Languages and the First World War
The British Library & University of Antwerp
International Conference, 18-19-20 June 2014

The centenary of the outbreak of the First World War coincides with the fading of direct memory of the period. Few can remember the linguistic experience of wartime in the speech of those directly or indirectly involved, but the linguistic traces of combat and civilian life, in and out of war zones, remain.

The term ‘no man’s land’, for instance, came into general use in English during the First World War, referring to inhabitable areas that saw the fiercest of the fighting between the two sides of the conflict; the use of the term, many centuries earlier referring to an isolated patch of land outside the City of London, is indicative of a pattern of language-change produced by the war – by 1920 ‘Niemandsland’ was a widely used term in German. In the varied theatres of war, the home fronts, training camps, war offices, hospitals and supply trains, language shifts happened, in which the dialects and languages of the various parties involved influenced one another, and in which new language and new language use emerged through new technologies of destruction and communication.

The idea for a conference on the linguistic experience and legacy of the war arose from research into the sociolinguistics of the war (especially the Western Front) and the immediate post-war period in the UK, particularly with reference to how terms had crossed linguistic boundaries, including between hostile linguistic groups.  The conference aims to be truly international and interdisciplinary.

The conference will take place on 18, 19 & 20 June 2014.

The University of Antwerp will host the first day, and the British Library will host the third. The interim day will be for travel between the two sites, with a possible visit to In Flanders Fields Museum at Ypres arranged for the morning of 19 June. There will be a book launch and public lecture at the British Library on the evening of 19 June. Eurostar travel between the two Brussels and London only takes two hours.

Abstracts of 300 words need to be sent to [email protected] by 1 December 2013, 4pm.

Notification of acceptance will be sent on 20 th January 2014.

Papers may be given in languages other than English, with synopses available in English.

Call for Papers PDF

Sally Halper, the Social Sciences Content Development Manager, has written about a recent event on how universities can drive innovation. Read her full blog post here.

Ian Cooke, co-curator of Propaganda: Power and Persuasion provides a round-up of propaganda inspired blogs from other British Library bloggers.

One of the unexpected pleasures of curating an exhibition at the Library was receiving a limerick from our chief limericist (that’s a word, isn’t it?) Hedley Sutton. It goes like this:

A curator whose surname was Cooke

Said "I hope you will all have a look

At our new exhibition:

I've made it my mission

To cover each cranny and nook."

But of course it wasn’t a mission that I completed alone. Jude England, Head of Social Sciences and co-curator of Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, and I relied on the experience and knowledge of a very large number of people here at the British Library. The exhibition covers many countries and languages, and a lot of different formats such as bank-notes, postage stamps, film, sound, posters, leaflets etc. There’s no way we could have done this by ourselves, and the creativity and enthusiasm of our colleagues here in responding to the exhibition was one of the nicest things about putting the exhibition together.

In the exhibition, you’ll see the question, “what’s the most thought-provoking piece of propaganda that you have seen?” Answers to #blpropaganda please, and many thanks to the person who answered, ’50 shades of grey’.

I’ve written about the item in the exhibition that had the biggest impact on me. Others have written about items in the exhibition on our other British Library blog pages, and I wanted to bring them together here.

James Montgomery Flagg (artist), I want you for U.S. army. c.1917. Loan courtesy of Anthony d’Offay, London.

Starting off with the most prominent image from our exhibition, Uncle Sam has been hard to miss if you’ve visited the Library recently (or just walked past the Euston Road). Over on our Americas studies blog, Carole Holden has written about the origins of this iconic poster, and its artist, James Montgomery Flagg. It’s also served as a dramatic backdrop for photographs, such as this one of Justin Webb.

British World War Two propaganda for use in Iran, drawing on a well-known Persian epic, the Shahnameh (COI Archive PP/13/9L)

The two themes that have been most prominent are the use of propaganda to create a sense of common identity, and, conversely, the use of propaganda to define an enemy and demonise others. John O’Brien describes British plans to discredit the Quit India movement during World War Two. Another example of British wartime propaganda attempted to use the Persian epic, the Shahnameh, or ‘Book of Kings’ to present Hitler as a demonic tyrant, defeated by the heroic warriors Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt. Nur Sobers-Khan explains the history and images used in these propaganda postcards aimed at an Iranian audience.   

Germany was also active in its use of propaganda aimed at states in the Middle East. The tactics used were similar, this time portraying Britain as the oppressor and Germany on the side of liberation in the region. Radio broadcasts in Arabic language were used to promote German victories and encourage dissent against Britain. Writing on our Untold Lives blog, Louis Allday uncovers evidence of British reaction to the broadcast of German radio propaganda in Sharjah, on the Persian Gulf.

One of the most successful examples of propaganda that you’ll see in the exhibition is the ‘Four Freedoms’ series of posters by Norman Rockwell. These posters have great emotional power, using domestic and local scenes to illustrate the rather abstract theme of ‘freedom’. Carole Holden writes about the development and history of these posters, which are credited with raising over $130 million dollars in war bonds.

Bert, the Turtle: ‘The Duck and Cover Song’ Leon Carr, Leo Corday & Leo Langlois. 1953 © Sheldon Music Inc

Propaganda remained an important tool during the cold war, and one of our stranger finds dates from this period. Katya Rogatchevskaia describes anti-Soviet propaganda produced by a Russian organisation active in West Germany. This includes two template images for printing propaganda images (complete with instructions on how to make your printing ink). In the United States, Bert the Turtle was used to instruct children on how to respond to a nuclear attack. This seemingly-simple figure has proved to be one of the most complex examples of propaganda – with some people disputing its description as propaganda. The story of ‘Duck and Cover’, and some of the subsequent analysis of this campaign, is recounted by Carole Holden on the Americas studies blog.

'Was Kostet die Betreuung Erbkranker', from Rechenbuch für Volksschulen. Gaue Westfalen-Nord u. Süd. Ausgabe B. Heft V – 7. und 8. Schuljahr. (Leipzig, [1941]). British Library YA.1998.a.8646

In our exhibition you’ll see further examples of propaganda designed for children, the most disturbing of these being a maths textbook produced for use in schools in Nazi Germany. One question in the book asks how much it costs (in terms of a worker’s salary) to care for the ‘hereditarily unfit’. In ‘Propaganda in the schoolroom’, Susan Reed explains more about this textbook and other examples within the Library’s collections.

Revisiting these blog posts reminds me of the breadth of interests and activities across the Library, and I’m looking forward to seeing more as the exhibition continues. If this has inspired you to create your own propaganda, don’t forget our competition for new designers, in collaboration with Artsthread. Fran Taylor explains more on our Inspired by … blog. The brief is to come up with a new design, illustration or short film to encourage people to change attitudes and behaviour on health. You can get food for thought, or at the very least a recipe for bhajiyas, from John O’Brien’s description of booklets from the Government of India’s nutrition campaign in 1945.

Jennifer Howes, the British Library's Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, writes about some of the many different versions of Napoleon.

The picture on this medallion shows Napoleon with a rope tied around his neck, seated backwards on a donkey. Satan is holding the end of the rope, and is leading the donkey forward. The inscription on the medallion reads, ‘INSEPARABLE FRIENDS TO ELBA’.

Above: ‘Inseparable Friends to Elba’ Medallion. BL reference: F4577. Photograph by Peter Warner

This little medallion was made in Britain to commemorate the exile of Napoleon to the island of Elba in April 1814. Medallions like these were popularly sold in the UK, and many of them, including this one, were punched with a hole at the top, so the medallion could be worn as a piece of jewellery.

The picture on the medallion relates to a popular caricature that was printed in London in May 1814. The caricature shows Napoleon weeping, seated backwards on a donkey. In his right hand he holds a broken sword, and in his left, the donkey’s tail. A line of text is wafting out of the donkey’s bottom. It says, ‘The greatest events in human life is turn’d to a puff’.  A copy of this caricature is in the Library of Congress, Washington.

Above: ‘The Journey of a Modern Hero to the Island of Elba'. Printed by J Phillips, London, May 1814. Held at the Library of Congress.

The medallion and the caricature clearly reflect the virulent dislike that the British felt towards Napoleon during that period. It is impossible to calculate the total number of British casualties during the Napoleonic Wars, but no doubt, many people had young male friends and relatives who either died or were crippled during the numerous battles Napoleon prompted.

In the British Library’s ‘Propaganda’ exhibition, there is a massive portrait of Napoleon surrounded by emblems of power. It was painted in 1813, immediately before his protracted downfall began. The portrait shows self-glorification to the extreme, while the medallion is a raw, angry expression of collective ‘schadenfreude’. It is amazing that these two objects relate to the same person.

Above: Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte painted in 1813 by Jean Baptiste Borely. BL Reference: F32. 

‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion’ runs until 17 September 2013.

Ian Cooke, co-curator of Propaganda: Power and Persuasion writes about the new competition we have launched with ARTS THREAD.

Working with ARTS THREAD, we’ve launched a competition to design a piece of propaganda related to the theme of good health. Whether it’s to convince people to stop smoking, drink less, eat more healthily, exercise more, or something else, we’re interested in how you’d get your message across.

The competition is open to any design student or graduate or anyone working professionally for less than three years in the design industry. More information, and how to apply, is available on the ARTS THREAD website. The deadline is midnight (GMT) on 31 July 2013.

Public health campaigning can be seen as the point where propaganda comes into our homes, and attempts to influence our attitudes about the activities that are most personal and intimate to us: from the food we prepare, to our social habits and sexual behaviour. In our exhibition, Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, we look at the use of propaganda methods and techniques across a range of public health campaigns, covering healthy eating and exercise; contagious diseases; smoking and drinking; sexual health; and maternal and infant care.

The media used includes leaflets and posters (the waiting room can be an ideal opportunity for propaganda), television and film adverts, instructional manuals, and more ephemeral objects such as match-box covers or a school diary.  As with other subjects, campaigns can make use of a range of media. The Green Cross Code road safety campaign used adverts on television, magazines and on buses, leaflets and posters alongside talks in schools. As well as creating the Green Cross Code man superhero character, the campaign also made use of celebrities such as Kevin Keegan, Alvin Stardust and Joe Bugner.

Above: The Green Cross Code

The Green Cross Code, and the earlier Kerb Drill, needed to consider language very carefully. Their intended audience was young children, so the language used needed to be easy to understand – many children, for instance, didn’t understand the difference between kerb and pavement – and also memorable. Repetition also proved to be very important, to ensure that children remembered what they were supposed to do.

For campaigns aimed at adults, memorable language and reassuring images could also prove useful, as could the use of humour. All of these can be seen in the current Change4Life campaign to encourage healthy eating and exercise. Other methods could be employed too, such as use of fear, demonisation or shocking images. Use of strong images or messages could be tolerated, so long as there was general acceptance that the campaign was of public interest. Anti smoking campaigns, showing a clogged artery or fat dripping from cigarettes, provide some of the most visceral material in the exhibition. Another campaign presents the ‘first natural born smoker’ as a demonic character, whose appearance seems inspired by Murnau’s Nosferatu.

Above: Beware of the Tapeworm

When we were putting the exhibition together we spoke to a lot of people, and some challenged us on the ‘Health’ section, arguing that this was ‘just information’. Indeed, some forms of health campaigning do focus on providing quite detailed information about risks and ways of mitigating them. However, we also found many examples, which we included in the exhibition, where either the information element was almost absent or where the presentation was anything other than straightforward. The use of methods, such as shocking, humour, and demonisation, reminded us of examples of propaganda we had seen in other situations where it is less contentious to identify propaganda. Which does leave the question: if it’s not propaganda, how would you describe it?

Good luck in the competition.

Our Social Sciences intern, Abiola Olanipekun, responds to the Propaganda: Power and Persuasion exhibition at the British Library.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Aristotle

Are these the kinds of minds targeted by propaganda? Something tells me that Aristotle may have considered himself to be in a different class to those who accept propaganda. Yet, the new exhibition at the British Library shows that we can all be vulnerable to the methods and cunning of propaganda.

Damn, Aristotle came out with some the best quotes! I could only dream of writing such titbits of timeless wisdom. I can however, write a blog about our latest exhibition and my responses to it…

Propaganda, Power & Persuasion opened to the public on the 17 May 2013 and will be on for four months. I wasn’t actually sure I would get the opportunity to write about this exhibition as my internship was due to end, and I imagined that by now I would be back in the land of career uncertainty (or even dire unemployment). Luckily I have been given the lifeline of an extended contract and now have a few more months to undertake mischief[i] within Social Sciences (or at the very least upload some more useful articles onto the Management and Business Studies Portal).

Propaganda: Power and Persuasion documents the relationship between the State, the propaganda it has produced in the twentieth century, and the intended audiences of this propaganda. Many of the key themes of State propaganda are covered including war, health, sport and education. Iconic images, old and new, are present within this thought-provoking and visually stunning exhibition.

Above: Freedom American-style, 1971. B. Prorokov.

Freedom American-style, 1971, B. Prorokov

The exhibition includes such variety as Chorus (the Twitter wall produced by Field) and the Russian poster depicting ‘Freedom American Style’ from the 70s, to public health messages about the care of babies and children. Recent British forms of what might be considered propaganda are included, such as audio clips from the Diamond Jubilee and footage from the recent funeral of Margaret Thatcher. And let’s not forget the inspiring portraits of sporting heroes who offer the potential of shared national feeling, the moral and ethical guidance inherent to the language of health education, and the tactics of attempted humiliation used to flatten the enemy in times of war.

The variety within the exhibition offered me an alternative to my preconceived ideas about what propaganda is. It presents a broad spectrum of State propaganda but at the same time, reveals the core of what State propaganda has been about during the last hundred years or so. It also shows how propaganda has arguably become more insidious and cunning as technology has developed. I was caught by the tension between how we are at once the active consumers of propaganda and at the same time hapless victims.

As you walk around the exhibition you will see human statues engraved with different quotations about propaganda. These quotations help build the picture of how the State affects our behaviour through sometimes playful and occasionally sinister means. The videos and sound clips from experts and analysts of propaganda show how indoctrination can occur through seemingly innocuous methods. I urge you to go and see the exhibition. Take your siblings, parents or your grandparents who will each have lived through different phases in State propaganda.

The Guardian recently showcased a number of sexual health posters from the Second World War. These posters may not be in the exhibition, but some are of the kind that are included and also show all the silliness as well as biases and prejudices which can be part of State propaganda.

Oh, and if you feel you are beyond the reach of the propaganda that might have others fooled, then here is a final little quote for you:

“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.” Plato

You can follow Abiola on Twitter @Ola_Ola1

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[i] No, seriously, I would not, ever do that, no Social Science mischief for me. I do actually really like working here.

You can follow Abiola on Twitter at @Ola_Ola1.

Abiola Olanipekun is an Intern in the Social Sciences department, working with the Business collections and the Management and Business Studies Portal. All views expressed are her own. You can follow Abiola on Twitter @Ola_Ola1 - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/socialscience/2013/03/generation-y-not-a-view-from-a-y-member.html#sthash.XEiUhUPp.dpuf

Ian Cooke, Lead Curator in International Studies and Politics at the British Library and co-curator of the Propaganda: Power and Persuasion exhibition, examines different views and expresions of British Identity - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/socialscience/#sthash.IKhduRpX.dpuf

Ian Cooke, Lead Curator in International Studies and Politics at the British Library and co-curator of the Propaganda: Power and Persuasion exhibition, examines different views and expresions of British Identity - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/socialscience/#sthash.IKhduRpX.dpufThis Friday evening, the British Library is screening Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike, the 1925 Soviet film depicting the savage repression of a strike at a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by The Cabinet of Living Cinema. The film will be introduced by Professor Ian Christie, Birkbeck College. Ian Christie is Vice President of Europa Cinemas and co-founder of the international review Film Studies.

Ian Cooke, co-curator of Propaganda: Power and Persuasion writes about Eisenstein's 1925 film Stike which will be shown at the British Library, in collaboration with the BFI, on Friday 14 June.

This Friday evening, the British Library is screening Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike, the 1925 Soviet film depicting the savage repression of a strike at a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by The Cabinet of Living Cinema. The film will be introduced by Professor Ian Christie, Birkbeck College. Ian Christie is Vice President of Europa Cinemas and co-founder of the international review Film Studies.

Strike was Eisenstein’s first full-length feature film, and was followed within the year by Battleship Potemkin, which depicts the events of a mutiny of the crew against Tsarist officers in 1905. Those paying close attention to the screens at the start of the Nation section of our Propaganda exhibition, will see a short clip from October: Ten Days that Shook the World, the film which Eisenstein was commissioned to write and direct by the Soviet government in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the October revolution.

Above: a still from Strike

At the time of that commission, Eisenstein had already achieved great success internationally, particularly with Battleship Potemkin, a film which is still critically praised today. The use of critically acclaimed directors, artists and writers in the production of propaganda is a common theme that runs through our exhibition. In the early Soviet Union, artists associated with the Avant Garde were valued for their ability to communicate technical and social advances in the new state. Our exhibition shows an issue of USSR in Construction (to which Rodchenko contributed photography, photomontage and design) devoted to the subject of sport. For the 1928 International Press exhibition in Cologne, El Lissitzky created the dynamic and modern designs for the Soviet pavilion, which are printed in a long fold-out insert to the accompanying catalogue.

Commercial success could be as important as artistic, at times blurring any distinction between advertising and propaganda. The Empire Marketing Board (EMB), which operated between 1926 and 1933, drew heavily on the expertise from the advertising industry. The EMB was an advisory committee, chaired by the Secretary of State for the Dominions, with the aim of promoting the production and sale of British and Empire goods. Their activities ranged from research and development, to organising ‘buy Empire goods’ campaigns in shops, to the production of huge advertising posters and films. You can see an EMB poster and film in our exhibition. The organisation of the Board drew in leading advertisers such as William Crawford and Frank Pick, who had organised publicity for the Metropolitan District Railway. The influence of Pick can be seen in the artistic style, and artists commissioned, in the production of EMB posters.

Much of the talent and experience of the Empire Marketing Board transferred to the General Post Office publicity, including their film unit. If you visit our Poetry in Sound exhibition, you’ll see a magnificent example of this in the film Night Mail (1936), which shows the journey through Scotland of a Royal Mail train delivery service, set to poetry by W H Auden and music by Benjamin Britten.

The influence of commercial, and commercially successful, artists and advertisers can be seen also in war propaganda in the USA. Montgomery Flagg’s depiction of Uncle Sam served as an iconic image of recruitment during the First World War. As Carole Holden reveals on the Americas studies blog, the image was modelled on Flagg’s own features. Norman Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ series of posters helped raise over 130 million dollars in war bonds.   

The use of successful film makers and artists in producing public information and campaigns material can be seen more recently. Nicolas Roeg, famous for films such as Don’t Look Now (1973), Performance (1970) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), was one of the directors of the AIDS awareness adverts shown in the UK in 1987. The campaign has been described as effective in keeping HIV infection rates comparatively low in the UK during that period.

More recently, the 2008 election campaign for Barack Obama used artwork produced by the street artist Shepard Fairey. The ‘Hope’ poster became a well-recognised and widely-distributed symbol of the Obama campaign.    

The use of celebrated artists in the production of materials designed to persuade and influence reflects both the recognition of the importance of propaganda, and also the realisation that, to be effective, it had to use styles and products that were innovative and recognised as being of high quality.

Ian Cooke, Lead Curator in International Studies and Politics at the British Library and co-curator of the Propaganda: Power and Persuasion exhibition, examines different views and expresions of British Identity.

In our exhibition Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, we look at different ways in which British identity has been presented, both to domestic and to international audiences. From images of Empire used in stunning Empire Marketing Board posters, through the Festival of Britain to last year’s diamond jubilee and the Olympic Games, the nature of Britain and British people has been described in different ways. In some cases, you can see similarities such as a focus on technical and cultural innovation, but what can differ is the people used to represent Britain. We’ve just posted to YouTube our interviews with Tessa Jowell, Alastair Campbell and Iain Dale, on bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games, and their impact on perceptions of Britain. 

Earlier this week, the 60^th anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was commemorated at a service at Westminster Abbey. The readings and addresses were given by those representing the highest levels of state – the Prime Minister, Archbishop of Canterbury and Secretary General of the Commonwealth. The service also included however 11 “representatives of the United Kingdom”. These archetypes of Britishness included a nurse, a teacher, a judge, a ‘lollipop lady’, children, Chelsea Pensioners, and a Guide leader.

Although some of the choices seem a little old fashioned, the range of young and old, the use of health and education alongside representatives of law and military, were not that far removed from the vision of Britain presented at the London Olympic Games. The bid film, shown in our exhibition, presents images of school children, construction workers, air stewards, police officers and city workers (in bowler hats). The inclusion, among several celebrities, of the then London Mayor and the actress Helen Mirren provides a sense of symmetry with the coronation celebrations.

British identity as viewed from the US: street art outside the Mr Brainwash Show, The Old Sorting Office, London. August 2012. Image courtesy of Ian Cooke.

Last week, at our Picturing Propaganda study day, Linda Kaye of the British Universities Film and Video Council showed a clip from Jeremy Deller’s stunning English Magic. Deller, and English Magic, is representing Britain at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The British pavilion is sponsored by the British Council, and the film references work such as an inflatable Stonehenge, birds of prey, and Range Rovers being crushed. The last segment has footage from the London Lord Mayor’s Show, featuring a military parade, ambulance workers, tax advisers, London Freemasons, the Institute of Directors, and a carnival float sponsored by Thomson Reuters. All of this is accompanied by an arrangement of David Bowie’s The Man who Sold the World, played by the Melodian Steel Orchestra. Music plays a powerful role in the whole film, which also includes arrangements of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony no. 5, and A Guy Called Gerald’s Voodoo Ray.  Interviewed in the Summer 2013 issue of Art Quarterly, Deller explains the choice of title, ‘because it’s about deceit and concealment and disappearance’, seeing related themes in tax avoidance, and justifying war in Iraq. 

Finally, a rather different, but oddly traditional view of London is presented on the Southbank with the Festival of Neighbourhood. The events are wonderfully diverse, and aimed at a variety of ages and tastes. The setting draws on various nostalgic themes, such as allotments, sandcastles, greenhouses, street parties and ‘Beanotown’. Nobody going past Waterloo Bridge at the moment can miss the monumental “sweepers”, seemingly made out of privet hedge.

So, what do these different views say about our view of Britain? To an extent, these examples all show a confidence and pride in British culture, although there may not be complete agreement on what that is. There’s a sense of recognising and valuing diversity, whether that’s in age or cultural backgrounds. There’s also a sense of pleasure or nostalgia in tradition, but also a willingness to play with and adapt those traditions. Attitudes to other aspects, such as the traditional sources of wealth or power in Britain seem more ambivalent and unsettled. The title of this year’s show at the British Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, ‘English Magic’, provokes the question of whose identity is represented as “British”?