Dr Steven Loveridge will present a paper as part of the Stout Research Roundup Seminar Series this October. See details below:
New Zealand Society and the Outbreak of the Great War
Perhaps no aspect of the Great War draws more attention and contestation than its origins. In debates that now span a century, commentators have reviewed the events leading from an assassination at Sarajevo, to the July Crisis, to the outbreak of war. Judgements have been cast at figures, nations, political developments, economic forces and at sheer human folly. Beyond the historians, the popular images of how societies are thought to have gone to war have long been prominent touchstones within Great War mythology. Looming large are scenes of cheering crowds, enthusiastic volunteers and confident notions that the war would be ‘over by Christmas’. All seem to speak of a haunting naivety over what was to follow and to complement the sense of a war often defined by tragic irony. In recent decades, however, renewed scholarly interest has decidedly modified these older motifs, with an altogether more complex scene and range of intellectual and emotional responses emerging. This talk offers a similar reconsideration of New Zealand society and its responses to the outbreak of war in August 1914.
About the speaker: A graduate of Victoria University of Wellington, Steven has researched numerous aspects of the First World War. He is currently co-authoring the WW100 Centenary history volume on the New Zealand home front.
Date: Wednesday 10 October 2018
Time: 4.10 p.m.
Venue: Stout Research Centre Seminar Room, 12 Waiteata Road, Kelburn Campus