Talk of the Town

The take away point from Evelyn Blücher's "The Home Front" was how devastating the effects from the Great War were on the home front, away from the battle field. Everything useful went to the war. For example, the military took a 300 year old church bell away from a small town. Why does the military need an sentimentally precious old church bell? Good question. By taking away this bell, the military was taking away the people customs, and drastically changing their daily life. Since the whole town was attached to "their ancient friend," they held a funeral service of sorts for it when it left. A procession, headed by a priest and followed by the people, was formed to say goodbye. Many tears were shed. Besides having their customs changed, they also were suffering from malnutrition. There were huge lacks of food, and people were going hungry and using up their rations. They question of food is "always the most important topic of the day." Everybody was put to work for the war. Even young children were set to work "plucking and collecting." Besides food, lighting was also scarce. There was no petroleum or methylated for the people, and electric lights were limited. Besides having many downsides, the war caused people to be more resourceful. They were using everything they could, and finding new ways to be productive. The things they produced could not be used for eating and cooking however. This is just another factor of the war. Although nobody was bloodily killed in the streets, World War 1 significantly affected the population away from the battle action.

Nationalism is shown in a different light. At the beginning of the war, everybody was excited and nationalism was thriving. Since total war was declared, people on the home front were suffering as well as the soldiers fighting. Basically, nobody was happy. People were too worried about their health and well being to think about nationalism. Throughout the Great War, nationalism went from the talk of the town to an unwanted topic.