The Home Front

In Evelyn Blücher's "The Home Front" was an unbiased and very true account of the struggles experienced by the people away from the battle. It is a good source because it touches on all the problems: from scarcity of food and fuel, to the seemingly ridiculous and sad ways the government gets scrap metal for soldiers, like taking away the church bell or forcing children to collect it. We also know that Blücher was unbiased, because she was merely observing from the outside. She was well-off, and did not experience the conditions as harshly as some of the peasants did. Had the passage been written by a peasant, the conditions might have been exaggerated to seem worse than actually were. However, we know these were the actual conditions, and they are still really bad.

This relates to nationalism because it shows how far the citizens will go to support their country. Even if there are forced against their will to give these things up, the act of doing so will put the idea of nationalism in their heads. If I were a citizen forced to grow my own vegetables and cook with rationed food, the whole time I was doing it I would be thinking to myself "I'm doing this to help our soldiers fight in the war." Nationalism was engrained in these citizen's minds because of the sacrifices they had to make to support their country.