La Grande guerre: une histoire culturelle

This volume has the aim of highlighting the results of current research and of promoting the appropriation of these results by a wider public. The themes chosen relate to a cultural history in every sense. Two questions are prioritized: how did the worlds of art and culture experience the Great War, behind the scenes as well as at the frontlines? And how was material culture, notably the artifacts and cultural objects, marked by this conflict? These two approaches are not clearly opposed: they are complementary and allow, by weakening different methodologies and by articulating varied scales, a better understanding of the place of the worlds of culture in the Great War. Artists, writers, journalists, musicians, scientists, athletes, and city planners participated in these wartime societies. The language of soldiers, songs, patrimonies, and “visual culture” – which materialized in diverse forms – bore the imprint of the Great War. For each cultural expression, the authors of this volume write a history which underlines the modalities of its reproduction, the forms of its circulation, and the characteristics of its reception. [translated and modified from publisher]