Visitors to the battlefields of France and Belgium expressed pain and
anguish, pride and nostalgia, and wonder and surprise at what they saw.
Postcards from the Western Front chronicles the many ways in which these
sites were perceived and commemorated by British people, both during the
First World War and in the twenty years following the Armistice.Mark
Connelly's definitive and engaging study of the former Western Front
examines how different and distinctive sub-communities - regional,
ethnic and religious, civilian and armed forces - influenced the depth
and strength of the visiting public's relationship with the
battlefields, all the while comparing and contrasting this relationship
with the viewpoint of the French and Belgian inhabitants of the
devastated regions. Connelly draws from a vast archive a number of
interlocking themes, including the lingering presence of the
battlefields in the British domestic imagination, the often fraught
experience of visiting the battlefields, memorials and cemeteries
functioning as part of a historical testimony to wartime realities, and
the interactions between visitors and the people living in these former
fighting zones. Focusing on French and Belgian sites, Connelly
nevertheless provides insight into other major battlefields fought over
by troops from the British Empire. Extensively illustrated with black
and white photographs, Postcards from the Western Front offers a
groundbreaking perspective on landscapes that rarely left anyone -
whether tourist, inhabitant, veteran, or pilgrim - unmoved.
