The Hidden Worlds of WWI by Jeff Gusky
Just over 100 years ago, one of the greatest #conflicts in human history was getting under way: the First World War. As the war ground on, bloody year after bloody year, humanity was introduced to the grim, incomprehensible realities of modern mass destruction. Indeed, the inhuman scale of death and suffering reached such calamitous proportions that the conflict became known, even before it had ended, as the “War to End All Wars.” Today, however, such a title seems bitterly ironic, foolishly idealistic: the optimism of a bygone time.
After a century, we are confronted by an absence of living witnesses—no individuals remain who might bring us closer through their experiences. Meanwhile, the few silent images that do survive from that era are hardly able to bridge the immense gap. Instead, these visual icons are abstractions of the #war itself. For example, a cemetery filled with white crosses as far as the eye can see is overwhelming, making it difficult to feel connected with the humanity of the individual subjects. This distance makes WWI feel ancient and irrelevant to our daily lives. ....
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