Gettysburg and the Great War

Fifty years after the conclusion of the Civil War, the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania faced the challenge of another war. From 1914 to 1917, the townspeople followed events in Europe closely, becoming vehement supporters of the American entry into the war by April 1917. In 1918, the Gettysburg Battlefield became inundated with American soldiers for the second time in its history, as doughboys trained for overseas service on the site of Pickett’s Charge. This paper considers the way the town of Gettysburg reacted to and mobilized for the First World War. It explores the notion of a ‘forgotten’ American war in a place that is perpetually haunted by war memories.     

Spiritualism after the Great War

British Spiritualism has attracted a good deal of historicalcomment, but most scholars assume that popular interest in themovement had faded by the close of the First World War. Thisarticle examines Spiritualism and the culture in which it flourishedbetween the wars and in doing so challenges the assumption thatbelief in the supernatural was thoroughly displaced by science-basedsecularism in the twentieth century. Spiritualist egalitarianismreflected and responded to the increasingly democratic valuesof the twentieth century, but more important for Spiritualism'ssuccess was its ability to incorporate a variety of existingsupernatural concepts into its developing and flexible cosmology.The many ways in which traditional supernatural beliefs penetratedeveryday language supplied simultaneously a rich resource forSpiritualist thought and a setting where conversion to Spiritualismcould feel natural and even inevitable.     

The Singing War: Canadian Soldiers' Songs of the Great War

Singing was an important leisure activity for Canadian soldiers serving overseas in the Great War. Soldiers sang popular songs of the day and religious hymns, while also parodying them to better suit their wartime experience. Singing was a group activity that brought men together, forged bonds of comradeship, reinforced belonging in the group, and helped the soldiers endure the strain of unending combat and service. Wartime songs reveal the culture from below and shed new light on the soldiers' experience.