions is your Grandma could have passed away and you might think of her and think to your self that if you go you might make her and the rest of your family very proud of you and become a hero. Source B also toys with your emotions but in a slightly different way. It shows an average middle class man with a stern face looking to be thinking of something. He has two children a boy and a girl and the girl is sat on the man’s knee looking at him and the words at the bottom of the poster are

“Daddy what did YOU do in the Great War?”

Notice how the poster again is aimed at you as an individual just like in source A and notice again like in source A it is a female who is provoking you. This is probably because at this time females were the weaker race and it would be humiliating to be brought down by a female, or even look afraid from a comment by one. This was because men at this time had to look big, strong and dominating because that was there manly nature. Other things which mach sources A and B together are the British government published both the posters to provoke men to join the British army. This comes to the conclusion why source C isn’t matched with sources A or B. the reasons are the dates are different as explained in Q1. It is also an American recruiting published b y the American Government and it is not toying with your emotions as much. It is aimed more at to make you hate the Germans but it still uses the factor of a female to provoke you to join the army.

Q3. Source A and B could have maybe been successful in provoking men to join the army. As you can see by the picture in source D there seems to be a lot of men waiting to collect their pay. But can the photograph be reliable? I think the photograph could maybe be reliable. But it could have been made a fix by the British government. By they could have taken the picture in a place i.e. London were it is taken because that is where most people are collecting there pay eventhough in most other place there will be a lot less people. They might have made it look like this to make more men join because the men who haven’t joined may think they are abit left out. Also they might be afraid that they might get called a chicken so they would loose their manly pride. Another reason why it maybe wasn’t the posters which made men join the army is it doesn’t tell us the date on the photo. So how do we know if it is 1916 or past it because conscription could of already been put into action when the photo was taken. So all the men on the photo might not be joining because of the posters they have seen. They might be joining because they have to or have been made to by law. So I think eventhough source D is a photograph it doesn’t 100% prove that sources A and B made these specific men in the photograph join the army.

Join now!

Q4. I think the government issued postcards like the one in source E because obviously the British army was loosing masses of troops every day to the German army. But back over in England normal citizens didn’t really know much about the war and what was going on, all they really knew was that Britain were winning the war even when in some cases they weren’t. People got the idea that Britain were winning the war from the government because at this time they had taken over all newspaper companies and mainly anything to do with the war ...

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